How to Easily Add a Living Moss Wall to Your Home

If you’re looking for an eco-friendly approach to decorating your walls and making a statement without destroying or damaging property, then live moss walls are the answer. Instead of painting words on a brick wall, consider covering it with moss instead. The finish that a moss wall provides is incredibly gorgeous. It has a rustic appeal, which enhances the overall aesthetic value of the room.

Why Add a Moss Wall to Your Home?

Bringing the beauty of the outside into your home is a simple method to instantly make a home feel more alive. For some people, this means stockpiling mind-boggling succulent cushions, while for others, it means buying houseplants that require very little maintenance. However, if you’re anything like me, your idea of the perfect house includes having a live moss wall.

Nowadays, especially in urban areas, it is hard to get a sight of nature amongst all the hustle-bustle of the city. However, a moss wall allows you to have a little bit of nature in your home. Living moss walls are a natural and ideal way to add that greenery to your indoors and outdoors.

They are quite easy to grow and do not demand the patience of a professional gardener. Still, if you feel like doing no work at all, you can go for preserved moss (about which I will be discussing later).

Another reason why live moss walls are the ideal option is that they can survive in almost any environment indoor or outdoors. They can be installed anywhere at a minimal cost and require virtually zero maintenance once established. Besides, you have the liberty to customize your moss wall however you like. Make it all-natural or add combine it with other kinds of moss-it’s your call!

It also has other potential advantages over traditional moss walls. They can be changed to any shape or form you like and dyed with different colors. Think of it as picking a piece of fabric. You have a wide variety of options to choose from and make your own, unique piece.

What Is a Live Moss wall?

A live moss wall is a panel decorated with living moss. The moss on the wall will retain moisture and continue growing with little effort to maintain. You can use living moss walls indoors as well as outdoors. You can also frame it and put it on the wall as wall art. A living moss wall can be created completely from live moss or other plant materials for a forest experience. To understand it better, let us go over the specifics.

A living moss wall can have several types, including mood moss, sheet moss, or reindeer moss. Sometimes, they comprise other elements such as dried bark or air plants.

Living vs. Preserved Moss Wall

If you have heard of moss walls, you might have heard that there are two types of wall moss generally used.

The living moss needs constant watering, lots of light, and regular misting to thrive. This makes it more expensive and harder to maintain. Therefore, they are more suited for exterior brick walls.

On the other hand, preserved moss is treated with preservatives and color to maintain its brilliant green color and can last for several years with little to no maintenance. A preserved moss wall feels just like a living moss and is the easiest to create. You can even make a hybrid out of the two types by adding succulents or air plants to your preserved moss wall.

Benefits of a Living Moss Wall

Living moss walls are in rage nowadays. Be it home, office, or anywhere else, moss wall art is becoming the first choice for decoration. Why? There are a ton of reasons for it, including:

Your DIY Air Purifier

Probably no other plant can clean the air as well or purify it as effectively as moss does. This can be partially attributed to the enormous surface area that moss plants provide. It has the ability to filter out a wide variety of airborne pollutants, allergens, and other potentially dangerous particles.

Moss and the helpful microbes that live in it basically “feed” off of the water and air pollutants and absorb all the nutrients, which means you don’t have to deal with any mold or fungus. 

Less Sound, More Peace

If you live in an area with a lot of noise, maybe near a highway, or an airport, moss walls can help reduce that annoying noise so that you can enjoy a peaceful home.

Temperature Control

Living moss walls are excellent insulators. They use the water evaporation technique to keep the area cool in the summer. During the winter, they trap the heat inside and keep the space warm.

Not just that. If you apply moss walls on the exteriors, they can effectively reduce your heating and cooling costs, help your building last longer without damage, and of course, improve the temperature and air quality of the surrounding atmosphere.

Stabilize Moisture

Humidity can make us susceptible to many diseases. If you get sick due to the humidity in your area, installing wall moss in your house can help to a great extent. It helps stabilize the moisture in your space (around 40-60%) and keeps it at a constant level.

Reduced Levels of Carbon Dioxide

The increasing levels of Carbon Dioxide are hidden from no one and the only thing that can help reduce it is having more of nature everywhere. Moss walls contribute to that part in an excellent way by extracting all the carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen.

What Are Live Moss Wall Panels?

Live moss wall panels are made of live plants kept on a flat surface, most likely a mat. There is an ideal atmosphere to grow moss and then place it in the wall art frames to retain its moisture. They are made up of a bunch of moss types, including the ones discussed before.  Most mats are usually four feet long, but they can be customized as per your desires.

Installing a live moss wall panel is so easy that you can do it all by yourself. Just attach the moss mat to a baseboard or metal panel and hang it on the wall. That’s it! Since the panels are pre-assembled, they can be mounted both indoors and outdoors.

Live moss walls have a life span of 25 years but that depends solely on how you maintain them. To keep them alive for that long, you have to take care of them like you would any other plant, water them regularly, fertilize them from time to time, and provide enough sunlight (or artificial light).

