The Insider: How to bring some outdoors inside

The outdoors is big indoors this season, but it should be a permanent trend: my most calming room is the one painted with a hint of green – a big painting of a palm and trees. Beyond pot plants, what else can add to this feel-good style?

Smoke and mirrors

Maximise views of trees, gardens or even window boxes by positioning a mirror opposite (or at right angles to) windows.

If you weave me now

Natural textures and colours are the ticket – but don't go beige-ly boring: a swishy flat near me has a wall adorned with shallow rattan baskets. Try the bread baskets from marocgourmet.com.

Have you twigged?

The man with the baskets also made a "chandelier" of a shapely branch – it looked ace suspended over the dining-table by fishing wire hung over small hooks in the ceiling.

Fake me up before you go-go

Mmm, calming stone or wood walls and floors... Cheat with decowall.co.uk's self-adhesive "wood and bricks" wallpapers.

Off the wall

Grow your own indoor living wall with fillable Wally Woolly Pockets, £29.99 each from Amazon.

Love is like a butterfly

Perfect for the squeamish: a collection of pretty papillons – made from MDF. From £23, utilitydesign.co.uk.

Touch wood

I'd love the downstairs loo done in National Geographic's birch-forest photomural wallpaper (above, grahamsandersoninteriors.com – look for "Sunday" under the Komar brand)

Uncommon scents

Paine's Balsam Fir or Cedar incense cones promise "log-cabin" vibes (labourandwait.co.uk)

Further reading

For more ideas, check out the Flickr group "Interiors Inspired by Nature".

Find Kate's blog on affordable interiors at yourhomeislovely.com