Today, however, the sheer energy-inefficiency of a traditional fireplace can make it a less-than-desirable fixture in one’s household.  Yet the allure of captive flame remains.  So, how to satisfy that ancient longing?

Why, bypass the fireplace, of course.

Enter Wall Flame I & II, the sleek brain-children of Michael Rösing, managing director of Radius Design, in Brühl, Germany.  Gone is the large, surrounding containment structure, gone the flue, gone the chimney.  In short, gone is the fireplace itself, and in its place is left a simplicity of flame.

All the romanticism, with none of the attendant mess.  Perfect.

Both versions offer a high-grade steel base – the Wall Flame I featuring a curved, one-piece mounting system, while the Wall Flame II’s rear piece is shielded in glass.  They’re available in a variety of different materials, including tinted glass and high-gloss, brushed, or powdered stainless steel.

Both styles can be installed in nearly any type of home.  They’re safe, user-friendly, and boast low fuel consumption.  The appliance’s combustion chamber houses a “ceramic sponge” that assures a stable, even, fully adjustable flame that will burn for up to four hours at a time.  In addition, the appliance is TÜV® approved, which attests to its quality.

Splendid… but why feature it on a blog for sustainable interior design?

Put simply, it burns clean.  Eschewing the conventional use of propane or natural gas, Wall Flame (like of all of Radius’ Home Flame Collection) runs on liquid bio-ethanol.  The fuel burns residue free and largely produces steam and carbon dioxide.

Visit Radius Design to find out more.

~ Emerald

Okay, so I’m a sucker for the Victorianesque.  But isn’t it exquisite?  Thanks to the collaboration of Glasgow architectural model makers Finch & Fouracre and the folks at Another Studio for Design in London, U.K., one needn’t have a grand estate in order to own a beautiful Victorian hothouse… in miniature, that is.

As it was designed to emulate the ornate steelwork of 19^th-century greenhouses the Plantini is a lovely accent piece in its own right, but there’s a practical reason to like it.  It’s environmentally friendly.

The kit comes in a box of 100% recycled paperboard, and the biodegradable planting pot is composed of bamboo and rice hulls.  The greenhouse frame itself is made of stainless steel.  Its avowed purpose is that of planter – to shelter one’s seedlings or nurture flowers – which means it can also help improve the indoor air quality of one’s home or office.

A removable canopy and etched glass panes brings light to the plants inside.

Also in the flat-packed DIY kit are viola seeds, the compressed compost in which to plant them, and instructions.  Once assembled, the model greenhouse is 9.5 cm (3.75″) tall, and would make a lovely conversation piece atop a desk, tucked on a windowsill, or on an entranceway table.

The Plantini is available here at the Postgarden website.

~ Emerald

No, it’s not their presence in a landfill.  Not if Fireclay Tile has any say in the matter.

Since its founding in 1986 the San Jose, CA, company has striven to minimize its environmental impact.  The product is hand-molded from extruded clays using recycled materials, unprocessed stoneware clays, and minerals, so each tile has its own natural character.  Glazes are mixed in-house and never contain any lead material.

Fireclay recycles its kiln heat, water, and all manufacturing waste, which is then re-used in other parts of the business.  99% of all scrap clay is recycled back into new tile and 80% of all glaze over-spray is collected and recycled.  Waste not, want not.

In particular they produce two tile lines to which I’d like to draw your attention.

The first, Crush Recycled Glass Tile, is 100% post-consumer glass taken from curbside recycling programs.  The tile comes in glossy or matte finish and is available in 17 different size formats, including field (square or rectangular), rounds, triangles, diamonds, hexagons, mosaic sheets, rails, and three types of borders.  Customers can choose from a range of 40 colors.  This handmade tile can be substituted for ceramic & natural stone products in most applications and is ideal for projects seeking LEED certification.

The second, Debris Series Recycled Tile, has a more complex story.

Like Crush, Debris is produced using locally-sourced post-consumer waste glass.  It also contains reclaimed porcelain and granite dust, which is a by-product of industrial asphalt production.  Altogether these materials combine to give Debris a whopping 70% recycled material content – not only reserving hundreds of tons a year from the local landfills but also halving the energy use required to make conventional tile.  Wow!

Debris comes in 112 natural, lead-free glaze colors.  It is offered in field sizes ranging from 1”x2” to 12”x12”, along with a large selection of trim, moldings, raised and relief tiles, and also hand-painted Cuerda Seca tile.

Alongside the company’s environmental commitment the people of Fireclay strive to “give back” to their community by means of product donations, ceramic teaching programs, and factory tours for students.  The company also seeks non-profit organizations which can put secondary and overstock tile to good use.

But check them out for yourself.  There’s a lot to learn on the Fireclay website , and their Inspiration Gallery is just that.

