Yes, a ficus lyrata bedroom spot works fine, but only if the room is bright, warm, and free of cold drafts. The catch is safety. The leaves and sap carry mild toxicity, so keep them away from pets and small children who like to chew.
I carried my fiddle leaf fig out of its east-facing living-room window one evening. I wanted to see if it belonged in the spare bedroom instead. The first spot I tried was a shadowy corner by the closet, well away from the glass. It looked wrong there at once. So I set it right beside the bedroom window where the morning sun pours in. The pale corner and the bright corner were night and day.
That bright corner is the whole answer. A ficus lyrata bedroom spot is a good home only when it gives the same bright indirect light the plant gets anywhere else. The New York Botanical Garden says to use the brightest spot you have. A dim bedroom simply cannot match a sunny one. Most bedrooms have one good window, so put the plant as close to it as you can.
Light is what decides this for you. Put the plant in a dark, cool, or drafty bedroom and it suffers. You get leggy growth, pale color, and lower leaves dropping off the stem. The plant stretches and reaches for light it cannot find. A bright, steady bedroom does the opposite. It keeps the new leaves firm and close together, the same way a good living room does. The plant does not care which room it sits in. It cares about the light in that room.
Warmth matters just as much in a room you let cool down at night. This plant wants steady temperatures of 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit (18 to 24 degrees Celsius). It does not like sudden swings. A bedroom window can turn icy after dark, and an air vent can blow right over the pot. Both will stress the leaves and bring on leaf drop. Slide the pot back from the glass before you go to sleep on a cold night.
Now the safety side, since you sleep in this room. The leaves hold calcium oxalate crystals. NC State Extension rates the plant as toxic at low level to people, cats, and dogs. A pet or child who chews a leaf gets a burning mouth and some drooling. It is rarely worse than that. Still, you want to place the pot where small hands and curious pets cannot reach the big leaves. The leaves are wide and tempting at floor height.
The milky sap is the other thing to mind. Cut stems leak a sap that can irritate your skin. So wear gloves if you prune the plant in your bedroom. Wash your hands when you finish. None of this rules out a bedroom. It just means you treat the plant the way you would any houseplant that bites back a little. Plenty of common houseplants ask for the same care.
So set it in the brightest corner of a warm bedroom. Pull it back from any window that goes cold at night. Keep the leaves up off the floor where pets graze. Do that and your fiddle leaf fig is as happy beside your bed as it is anywhere else in the house. The bedroom is never the problem. The light and the warmth are what count.
Read the full article: Ficus Lyrata Care: Complete Guide
