From the catwalk to the home: palm prints are this summer's latest interior look to be inspired by fashion trends

The Kentia is king, truly the archetypal palm. Upward arching, its clusters of stems and fronded leaves can easily grow to the ceiling.

Sera Hersham-Loftus, a stylist and interior decorator whose über-girly designs are popular with Sadie Frost, Courtney Love, and Patsy Kensit, has made a private jungle of Kentia palms in her Little Venice flat.

Huge pots of these handsome plants form room-high frames of green for doors and furniture, and offset a bohemian boudoir of dark ceilings, satin sofas, distressed floorboards, antique rattan and lacy-patterned wallpaper — plus the designer’s own line of fringed lampshades that look like corsets.

She “layers” smaller plants to complete the look. Vintage ceiling fans sway the leaves, and by night, halogen uplighters create shadows on the ceilings. “Back the plants with tall mirrors, for an illusion of gardens beyond,” she says.

Kentias thrive indoors in containers. Design professionals get theirs from Arnott & Mason, plant wholesalers in New Covent Garden Market at Nine Elms, where Kentias in plastic pots go from 4ft (£20) to 8ft (£100). Shop early — they close at 10.30am, or 9.30am on Saturdays.

On the web, Paul Thomas offers a choice of five palms, depending on growing conditions. Kentia is the “neglect plant”, he says. “Stand it in a dingy corner and even let it dry out — it still lives on”. Visit House of Plants.

Fave paper for interior designers is Palm Jungle, a re-coloured Fifties classic from Cole & Son. A 10m roll costs £82. Fashion designer Julien Macdonald’s Honolulu palm wallpaper, in green-and-white or black-and-gold colourways, is £20 a roll from Graham & Brown. John Lewis’s new palm-print linen, Liana, is £25 a metre.

Fashion has gone palm crazy. Dolce & Gabbana had a whole palmy collection, and the high street’s full of palm prints. “Layered foliage gives a sense of depth like peering through a jungle,” says Paula Taylor, trend specialist at Graham & Brown. “Add cool greys for sophistication, or throw a party with hot orange and pink.”

At House of Hackney in Shoreditch, the Palmeral collection is typically brash, with leaves waving wildly over wallpapers, fabrics, china and lampshades. “We were inspired by Loddiges, a huge Georgian Hackney palmhouse,” says co-founder Frieda Gormley. “We added Art Deco and a touch of Palm Springs”.

Palm Springs also influenced Caroline Somerville, a screen printer on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, whose striking geometric Palm Springs collection grew from a trip to the US resort and launches at Mid Century Modern at Dulwich College in November.

Decor doyenne Nina Campbell’s Palmetto, at Osborne & Little, is a new wallpaper for autumn. “My leafy columns have an architectural feel,” she says.

Rockett St George does 5ft 8in-tall golden palm lights with hanging LED globes, which will be in a tropical yard at the Hoxton Hotel at the London Design Festival and at Liberty of London next month.