~ Emerald

You decide.

There’s simplicity in these glass and steel designs, a clean look, one that’s versatile enough to be used in any number of decoration schemes.  I think they would complement just about any setting.

As much as possible, the materials are reclaimed objects.  Old glass & ceramic insulators, traffic light lenses, and hardened steel parts – the clips, spikes, and random hardware so abundant along unused rail lines – all hand-gathered by the artist and repurposed into lighting, door & cabinet hardware, and home furnishings.

The disparate parts are cut, drilled, sanded, ground, and bent where needed before being given their new purpose.  Although the creations are thoroughly cleaned the rust remains and is, according to the artist, an “essential part of the look.”  Even the new sections of steel are purposefully rusted so that the entire is whole.  Then comes a steel sealer and hand-rubbed oil finish.

So what was once abandoned is again made functional.

The business sprang, almost by chance, from Tim’s long-term interest in lighting and a collection that started with the purchase of a single glass insulator back in 2004.  Now he crafts a full line… as well as custom work, some of which can be seen here.

There’s much more to the story than this, however.  To learn it, please stop by the RailroadWare website.

~ Emerald

This is before.  Isn’t that a weird location for the sink?  Not to mention the majorly blah nature of that white and beige scheme!

So look what we did….

Talk about a 180°!  The clients had already picked out their appliances, and knew exactly what they wanted for the cabinet color (off a picture frame they had, no less).  My task was to figure out a way to tuck it all in there – without having it come off as crowded or jumbled looking – and to integrate other materials in so the kitchen still felt open and light.   It was quite the puzzle, but I think we pulled it off.  Cork flooring (which I promise is less yellow looking in person), composite countertops, and glass backsplash tile bring a lot of color and brightness into the space, not to mention sustainability.

We even managed to fit a full sized washer and dryer into the space.

Now THAT was a trick!  Kudos to Keith, the cabinet maker, for making real what I could only sketch out on paper.

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

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

Happily, my doctors have figured out how to bring me back to 100%.  I feel GREAT!

Now comes the tough part – getting caught up!  So, in the interest of keeping my clients, editors, friends and family happy, today’s post is short.

Really short….

Behold!

My current favorite tile.  Oceanside Glasstile’s Muse Ovation in Tidepool.

The End.

Thanks for visiting,

Rachel

Penny rounds, and their design sibling “hex tile”, have been around for over a century, as anyone who has been in the lobby of the old apartment building, or the bathroom in an older home would know. Recently there has been a revival in interest for penny rounds, whether for reasons of nostalgia or the fact that just so darn cheerful looking. The great thing is, they can also be very sustainable. Here are some of my favorite looks:

image via Apartment Therapy

I’ll start out with, Savoy, a pretty ceramic version with over 20% recycled content from Ann Sacks.

Daltile makes a simple, classic version in porcelain. In this image you can really see the versatility of a tile with such a small scale.  Great for curved surfaces!

Ann Sacks also makes a beautiful version in matte glass.  I’ve seen this installed and it is just luminous!

One of my all-time favorite materials is cork, and it just happens to make some of the best penny tile of all. Cut from discarded wine corks, these tiles are sustainable in so many ways.  I’ve installed this before, and it really does work as well as they say. Believe it or not, it’s put in just like any other tile, grout and all. Just seal it with a few coats of water-based urethane and you have yourself a durable flooring that can even be used in a shower.

image via Apartment Therapy

Of course if you want to be literal about it, you could actually make penny rounds out of pennies, as was done at New York’s Standard Hotel. Penny rounds usually come pre-spaced on mesh sheets, but I have to imagine some poor installers had to actually lay these out individually.

image via Apartment Therapy

Penny tile not doing it for you? How about nickel tile? Talk about one-upsmanship, this installation is more of a five-upmanship.

Penny Rounds are definitely a fun look, as well as a nice nod to the past, but do keep in mind that the smaller the tile, the greater quantity of grout will make up your floors surface. If you have grout issues, and many people do, this look may not be for you.

Interstyle

Oceanside Glasstile

Vetrocolor

Oceanside Glasstile

Hakatai

So, what do you think?

These chandeliers are made by Etsy seller Metamorphosi out of recycled wine and water bottles.

Apparently Calcata, the small Italian town where these are made, is known for being quite the artists colony.  In fact, the New York Times said, “This may be the grooviest village in Italy, home to a wacky community of about 100 artists, bohemians, aging hippies and New Age types.”  These chandeliers look like they would fit right in.

I’ve seen a lot of recycled wine bottle chandeliers lately, but nothing quite like these.  If you didn’t know what they were made of, you might not even recognize the origin of all those pretty little glass rings.

And it must take a LOT of little glass rings to create each one of these chandeliers!

To see more, visit Metamorphosi’s Etsy shop.