Remember being a kid and sitting down with your trusty box of crayons and a nice big inviting expanse of white paper?  All that great, creative possibility at your fingertips?  Yeah…

The owners of Dutch company WallArt must remember, too, because they’re given designers a grown-up version of that moment: 3D embossed wall panels in friendly do-something-awesome-with-me white.  Check out these brilliant examples from their Projects page while I tell you about the product itself.

It starts with sugar.  Rather, it starts with bagasse, the fibrous residue left over when sugarcane is shredded to extract the sweet stuff we put in our coffee every morning.

Sugarcane can be harvested up to three times a year, according to WallArt, so is one of the world’s most renewable resources.  The total annual harvest worldwide tops 1.2 billion metric tons, which could therefore theoretically produce 400 million tons of bagasse.   Like much agricultural waste, it’s normally thrown into a landfill or (worse) burned, but there are better things to do with it.

Pulp and bleach the fiber, which may be combined with other fibrous cellulosic material, add water & oil resistant agents, then mold and press it into smooth, lightweight 50 cm x 50 cm panels.  Tap the imagination.  Play.

These embossed wall panels come in 16 different patterns.  With them designers can form a repeating pattern which not only toys with light and shadow but leaves the field wide open for creative expression with color.  It’s a very tactile product that turns any wall into a sculpture.

The raw material for the panels is 100% recycled, compostable, and therefore 100% biodegradable.  However, because of its Class C fire rating the company recommends after installation use of a Class A fire proof coating/fire retardant paint.

A single WallArt commercial package contains 12 panels, which together covers about three square meters of wall space.  The product is easy to install – and the company website includes a through installation help section to assist in the process.

I’ll leave you with one last image, my favorite: a delicate treatment of the “Pitches” pattern from the Dutch interior design magazine, Ariadne At Home.  Go take a look.

~ Emerald

Images courtesy of WallArt.

“Demolish another building, it just gives us more to work with!”

John Stein is into demolitions, but not in the way one might think.  The founder and president of California-based Kirei USA has a knack for finding the possibilities inherent in the unwanted.

This vision shows clearly in every Kirei product, including the newest line, Windfall.  These engineered panels are produced in partnership with Windfall Lumber, which takes Douglas & Hemlock Fir from deconstructed buildings in the Pacific Northwest and brings the reclaimed wood to fresh, new life.

“It’s great to reuse demolition material that would otherwise take up space in the landfill,” says Mr. Stein.  “Having it become beautiful wood panels is even better.  This is old-growth wood that just can’t be found any more, and we get to bring it to designers.”

Windfall is manufactured in the United States using low-VOC adhesives.  The reclaimed wood is milled into strips of differing width, which are then randomly stacked to form the panels and cut to size.  Panels are available either solid or 3-ply with a NUAF/FSC-certified core.  They may come unfinished, with a clear coat that shows off the natural grain, or stained and prefinished in Anthracite, Mocha, Ivory, and Leather colors.  The result adds to any interior.

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I love reclaimed wood.

I love tile.

I LOVE this.

Created by Everitt and Schilling of reclaimed wood from barns or building scrap, these tiles are both beautiful and functional. Read the rest of this entry »

Often those who work with sustainable design find themselves working against some all-too-common misconceptions.  Namely: that environmental consciousness and luxury are incompatible, that “natural” means “limited palette,” that an Earth-friendly wall is dull.

With their line of wallcoverings, Weitzner Limited neatly puts all that nonsense to rest.

Although certainly luxurious in the sense of being well-crafted, Weitzner’s creations are also, by turns, whimsical, arresting, soothing, classical, or all of these at once.

“We like to challenge our client’s perception of what a wallcovering can be by creating innovative materials that evoke curiosity, calm and beauty,” touts the company website.  “Then we add environmental consciousness and performance (class A ratings) into the mix.”

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There are modular homes and modular walls and modular floors…  but have you seen a modular plant?  No?  I hadn’t either.

But the clever folks at DIRTT Environmental Solutions looked into their imaginations and saw a vertical garden: rows and ranks of pretty, VOC-absorbing plants marching up any given wall.  Then Sustainable Industries looked at Breathe and named it one of the Top Ten Building Products of 2011.

So what is this thing? Read the rest of this entry »

Go to the local – or chain – hardware store and take a stroll to the paint section, where rows upon rows and literally thousands of color choices may await customers. What’s in that paint?  In many cases, that information can be more than difficult to unearth.

In the vast majority of cases the base material is latex, supplemented by a witch’s brew of chemicals to achieve consistency, color, and so forth, produced with petro-chemical or synthetic ingredients.  The result, whatever the formula, is often toxic.  Who wants that?

Florian Speier and Jessica Pfohl are among those looking for something more.  Out of frustration at the “greenwashing and lack of ingredient transparency in the paint industry,” the husband and wife team founded Unearthed Paints with the determination to help change the industry.

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Funky.  Crazy.  Creative.

The work of Corque Design is all of these and more.

This Portuguese company offers an interesting range of furniture & accessories, all crafted with cork taken from the Sobreiro (cork oak indigenous to the southern regions of Portugal).  Unlike wood, the harvesting of cork does not involve felling but merely the periodic gleaning of bark from the trees, which are left to continue growing in good health.  In addition to being a renewable resource, cork is recyclable, non-toxic and durable.  The bark is extracted manually, which involves no damage to the living tree, while the proceeding manufacturing process involves little waste and a low usage of resources.

But what really sets Corque Design apart from many environmentally-conscious companies is the sheer whimsy and versatility of its product line. Designers have lots of room to play.

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Dwelling in a rental can be so… uninspiring.  Who likes living one’s life surrounded by bland walls which cannot be painted or papered without sacrificing one’s security deposit?  But that’s how it is, right?

Not anymore!

Thanks to the folks at Inkshuffle, we renters can have our cake and eat it too.  How?  Reusable wall murals… or, “Easy Off” wall murals, as the company calls them.

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Today is the start of 100% Design in London.  Wish I was there.  Then I could see fun new ideas like this…

The Mix ‘n’ Match 11 Wallpaper Collection, by Kirath Ghundoo, is being exhibited there this week.  It’s an exuberant assortment of digitally printed patterns, designed to be used in any combination you enjoy.  Because there is no need to match or repeat, there is no need for wasteful cutting and scrap (a great bit of built in sustainable design).  You can even use the strips individually to accent a painted wall.

There are seven patterns altogether, with LAVISH above being my definite favorite.  Love the colors!

To see the rest of the collection, visit Kirath Ghundoo’s shop here.

Thank for visiting!

Rachel

Just had to share this adorable “Toilet Monster”…

From Dutch design company Ecoreminders, this cute little guy is actually a PVC free vinyl decal that seeks to remind you of the wasteful water monster lurking in every toilet. Read the rest of this entry »