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.

And as Windfall gives stylish new life to reclaimed wood, so the other Kirei lines bring new purpose to certain types of agricultural waste.  Kirei Board, Kirei Coco Tiles, and Kirei Wheatboard use reclaimed agricultural fiber from plants commonly grown for food around the world.

After harvest, waste from sorghum (an edible grass), coconut, and wheat plants is usually thrown into landfills or burned.  Now much of this unused material is removed from the waste stream, reducing landfill use and air pollution while giving rural farmers a new source of revenue.  Rapidly renewable or FSC-certified wood are used as bonding strips, greatly reducing the need for newly harvested wood for building.

Manufacture can be more involved than with particle board.  For example, with Kirei Board the sorghum stalks are compressed, washed, and woven into sheets.  The latter are then stacked and heat-pressed with a formaldehyde-free adhesive to create blocks, which are cut to desired size.

Kirei offers a similar product made of Moso bamboo.  The plantations from which this fiber is taken are generally reclaimed farmland, which helps to preserve uncut habitat.  Panels are available in a wide variety of colorways, including the luscious looking new Chocolate, probably the favorite out of all the bamboo treatments that I’ve yet seen.

These four products are suitable for architectural millwork, cabinetry, flooring (though not in high traffic areas), wall displays or covering, furniture, and decorative objects – in short, any application where one would normally think of using wood.

To round out this versatility Kirei came out with their Canamo Hemp Panels.  These are made with a no-added-formaldehyde resin and reclaimed hemp hurd fiber left over from fabric & seed oil manufacture: over 70% post-industrial recycled content.  The panels are produced in 48”x96” size and are offered in a variety of thicknesses, all left unfinished so that designers may best tailor the product to individual need.  According to Kirei, the hemp panels may be used for the purposes above.  Ceiling panels are also available.

Collectively, the Kirei philosophy may yield several LEED credits for one’s project, which in itself is wonderful, but there’s much more to it that that.

The word kirei is a Japanese adjective signifying many meanings, including Clean, Pure, Beautiful, and Truthful.  Under John Stein’s direction the company strives to embody its namesake as an ideal.  His business aims to stimulate the economic activity of its source regions by providing new jobs at fair market wages.  By using recycled products and efficient, sustainable practices, Kirei works to lessen humanity’s impact on natural resources while contributing to clean, healthy, and aesthetically pleasing indoor environments… with a eye to the latter quality.

“Green has to be beautiful,” says Mr. Stein.

“If you’re going to do green for green’s sake you’re going to have a very limited market – people who have health issues or people with a conscience.  If you have beautiful materials that happen to be green, then really they’re open to everybody.  I regard it almost as a gateway drug to other green activities.”

With the visual appeal of the Kirei product, perhaps we’ll see many new converts to the sustainable ethic.  Let’s hope so.

~ Emerald

Images courtesy of Kirei USA.

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?

Its parent company calls Breathe a “simple system for incorporating plants into DIRTT walls… to bring nature indoors and beautify and detoxify interior spaces.”  From a home-owner’s perspective, the modular planter looks like a splendid kitchen herb garden… or a sunroom fixture… or an arresting floral display in a well-lit entranceway.  If mounted to the wall about four to six feet upward, it could be a boon for pet owners wishing to keep their house plants safe from marauding cats or dogs.

In addition to easy installment on DIRTT modular units the “living wall” can be mounted to any pre-existing flat, vertical building surface: a desirable treatment for dull, bare concrete or brick walls with nothing cheerful to say otherwise.  Designers could content themselves with the simple statement of a single row of plants or potentially convert an entire wall into a soothing, visually delightful space.

Imagine banks of fragrant herbs or a living patchwork of flowers gracing the walls of a previously bare courtyard or boring employee break room.  Wouldn’t that help company morale?

Imagine a relief of green writ large upon the so-often-uninspiring walls of academic institutions.  A green school: lovely!  Look at the pretties!

There’s a lot of potential for this product just waiting to be tapped.  Take a moment to come see and find out more.

~ Emerald

These are luscious floors.

How often does one get the chance to say that about something under one’s feet?   Luscious.   Yet the creations of DuChateau Floors evoke that word, and in addition serve as a reminder that an environmentally-friendly room does not necessarily preclude classical beauty and – dare we say it? – a gentle opulence.

