Categories
Bedrooms

3 top tips for a non-toxic, eco-friendly bedroom

By Sonya Pala

Given that we spend a third of our lives in bed, sleeping in a non-toxic environment can have wonderful health benefits. But let’s face it, eco, sustainable, fair trade and organic aren’t always synonymous with stylish.

Here are some tips to get a unique, stylish and affordable eco luxury look for your bedroom:

1. Invest wisely Start off with a budget. This will help in the decision-making process! Invest in a primary piece that will last you for years and then update the room over time using accessories, smaller furniture items and fabric. During our renovation, I invested most of our budget into an amazing eco-bed and re-covering an old occasional chair with eco-velvet fabric. Many of the smaller accessories and mother of pearl inlay chest of drawers were bought over the years.

ecoluxe 1

2. Non-toxic bedding Given the rise of allergies over the last few decades, it’s really important to look at the toxicity in everyday items in our home. Conventional foam in mattresses, pillows and furniture, contains a plethora of chemicals which emit VOC gases for the life of the product. Many of these are known carcinogens and combined with conventional cotton bedding (cotton being the most heavily pesticide-sprayed crop in the world), can create a hazardous sleeping environment.

Categories
Interiors Addict

Green Penguins, for all your styling needs!

So remember how Penguin brought out those popular titles with the orange covers and stylists and designers started using them decoratively like EVERYWHERE? Then came the hot pink covers for charity and now, my personal favourite (although I never have been a crime reader) the green covers are here! Could it be merely coincidence that emerald is the Pantone colour of the year?

GREEN_PP_Cover135fe4

Thank you Penguin, for the endless, colour-coded styling inspiration.

Categories
Interviews

Michael Hayes: passionate about furniture, design and the environment

In a time when many people buy cheap, plastic, imported furniture, I think it’s really important to highlight the dying crafts of local furniture makers like Michael Hayes.

michael hayes 2

You know my blog is not about being snobby or saying you can or can’t buy whatever you like at whatever price, and I realise many readers can’t afford to invest in a handmade timber dining table, for example. But one day, when you can, I’d love you to think about saving up for something that will last you generations.

Categories
Interiors Addict

Go behind the scenes at The Real Store

Are you interested in your interiors being ethical and sustainable? Then go behind the scenes at The Real Store on 30 May and learn from its founder, social entrepreneur Virginia Bruce.

The Real Store, in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo,  is a showcase for social, ethical and sustainable design and living. Its vision is to create a global brand that demonstrates the ability to merge profit, philanthropy, design and sustainability into a business model that focuses on ‘paying it forward’.

Daphna Tal, sustainable interiors consultant from Australian Living, will be interviewing Virginia at the evening event, where there’ll be food, wine and networking opportunities.

Categories
Interiors Addict

Vases and glasses from recycled beer bottles

With a background in graphic design and a passionate eco sensibility, Pete Dobson has launched his own label of recycled glassware. He collects wine and beer bottles from bars and restaurants in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs and hand cuts and polishes them to produce glasses, tumblers, carafes, and vases.

Tumblers made from beer and wine bottles
Tumblers made from beer and wine bottles

The eco-friendly aspect of his business is important to Pete, who can be found on a weekend scouring local bars, restaurants and cafes in Coogee for bottles. “I think there are more than adequate amounts of new products on the market,” he explains. “I love the idea of owning something with a story – reusing something that has already had one lifetime.”

Categories
Furniture

Saving timber from old cattle yards and wharves and giving it a new life as furniture

Just like its name, Rabbit Trap Timber is unique. It’s a family run furniture business that produces handcrafted pieces from individually chosen, recycled materials; no table, stool or bench is quite the same.

Rabbit Trap Timber trestle

Initially inspired by “a few pieces of timber full of rusty nails” – and a heap of character – Rabbit Trap Timber is now a full-time job for Justine Taylor and her husband Rabs in the NSW Southern Highlands. “I love it,” Justine says.

Rabbit Trap Timber share platter

Central to their business is a commitment to the environment. The pair source material from old cattle yards, wharves and demolished warehouses, turning it into furniture that will “last another lifetime.” Offcuts become share platters, chopping boards and pilgrim stools, and the sawdust even goes to local farmers.

