Shayla Owodunni wasn’t planning to make Minneapolis her permanent home base when she toured her Northeast Minneapolis condo in 2019. After leaving her previous place in Seattle, Shayla, a consultant, plant stylist, and founder of The Plant Penthouse, decided to take some time to stay with her sister in her home state of Minnesota while plotting her next move to New York or L.A. “Then my sister and I just started looking at places for fun,” she says.
And she fell in love—with more than the former factory building they toured. “I loved the loft style and open floorplan,” she says. “And I walked in and they had this amazing fiddle-leaf fig. I was like, Do you think they would sell me that, too?”
I love being in Minneapolis, but especially in the winter, I want to transport myself.
–Shayla Owodunni, homeowner
Shayla immediately bought the loft—and the previous owners did, in fact, throw in the plant. But her green garden didn’t end there. “I had a lot of plants in Seattle, but I knew when I moved here, I wanted the feel of being in a tropical location year-round,” she says. “The plants became a vehicle for that. I’ve been building my collection ever since.”
She filled the bright, blank space, complete with an open primary suite at the top of a metal staircase, concrete floors, and gigantic north-facing windows overlooking her own private terrace, with a rotating cast of 100 or so plants and warm accents that bring a tropical vibe to a space that could, in other hands, lean cold. And her tropical décor doesn’t stop there: Pieces sourced from all over the world (including her own backyard), colorful furniture, stacks of coffee-table books, custom tile and wallpaper, and, of course, most of those plants flit back and forth between Shayla’s loft and her studio, The Plant Penthouse, in the Foundry on Stinson building nearby, which she just opened for classes, workshops, photo shoots, and more.
Tropical eclecticism is the lane I like to stay in.
–Shayla Owodunni, homeowner