The secret is in the polish.  While polyurethane, acrylic, and aluminum finished floors are prevalent in the United States, DeChateau offers a refreshing alternative: a floor crafted of new FSC-certified European wood that is distressed, finished with hard wax oil, smoked, and brushed to reproduce that wonderful age-old, worn, antique patina that speaks of history.

The hard wax oil is zero-VOC and preservative-free.  As you can see, it makes for a lustrous finish that brings out all the beauty of the wood… its depth, its grain, and sheen.

Shown here are examples from the company’s Riverstone collection.  I think the Seine & Thames floors particularly evoke the passage of time, while Arno seems more, well…  jazzy.

There are eight collections in all, each with their own voice and each easily spot-repaired with a minimum of bother and fuss.  (A real boon!)  Well-kept, maintained, oiled, the wood will only deepen in beauty.  Imagine using it as wall paneling or, for greater inspiration, check out the creativity of Musa Design in Seattle, WA!

To learn more about these durable, eco-friendly floors, please visit DuChateau’s website.

~ Emerald

Does anything feel as luxurious as a warm towel on a cold autumn morning?   Mmmmm….  Cozy!

With the Thermique Heated Glass Towel Warmer, you can have have that wonderful warm fuzzy towel without sacrificing style, or the environment. 

By utilizing a thin conductive film, sandwiched between two layers of tempered glass, the Thermique warmer manages to avoid the use of oil or other liquids to circulate heat through the system.  Once turned on, the warmer will run for 2 hours before automatically shutting itself off to conserve energy, and because warmers enable a quicker drying time for towels once they have been used, towels stay fresh longer, and don’t require washing as often.   Having a young son, who requires FREQUENT trips to the shower to wash off various mud and muck, I am SO on board with the idea of washing fewer towels!

Thermique makes both a freestanding, plug in unit, and a wall mounted unit.  Both are available in a variety of finishes.  My vote is for the freestanding unit, as it could also be used in a mudroom to dry out coats in the afternoon, or a laundry room to dry out delicates during the day.  I’m all about multipurpose!

To find out more, visit the Thermique website, or their online store.

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

Well, Trend USA has decided to turn wine (bottles) into wallpaper!

Very pretty wallpaper.  Of course, it’s not really paper, but rather sheets of recycled glass mosaic tile that are used to cover a wall like a paper would, but with a much more dramatic effect.

Not only do I love the patterns they offer, but their website is fun too.  Run you cursor over any pattern image, and one of the bottle types used for that particular mosaic appears.  Once you click on the bottle, it takes you to a page where they show the different colors of tile used for that design.  You can also click on a link to download a list of the specific recycled content for that color.

Like any recycled glass, this tile can also be re-recycled once its time on your walls is done.  But as beautiful as it is, I doubt you’d be removing it anytime soon.

For more information on the wallpaper, as well as Trend USA’s other recycled glass offerings, you can visit their website here.

Also haunting, ethereal, sublime, and a bit luscious – all at the same time.

This beautiful line of wood veneer wallpaper from Trove, including the Alcyone design shown above, is available in a wide variety of cloth backed, FSC certified veneers, such as maple, oak, cherry, walnut, birch, and bamboo..  Any motif from their library of wallpaper designs can be chosen, and printed in sizes up to 42″ wide x 120″ high.

Because they use non-toxic, translucent inks, the natural wood grain of the veneer can be seen through the pattern, giving the design a subtle, watercolor effect.

Trove, already known for their use of environmentally friendly inks and nature inspired patterns, has really upped their green creed with this line.  A Class “A” fire-rated product, the veneer can be used in both commercial and residential projects, and there is the potential for earning up to 9 LEED points with its use.

Now, one of the bittersweet aspects of writing about amazing wall treatments such as this is that I can never use them in my own home.  You see, we have 85 year old plaster walls with a very bumpy sand texture, making wallpaper an impossibility.  So imagine my delight to find out that Trove will also make this veneer with a paper backing, suitable for use on furniture, doors, cabinetry and the like.  Oooh, the possibilities!

Nothing really, except the name – and perhaps the perky attitude.

Created by SAGE in Design from bamboo that was bent without steaming, the Marlo chair features an eco-friendly recycled tire inner tube seat.  I find the form of this chair fascinating, especially that dramatic split down the middle.  Seriously, what holds the chair together?There are other pieces in the Marlo line, including this great Marlo Tire Bench in sand cast aluminum from 98.5% recycled auto parts.  Just like the chair, the seat cushion and back are made from tire inner tubes.  I have to admit, I’ve never envisioned something so futuristic and sleek looking coming out the remains of an old car junkyard.  What a great example of re-envisioning materials!

