Ways To Green Your House
Furniture Designers Are Answering The Call To Protect Nature
Green or renewable materials are gaining popularity and are showing up in the chairs we sit on, the counters we eat off of and the floors we walk on.
Green living does not just happen in the garden, it incorporates all areas of life, including inside the home. Furniture designers are getting on board by creating sustainable furniture designs for both the home and office because consumers are demanding more green interior decorating options.
Making A House A Home
There are those who buy a new house and obsess over every piece of furniture they put in the new space. Furniture can show the personality of the owner and can bring a sense of home into a room. Environmentally-friendly interior furniture is becoming easier to find as designers are coming out with innovative designs that minimize the impact on the planet.
Finding Green Online
Treehugger, a group of green advocates who started a website to disperse everything green, is constantly looking for what’s new.
On their furniture and architecture pages, consumer can browse articles and reviews about what’s up in the world of green décor.
Innovative designers who mix the old with new ideas are constants on the Treehugger site, but everyday citizens also make an appearance when they are able to refurbish old items about to go into the trash into something new and useable.
Refurbishing old furniture is a great way to be creative and green at the same time. Other objects can be turned into furniture as well. When looking for new furniture, look for wood that is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. If it bears this mark, it means that the forest it came from is managed in a sustainable way, reports Treehugger.
Types of renewable materials include bamboo, cork, recycled glass and wood from sustainable forests.
"In theory, a well-managed forest can continue to produce wood indefinitely," said Michael Richard of Treehugger. "This is the opposite of clear-cutting, where whole forests are leveled at once and the ecosystem is demolished."
Even sustainable forestry has an impact on forests and could still be damaging to ecosystems and habitats. The wood could also be treated with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, just like non-organic food crops. It is better to know where your wood comes from if you are trying to create a green home.
Turkish design gurus, MaybeDesign, recently came out with suitcase-themed furniture, including the Sit Bag, a chair that opens up from a reused suitcase. Tre Chic!
Getting Sustainable At Work
Ecowork, a company created in 1996 by husband-wife team Erez Steinberg and Gia Giasullo, provides creative options for office furniture.
The product lines are bright, beautiful and most importantly provide eco-friendly furniture. All the furniture provided by the company comes from 95 percent recycled core materials.
In 2000, the Ecowork designs received a Best in Show award during NeoCon, which was followed in 2001 by the International Design Sense Corporate Prize for Sustainable Design, according to the Ecowork website.
On the site, Steinberg said he was constantly struggling in the design industry because everything was so disposable. He only found happiness when he was able to mingle the art of design with everyday life and the idea of using recycled and reclaimed materials.
