Home Gardener Ditches Fabric Curtains For A Natural, Home-Grown Alternative

Curtains don't just block light — whether it's early morning sunlight or streetlights at night — from a room. They enhance privacy in a home or function as a design feature, adding texture to an otherwise boring scheme. Of course, you don't just have to rely on fabric curtains to get these benefits. You could mount internal shutters on your windows for an old-timey vibe or go modern with sleek Roman shades. If you love the look of a home filled with live greenery, a Reddit user has come up with another solution. Instead of typical drapery, this home gardener created curtains out of vines. By placing a rectangular planter on their windowsill, they were able to train a thriving pothos to almost completely cover the window. "I've done this for decades and never seen it anywhere but my homes. It's what it sounds like: a living, part-able curtain," they wrote in their post on Reddit.

According to their post, they started by hanging a removable curtain rod at the top of the window frame. To that, they attached some vertical rope and thin wooden dowels. "This method makes the rod, thus the whole planter and curtain, removable for cleaning, and you can spin everything for even growth," this clever Redditor wrote in their post. Next, they tethered the seedlings to the ropes and dowels, encouraging them to grow upwards on the supports. Over time, the vine can fill the entire window. Not only is the end result functional, but it's one of the coolest ways to display vine plants to make a statement in your home. You can even part the leafy curtain when you want more light to enter the room, just as you can with a regular fabric curtain.

While the home gardener on Reddit used pothos to create their living curtain, you're not limited to that type of houseplant, no matter how perfect or popular it may be. The large, textured leaves of mini monstera (Rhaphidophora tetrasperma) will fill a window fast, while the red-backed leaves of rex begonia vine (Cissus discolor) will provide a pop of color to any room. You could also grow a vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifolia) in a kitchen window — if you're lucky, it may flower and provide you with pods full of tasty seeds. Since most vining houseplants like similar growing conditions, you could even combine a few species in one planter.

Training your vines upward isn't the only method for creating living curtains in your home. Another option is to hang a pot or two from the top of your window frame and grow trailing houseplants down in front of the window. In fact, if you want to be able to part the vines more easily, this may even be a preferable method. If you opt for this approach, select a species with thick foliage and a waterfall-like growth habit.

String of nickels (Dischidia nummularia) is a lovely cascading plant that grows beautifully indoors and is easy to care for. If you're an experienced home gardener, the slightly more finicky wax plant (Hoya linearis) would make a lovely living curtain. Although it can be challenging to get the watering schedule right for this houseplant, it will reward you with long vines and pretty, scented flowers. There are also vining succulent plants that are perfect for your indoor garden. For example, burro's tail (Sedum morganianum) has thick, braid-like stems that are ideal for anyone wanting more window coverage.