Both pieces are made in the United States, and are available in a range of colors and finishes.  Click here to explore more of SAGE in Design’s extensive range of environmentally friendly contract furniture.

Not unlike skylights, daylight tubes are designed to bring sunlight through the roof and into the interior environment.  They differ however, in being able to concentrate light, thus utilizing a smaller amount of ceiling space for the same amount of illumination.  Their design also prevents UVA/UVB light from entering, virtually eliminating solar radiation and heat gain.

The new sun tunnel design by Velux takes this concept a step further by providing an additional diffuser which hangs below, allowing daylight to be bounced around a greater area and with softer effect.   Because this is full spectrum light, interior spaces look brighter, and more cheerful.  Studies have also shown a strong link between exposure to daylight and a persons sense of well-being and overall health, making the Sun Tunnel an even more worthy addition to any interior project.

Velux, and Ross Lovegrove (seen above) were recently awarded the Red Dot Design Award – Best of the Best 2010 for their Sun Tunnel design.

I hope their success with this design will encourage Velux to add even more products that combine great design with sustainable living.

…has become another man’s business.

SAGE in Design’s president and founder, David Lasher, has taken recycling to a sophisticated new level with the Raul Bench.  With a seat constructed from a mixture of 100% recycled newsprint, old corrugated cardboard and agricultural fibers, all sitting on a base made of 89.5% recycled steel, this is furniture with serious sustainability in mind.

I love the image of trash used as a printed pattern for the seat.  SAGE in Design can also use a company’s packaging materials for corporate branding which are then heat pressed into the seat panel, or the seat can be left “natural”.

Says Lasher of their furniture:

“…at Sage in Design we like to do things that people say can’t be done and our mission is simple we need to put an end to landfill waste and learn how to use our waste to build products. Most companies like to believe we can solve our waste problem by starting at the beginning of our waste cycle. We believe in starting at the end of the waste cycle, because the only way to solve a problem is at the root of the problem, Landfill.”

Of course, it’s not all trash talk at SAGE in Design.  They also make pieces out of materials like FSC certified wood, such as the Strata Bench.

Designed using Swamp Cypress (of all things!), layered with either FSC Maple, or FSC Teak, the Strata bench has a striking, yet simple form.  Like the Raul Bench, it has a recycled steel frame (stainless steel can also be requested).  All finishes are no or low VOC, and both pieces are made in the United States.

SAGE in Design offers many other items to the retail and hospitality trade, for use in hotels, retail shops and malls, amongst other places.  They have upholstered furniture, tables, planters, and even trash receptacles.

Yes, they are actually making trash cans out of trash.   Take that landfill!

The U.S. based company Air Dye has managed to do exactly that, by creating a new technology that can dye fabric without using a single drop of water!  This is an amazing advancement, and one we desperately need in the textile industry.  There is one problem though – other than getting the word out and encouraging fabric companies to give it a try…

The Air Dye system can only be used on synthetic fibers, such as polyester, nylon and acrylic.  That being said, with synthetic fabrics so prevalent in the interior design industry, the water and energy savings alone make looking for the Air Dye label a new must for designers.  And what are those savings you ask.  Well, according to Air Dye’s website:

“Synthetic textile-dyeing consumes 2.4 trillion gallons of water a year, enough to fill 3,700,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. AirDye reduces water use up to 95 percent, (Percentage include the production of raw materials used in our process).

Our one-step process cuts the energy consumption of dyeing by up to 86 percent.  That’s more than 2.8 trillion megajoules per year — enough to power more than 12 percent of the homes in the United States for a year.”

So who is using this new technology? So far in the interior design world,  Hunter Douglas Hospitality and FLOR carpet tiles have both signed on, and I’m sure many other companies will follow.  Particularly because the technology adds little, if any, to the cost of dyeing the fabric.  In addition, it is possible to do things such as print a different design on each side of a single piece of cloth, making for great possibilities in reversible draperies and other applications.

Imagine if all the plastic water bottles in the world (around 200 billion a year) were recycled into polyester fabric, and then dyed using Air Dye technology?   What a great step forward that would be.