Decorating Tips

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As the green culture grows and becomes more desirable, more retailers and manufacturers are adding eco-friendly products to their offerings. However, there are a few companies that stand out from the crowd — some because they started with a green foundation, and others because they offer sustainable products with the same zest and prominence as their more traditional offerings. Here are my picks for the top 10 online retailers for eco-friendly home decor:

Today, Green Your Decor has a guest post from a woman who I consider to be one of my eco-design heroes (or heroines), Kelly LaPlante.  She is a leading eco-designer who has been demonstrating for nearly 10 years that “green” can be the rule, rather than the exception.  Her showroom in Venice Beach, CA features vintage, antique and sustainable-new furnishings including LaPlante’s line of soy candles and her new studio collection, jak. She is currently appearing as an expert on TV shows including Discovery Home Channel’s “Greenovate” and Sundance Channel’s “Big Ideas for a Small Planet.” LaPlante’s first book, écologique, was released on July 1st to amazing reviews, and a giveaway of the book is included below, so keep reading!

A few weeks ago, I offered a simple, eco-chic decorating tip: Use Vintage Furniture. As it turns out, there are lots of other home decor products that have stood the test of time and can be restored and/or repurposed to fit right in with our modern lifestyles.  And this Sixties Style Restored Phone from Uncommon Goods is a perfect example. I’ll start with the disclaimer that it is sold out, but I wanted to feature it simply for inspiration.

As the concept of “going green” gets bigger and bigger, there will be lots of skeptics who will argue that individual changes won’t make a difference, and that this is all just a fad that will pass in time. Well, I found a great tool to help all of us determine the impact of all the changes we have made in our homes. 

The How Green is Your Home calculator from Low Impact Living takes into account a variety of factors, including the size and type of your home (single family, apartment, etc.), the size of the lot your home is on, the number of people in your household, the age of your appliances and how often you use them and more.  

I have to thank MarthaStewart.com for this one and for the photo shown above. This is a simple DIY project that can give your old shirts new life. It is also a reminder that we don’t have to buy green to go green. The ultimate idea is to reduce consumption, either directly, by reusing your own items, or indirectly, bu buying products from manufacturers who reduce consumption on their end.

Now, onto the project:

Up until now, I have been searching the Web for stylish, eco-friendly decor items that I think are beautiful functional and good for the Earth. What I want to know, however, is what would you like to see on Green Your Decor?

I try to be as diverse as possible in the function of the products shown, but your ideas would be helpful. Maybe there is an eco-friendly product you are looking for that you haven’t been able to find. It might be wallpaper, curtains, tile, rugs, bedding, wall art…or something I haven’t thought of yet. I may be able to tap some of my resources to help you.

If you have always dreamed of having a home that produces energy instead of consuming it, with eco-friendly features at every turn, you will be happy to know that many companies are creating new products to help you do so every day. But if the multitude of choices has left you feeling a bit overwhelmed, Green Remodeling: Changing the World One Room at a Time by David R. Johnston and Kim Master is here to help.

One great way to ensure that your home decorating is green and environmentally friendly is very simple: use vintage furniture. This tip was inspired in part by the Low Impact Living blog.

Keep in mind that “vintage” doesn’t have to mean it came from the 1950’s era. It can be as simple as shopping yard sales or asking your mother for your favorite chair from her living room when she’s ready to get rid of it.

There are numerous groups and organizations on and off the web that are dedicated to recycling and reusing, or at the very least provide a place where people can exchange items instead of sending them to the landfill. For example: