7 Amazing Low Light Indoor Plants

Looking for low light indoor plants to add to darker rooms in your home, your office at work or any other spot that doesn’t get a ton of natural light? It’s so frustrating when you find a beautiful plant, set it up in its new home only to realize it’s not getting enough light and unable to survive. Today I’m going to talk through 7 of the best low light indoor plants that are also super hardy!

One rule I live by is this: each room in your house should have a minimum of 3 plants in it. But what if your home doesn’t have a lot of natural light and you need low light plants?

Some rooms in my home have a ton of bright, natural light so filling those with plants is easy! In our old home I had rooms like my office where I have a million plants and my living room that has sliding glass doors to our backyard are FULL of plants, especially in the winter.

But we all have rooms that have small windows with not a lot of light which makes it much harder to keep plants. Or the spots with windows that don’t have good places for plants (for us that’s our kids’ rooms).

Over the years I’ve found a handful of plants that grow well in low light spots. And they’re not boring or ugly! 😉 Here are 7 of the best low light plants.

7 Amazing Low Light Indoor Plants

7 Amazing Low Light Indoor Plants

This post includes affiliate links. 

1. Pothos

Pothos plants are by far the easiest plant and a great beginner plant! This was my first ever plant! My mom gave me a couple pothos when I lived in the dorms in college (hello, no light!)!

These plants (shown below in pots I got from Ikea of all places!) have been propagated into more plants than I can count.

hanging pothos plants

Pothos plants can live with minimal light (and to be honest, minimal water if you happen to forget about it for awhile). You can even snake the plant around a room to make it feel like there’s more plants in it (or propagate it!).

Pothos plants were my go to plants to bring to the office when I worked in “corporate America”.

Fluorescent light and zero real sun didn’t faze these hardy plants! Bring them to the office, put them in the bathroom or stick them in the corner of a room and they’ll do just fine.

pothos plant in face pot with eyelashes

Swing on over to this pothos plant care post to learn all about pothos plants as well as watch a video on how to propagate them.

2. Bird’s Nest Fern

This is one of my favorite plants. I love it! It’s so easy to care for and provides a fun look to a room with their crinkly leaves.

bird's nest fern plant

I’ve had this in pretty much every type of light. I’ve had it in our most sunny rooms and in hallways that don’t get much light and it’s done well in every room. This plant does well in both low and bright light so it’s super versatile.

Be sure to water this one weekly though! It doesn’t like to dry out. If the leaves look a little droopy, it likely just needs some water! Check the soil – if it’s dry, give it some water and it’ll perk up in no time.

This plant doesn’t grow super fast so you don’t have to worry about it getting overcrowded quickly.

bloomscape plants fiddle leaf fig in home office on white shelves

photos by Emily John Photography

3. ZZ Plant

Rishi (my husband) had one of these in his condo before we got married and despite getting little to no light, it did amazing!

We were shocked with how well it did with being far away from the one wall of windows.

 zz plant

We have one of these in my office where it gets a good amount of light, one in our bedroom with minimal light and one in our living room that doesn’t get much light at all.

And guess what? They all do really well! These are also really easy to propagate as well. You can find all the zz plant care tips and propagation how to’s over on this post!

This is another plant that can do just fine if you are a sporadic waterer. I aim for once a week but they’ll be ok if you forget!

zz plant

Also fun plant tip. You can easily disguise an ugly pot by putting it in a basket! The pot this zz plant is in is sitting in this basket which I also love because it adds a ton of texture.

4. Spider Plant

Spider plants are right on par with pothos plants. Both are super easy to care for and make a big impact in a room. They’re also super easy to propagate!

Spider plants adapt well to all light and will do just fine in low light areas. This tiger pot is actually sitting on a shelf that doesn’t get any direct light.

Spider plants

Ideally spider plants thrive best in indirect light so if they look a little sad, you can always pop them in a better lit situation for a little bit to perk them up a bit!

I often times will put my spider plants and pothos plants in good indirect light when I know I’ll be gone for a weekend to give them a little lift.

spider plant

Once spider plants start producing babies you can have tons and tons of spider plants all over your home. They’re incredibly easy to propagate and perfect for getting to that 3 plants per room rule that I mentioned earlier!

Check out my spider plant care post complete with a video teaching you how to propagate the babies!

One thing to note – spider plants like to get pretty root bound before they produce babies. If your plant isn’t producing babies, don’t repot it! Give it some time to see if it will start shooting babies out.

I’ve had a couple that have taken years to produce babies and other that take months! Have patience. 🙂

5. Snake Plant

snake plant

Snake plants (also called mother-in-law tongue as well as lots of other names!) may give spider plants and pothos a run for their money at being the easiest plants ever. These amazing plants are incredibly hardy!

Side note: Maybe this post should actually be “the easiest houseplants ever” ha!

These beauties can tolerate low light and minimal watering and they’ll still look amazing.

I had one snake plant that hung on the wall in our las home’s dining room and it was hard to reach so I only watered it about once a month. Regardless, it was super healthy and is still alive!

Snake plants can even keep the air in your home clean by removing 107 air pollutants like formaldehyde and benzene according to NASA research and it produces a lot of oxygen at night. Just another reason to have one (or more) of these!

In short, get one of these! After learning about how much oxygen they produce, I bought one for all of our bedrooms. I’d like to end up with a few snake plants in each bedroom because of how great they are for the air!

I have an entire post on snake plant care (not like you need a ton of additional info!) but swing on over to check it out if you plan on getting one!

Snake plant

6. Lucky Bamboo

Ok, technically lucky bamboo plants do best in bright light but they can survive in low light (I know because mine lived in a dark corner for about 6 months and did great ha)!

Essentially they just grow better with more light but they’ll survive with low light. So if you want a giant lucky bamboo, put it in more light but if you’re fine with it the size it is, you can keep it in lower light.

When it comes to water, these plants come in a variety of ways – just in water, with pebbles or in soil.

lucky bamboo plant

If it comes in water you just need to swap out the water every week or so. Same with the pebbles. Mine is in soil so I just make sure it stays wet most of the time!

I honestly don’t touch mine very much. I give it a little bit of water every so often and it does great! These are super low maintenance plants.

7. Monstera

This is another that will grow better in bright light but it tolerates low light. This plant has quickly rose to the top of my favorite plants list. It’s big, bold and the leaves are amazing!

You’ve likely seen the leaves all over Pinterest, Instagram, art work or even pillows! They make quite the statement.

Monstera plant

I water my montera about once a week. Check the top of the soil to see if it’s dry before watering it. If it’s still damp, leave it alone. If it’s dry, give it some water!

These are also super easy to propagate. I propagated a few stems from my plant and within a couple weeks they had produced roots. It even sprouted new leaves within a couple months of potting it in soil!

Monstera leaves

You can check out my monstera plant care tips post for everything you may need to care for you new monstera!

Monstera leaves

The pot my monstera is in is one of my favorites. You can find it the pot and tons of other great options here!

There you have it! Seven of my favorite low light indoor plants. If you’re a beginner plant person, start with one of these! You can’t go wrong with a hard to kill plant. 😉

Which one of these is your favorite?

Be sure to check out my pothos plant care post or my spider plant care post! Thanks for reading!

With love,

Jen

Author

    by
  • Jen

    Jen got her first plant in college from her mom and the rest, as they say, is history! She's owned hundreds of plants over the years and loves learning how to grow each one. She believes everyone needs to own at least one plant in their home and loves sharing her knowledge with others.

Leave a Comment