You've finished furnishing your living room. The sofa is in, the TV unit is sorted, and the rug is down.
And yet, the room still looks unfinished. There's an empty corner that just sits there, a wall beside the sofa that feels bare, or a space next to the TV unit that looks incomplete.
Most people try to solve this with one plant, one pot, or one lamp, and hope for the best. Unfortunately, that rarely works because the problem isn't the absence of a plant or another object, but the absence of a styled combination, i.e., the mix of height, depth, and coordinated elements.
We've been designing and supplying artificial greenery for Australian homes for over 20 years, and the single most consistent thing we see is empty living room corners fixed with one lonely pot and a plant that doesn't suit the scale of the space.
This guide is for people who want to get it right the first time, so keep reading to find out more.
Why One Plant Rarely Fills an Empty Space
Here's the truth about empty space in living rooms: it reads as flat because it lacks layering.
A single plant on the floor, no matter how beautiful, occupies one plane of the room. It fills floor space, but it doesn't create the visual depth that makes a room feel “complete”.
What interior designers do (and what our artificial plant styling sets are designed to replicate) is layer different heights and scales together: a tall plant to draw the eye up, a medium feature plant to anchor the middle ground, and a small accent plant or pot to tie it together at a lower level.
Add coordinated pots that share a finish or tone, and now the corner reads as a considered design decision.
The 5 principles we always come back to (and recommend to our clients):
- Fill empty corners with height and structure
- Use large indoor plant pots to anchor the room and ground the plant
- Layer different sizes to avoid a flat look and vary heights to create depths
- Coordinate pots to create a cohesive space by matching finishes per group
3 Pot-and-Plant Set Options
We've built 3 ready-to-style options to solve different types of empty space. Each combines artificial plants with pots from our pots range and is specifically matched for scale, proportion, and finish.
Here’s what we recommend:
Option 1: Simple Living Set
This option is ideal if you’re looking for clean, minimal styling for smaller spaces. From our experience, it’s best for tiny apartments, a single empty shelf, or a small corner.
This is the "less is more" option. A beautifully chosen plant in a well-proportioned pot does more for a small space than a cluttered arrangement would. For this display, we suggest using our Luxury Teardrop Balloon Planter, with an arrangement made of faux plants like:
The result is considered without being overdone, and it shows you haven’t just stuffed faux plants in all corners with no forethought.
We suggest going with this option if you're figuring out how to fill a smaller empty space in your living room without clutter.
Option 2: Balanced Living Set
From our 2+ decades of experience working with artificial plant styling, we regularly recommend a balanced living room set for many of our residential clients looking for the easiest way to style a living room corner.
This option is best for empty spaces beside a sofa, behind a TV unit, or in a corner that needs structure without dominating the room.
This is a popular setup because it solves the most common living room problem: the corner or zone that's not empty enough to ignore but not large enough to justify a full statement installation.
Two coordinated pots from our pots range, whether you choose clean geometry or tactile warmth, create visual rhythm when placed together. Different-height plants between them add the layering that makes the arrangement look natural rather than placed.
We love using the Luxury Rounded Marble Planter (which is a set of 2), paired with faux plants and trees like:
The result is a balanced, finished look that works beside a sofa, anchors a TV unit, or transforms a plain corner into the focal point of the room.
Option 3: Layered Living Set
Lastly, if you’re looking for a full, magazine-style finish for your living room, you can go all-out.
From our experience, this option is best for large open-plan living rooms, big empty corners, and spaces where you want the artificial greenery to do serious design work.
This is the arrangement you see in interior design photography that looks very complicated and advanced, but is actually easy to do. The answer is in 3 things: height variation, scale contrast, and a coordinated pot set that ties everything into a single visual intention.
For this display, you can use our Luxury Soft Tapered Bowl Planter, a set of 4, coupled with artificial plants like:
A plant like this commands the vertical space. A medium plant sits at eye level and bridges the tall and small. One or two smaller accent plants (or a low artificial flowering arrangement) land at a lower level and soften the base, and everything sits in pots with a shared finish.
Ideas for Empty Wall Space in Your Living Room
The floor isn't the only place a set can work.
Some of the best living room transformations we've seen happen on walls and elevated surfaces.
Here's how to translate the concept to different living room zones:
- Empty corner? Use a tall artificial plant like bamboo, a ficus, or a statement leafy tree in a large floor pot to add height. A large pot or a tall planter holds the plant at the right scale and anchors it to the floor without the arrangement looking like it was tipped over and forgotten.
- Blank wall beside the sofa? Layer a medium plant at sofa height with a smaller accent alongside it. The key is that both pots share a finish or are in the same tone and/or range, so they read as a set rather than two unrelated decisions.
- Space next to the TV unit? This zone is often neglected because people assume it needs something low to avoid blocking the screen. In fact, a plant that rises above the TV unit, not in front of it, adds significant warmth to what is otherwise the hardest, most screen-dominated wall in the room.
- Large open-plan space? A layered display with multiple plants and a coordinated pot set is the right answer for filling large empty areas in open-plan living rooms. Big plant pots for living rooms anchor the arrangement and give it the presence that the scale of an open-plan room demands.
For more living room plant styling inspiration, we’ve got a full blog on the 10 Indoor Potted Plant Ideas to Transform Your Living Space, so you’ll know exactly what to expect before you start your design journey.
Design Your Own Set
Already know roughly what you want? Build your own living room setup using our curated range of:
- Large indoor plant pots and floor planters
- Artificial statement plants for corners and walls
- Artificial flowering plants and arrangements
- Artificial trees and bamboo
Or, check out our newest collection of planter and pot sets for a more intentional approach to your display.
Our team has designed the pot and plant ranges to work together across finishes and scales, so you don't need to be a designer to get a designer result.
Finishing Thoughts
Most living room empty space problems are because of a styling issue, specifically, the gap between having furniture in a room and having a room that actually feels finished.
A curated combination of plants and pots, chosen for height, scale, and coordinated finish, closes that gap more effectively than any single purchase can. It's about spending smarter and choosing pieces that are designed to work together from the outset.
We've been doing this for over 20 years. We know which combinations land and which ones fall flat. That knowledge is built into every set we've put together, and it's available for free in a consultation with our team if you want to talk through your specific space before you commit to anything.