Most live wall panels have a natural irrigating system. Therefore, they can survive under any weather. They freeze and become inactive during the winter season, which helps them survive the cold.

How to Maintain a Living Moss Wall Indoors

Living walls look beautiful when installed indoors, but just like your other valuables, they require constant care and maintenance. If you are a beginner gardener, you could use the following steps to maintain your moss indoor walls for a longer period:

Light

Just like other plants, moss requires sunlight for photosynthesis. In order for your moss to thrive, you must expose it to the sunlight. Most moss species need as little as two hours of natural light in the morning to thrive.

Since moss has no roots, it absorbs all its nutrients from stem cells, also called rhizoids.

If the moss receives more than the required sunlight, it can dry away pretty quickly. Usually, it can grow both in the shade and under direct sunlight, but the more intense and direct sunlight it is exposed to, the more quickly it uses its energy. So it is advisable not to expose it direct sunlight.

Water

Many people prefer to call living moss “Vertical Gardens” and for all the right reasons, because that’s what they are – they are gardens growing on the wall that pretty much require the same maintenance as a normal garden. Watering plants correctly is an important part of keeping them healthy, as any seasoned gardener knows. Make sure to check the irrigation system, filters, valves, and other elements on a regular basis. Saltwater destroys moss, so use only filtered or tap water.

Moss uses a lot of water since it has more cells than any other plant. The water-storing capacity of moss is ten times greater than that of most other plants. It uses that water to convert it into sugar, which helps in its growth.

Humidity

The humidity level is one of the most important aspects in determining when the moss will thrive. While most plants absorb the moisture from the soil through the roots, moss plants collect moisture from the leaves. As a result, they thrive in wet and humid circumstances, especially when the humidity levels are high.

Temperature

There is no set ideal temperature for the moss to thrive. However, if the weather turns freezing cold (below 20F), the moss will start to lose it’s color. Don’t worry though. As soon as it gets enough heat and water, it will regain its natural green color.

Best Alternatives to Living Moss Walls

If you think living moss walls is not the right option for you, here are some alternatives that require much less maintenance and last for the same period or longer. These include artificial moss witch can she shaped to any form you need or preserved moss straight from the forest.

Faux Moss

Faux moss walls, also known as artificial moss walls, come from moss developed artificially and not under natural conditions.

Faux moss panels have become quite popular due to their low-maintenance and natural-looking appearance.   The majority of its users are those who live in metropolitan areas and are deprived of nature.  These panels are less expensive than real moss, and they can be used to create the illusion of real moss.

Faux moss wall panels may transform a boring wall into a gorgeous centerpiece. You can get a moss wall without having to spend a fortune on the installation of a living moss wall.

There is one drawback though. Artificial moss walls don’t provide as many benefits as living moss walls. However, they are just as efficient as living moss walls in reducing noise pollution. They are excellent sound insulators, which is why most urban households and workplaces prefer to use them. They also offer the illusion of fresh greenery which can be enough to shake those deep winter blues.

Preserved Moss

As discussed earlier in this article, preserved moss is a highly sought alternative to living moss. Preserved moss goes through a special process of preservation, which maintains its bright color and keeps it lively.

Preservatives keep the moss looking alive even after it’s been dead for a long time. Despite the fact that these mosses aren’t considered to be alive, they still add a pop of color to the place.

The best part is you don’t need water, fertilizer or to add soil in order to maintain a preserved moss wall. It’s naturally soft, fresh, and gentle to touch. Simply said, it’s the convenience of fake plants with the freshness of real ones. Be careful handling the moss, it’s still breakable or damageable in the same way as any other plant would be.

Where to Buy Living Moss Walls for Home

If you want to buy them online, there are a ton of websites that solely sell these kinds of plants. You can also check out Amazon or Etsy for an extensive collection of living moss walls with custom options by artists.

Best Moss Wall Kits

With the ready-to-install moss wall kits available in the market, creating a preserved moss wall on your own is easier than ever. In most of these kits, you will get everything you’ll need to start creating your own little masterpiece for a fraction of the cost of most custom bought options. These kits are a great choice for beautiful, low-maintenance home decor.

Check out one of these amazing moss wall kits below:

Common Questions When Adding a Living Moss Wall

Most people, especially when they are new to the idea of adding live moss to their walls, have a number of questions and concerns, such as:

My Final Thoughts

Preserved moss wall is the best option if you want the look of living walls but don’t want to deal with the mess.

Alternatively, if you’re willing to create an ecosystem in your own house, then using living, breathing moss is the best option. Indoor moss can be grown easily and looks great in any space of your house or workplace.

They are a great way to bring a little bit of nature into your space. Besides, installing moss on the indoor walls can be a fun project for the whole family to work on together. You can either collect the moss yourself or have a complete moss wall kit delivered for your convenience.