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Interiors Addict

Green Interior Awards winners announced!

I’m excited to share the winners of the inaugural Your Future Home Green Interior Awards, highlighting professional and emerging interior designers, consultants and stylists who have completed a ‘green’ project.

Green home category winner Hare & Klein
Green home category winner Hare & Klein

An invitation for entries was issued in September and a panel of three judges (myself, Daphna Tal and Eminè Mehmet) recently had the difficult task of selecting the winners from a number of fabulous entries. And the winners are…

Categories
Interiors Addict

Pinterest Green Crush competition

To celebrate the new Pantone Colour of the Year, Emerald, I’ve teamed up with the lovely folks over at In A Designer Home to run a fun little Pinterest comp were you could win a set of Muuto Green Dots worth $199. Find out how to take part here.

Categories
Interiors Addict

Pantone colour of the year 2013 is emerald

Goodbye Tangerine bloody Tango. I do not like orange. I find it really hard to work with. I feel like it’s been colour of the year for way longer than a year and I have been waiting for this day! I’m much happier with Emerald (17-5641), described by Pantone as “a lively, radiant, lush green”.

To arrive at the Colour of the Year selection, Pantone quite literally combs the world looking for color influences. This can include the entertainment industry and films that are in production, traveling art collections, hot new artists, popular travel destinations and other socio-economic conditions. Influences may also stem from technology, availability of new textures and effects that impact color, and even upcoming sports events that capture worldwide attention.

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Interiors Addict

shelf / life, ethical design for everyday living

Yesterday I visited a lovely homewares shop called shelf / life in Sydney’s Surry Hills. It’s not in a location where you’d stumble across it so I wanted to tell you all so you can make a special trip!

Owner Jess Ibbett is a former interior designer with a passion for sustainable design. “As a homewares fanatic with a healthy appetite for design blogs, I became aware that my favourite designers all crafted their wares with deliberate environmental consideration and/or employed sustainable production methods,” she says. “Thus, born from a desire to showcase a collection of my favourite designers’ offerings, and the exciting prospect of establishing a retail environment that introduced Sydneysiders to products handpicked according to our own ethical considerations, my husband and I opened shelf / life at the end of 2009.”

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Interiors Addict

Philippe Starck & Emeco’s ‘green’ chair

Philippe Starck and Emeco have joined forces to create a product that both avoids and eliminates waste, combining intelligent materiality with beautiful form.

“Mies van der Rohe said ‘less is more,’ but with the Broom chair we can say ‘less and more’, because we chose to make less… less style, less design, less material, less energy. And finally… we have more,” says Starck.

Categories
Bathrooms Furniture

Sustainable and stylish bathroom furniture

I love it when something is both environmentally friendly and  looks great. I think bamboo can add some much needed texture and warmth to a bathroom.

The new addition to the Cibo bathroom furniture range offers chic, contemporary design with an eco friendly conscience. The Cibo Eco Wall Hung Vanity Unit offers a stunning minimalistic look and is a perfect eco-friendly solution. It will bring a breath of fresh air to any bathroom – literally – as bamboo absorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, replacing it with oxygen. Among its sustainable attributes, bamboo grows 25% faster than timber.

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Interiors Addict

New Green Interior Awards sponsored by Interiors Addict

I’m delighted to be the major sponsor of the Your Future Home Green Interior Awards, launching this week. The awards have been designed to recognise industry professionals who use green and sustainable products in their interior projects.

Judges Emine Mehmet (sustainability thought leader and interior designer), Daphna Tal (sustainable interiors consultant at Australian Living) and I, will choose the top 10 and then we’ll put them to a public vote. Some fantastic prizes have been donated by Koskela, evo style, ECOCHIC, PLANET LUXE, biome eco store, the real store and CAFECULTURE, not to mention the kudos of being named the winner.

Find more details on how to enter here. Entries close on 12 October 2012.

Categories
Interiors Addict

Free sustainable design principals event

I’m delighted to be special guest at an upcoming industry event on sustainable design principals. If you’d like to learn about environmentally responsible design from the architect behind the Six Green Star rated 1 Bligh Street building in Sydney’s CBD, then come along and join us at this free seminar.