In this work, phospholipid bilayers are employed as biomimetic coating materials to modulate the adhesion and growth of cells on solid substrates. A variety of lipid compositions and charge densities are examined. Culturing cells on these supported membranes reveals that fluid lipid bilayers generally block cell adhesion with a notable exception provided by membranes containing phosphatidylserine, which strongly promote adhesion and growth. This dichotomy is utilized with micropatterned membrane technology to selectively direct cell growth to specified regions on a substrate. Lipid composition in micropatterned membrane arrays is demonstrated to be a simple and effective means of patterning cell growth on surfaces.