Breathing Life
“Lush Air” of tillandsias displayed on glass with graphic of honey onyx at Sonos.
Written by Jennifer Blaise Kramer
Photographs by Elliot Lowndes
Wallpaper is so 2023. Suddenly every hot workspace, restaurant, and home wants a wall that does more—a wall that’s alive. Terra Basche, owner of LUSH ELEMENTS, is the designer behind the living walls at offices of Netflix, Zoom, and Sonos. “We’re making headquarters unique as well as home offices, which may be smaller but can be special, sacred retreats,” she says. Having started as a florist, the self-trained designer creates massive living walls hung with mosses, ferns, and air plants that require little water and are low maintenance. (She also does follow-up care for most clients.) Her mural-like installations, in addition to edible towers and container gardens, are focal points at restaurants that include Local Montecito, Validation Ale, and most recently Silvers Omakase. There, owner and chef Lennon Silvers Lee dreamed up a back patio full of plants where his guests could pleasantly relax after their two-hour dining experience.
Basche is now on a mission to catch the attention of nonprofits, whose donors might consider sponsoring a living wall rather than giving cash. Currently the offices of the Wilderness Youth Project and the Community Environmental Council feature her living art, and she hopes others will appreciate the perks of working with plants, which buffer sound, add beauty, and increase air quality, well-being, and productivity. Says Basche: “When you live among plants, you sink into something so special at a cellular level, you just have to pay attention.” lushelements.com
“Lush Wall” of preserved mosses, foliage, and crystal spheres at Origins Integrative Medicine.
