Here is your Friday Wrap-up of great stuff on the web this week.

Image via Dezeen

Emeco sure got my attention with this great shot of their new 111 Navy Chair, which is made from the 111 Coca-Cola bottles worth of PET. (DeZeen)

Speaking of PET, you can pop over to HomePortfolio.com to read my post on carpeting made from recycled PET. (HomePortfolio)

I really love these beautiful, eco-friendly deck chairs from Gallant & Jones.  Definite must have for Summer lounging! (design*sponge)

Here’s an interesting list of 8 Bathroom Items to Repurpose Around the House.  A medicine cabinet into a bar? (reNest)

Are you an interior designer?  Then you, or the firm you work for, probably have a lot of outdated samples lying around.  Why not help out a student and donate them to Save a Sample? (reNest)

A fun table made of salvaged wood, with a little slice of color. (inhabitat)

If you love cardboard furniture, and even if you don’t, you should see this post on Treehugger – if only for the huge cardboard Leaning Tower of Pisa. (Treehugger)

Here’s a story about Christie’s upcoming Green Auction.  Everything from an original painting by Damien Hirst to a day on a movie set with Hugh Jackman will be up for bid, all to benefit several environmental charities. (The Huffington Post)

Wishing you a happy Easter weekend!

(clockwise from top) "Gold Coast", "Pompeii", raw safety glass in bag

Quick story – When I was a little girl, I found some broken windshield glass in the alley near our home.  My mother, being the crafty sort at the time, decided to bring it home to experiment with.  Her project, as I recall, involved gluing the pieces of glass around a flower pot for a sort of sparkly mosaic effect.   We’ll never know what the end result might have been, since my toddler sister decided that tempered glass would make a delicious appetizer to the lunch my mother had left the room to make.   Although a frantic trip to the doctor revealed no lasting damage, the great tempered glass experiment quickly made it’s way to the trash, never to be tried again.

I’m so happy that Ellen Blakeley, artist and owner of Ellen Blakeley Studio, had better results!  Just look at the amazing tiles she has created from recycling tempered glass…

"Moss" from the Elements Collection

Using low VOC paints and sanded grout, Ellen Blakeley Studios takes a common material, and transforms it into something special.  Looking like a miniature landscape from a distant planet, the tile has a fascinating sense of depth and movement, created from the juxtaposition of transparent glass and opaque grout.

"After Dark" from the Elements Collection

Because tempered glass is a treated glass, it can’t be recycled by conventional means, so once it breaks it’s done.  Ellen Blakely Studios sources their tempered glass from companies in Northern California that would otherwise simply throw it away, thus making this a great example of trash to treasure!

"Amazon" from the Elements Collection

Perfect for a kitchen or bathroom backsplash, the tiles have been designed for durability, and are available in an amazing assortment of color combinations.   Or send the studio a swatch of your own and ask them to create something completely custom.

One other note – As I have mentioned before, I love it when manufacturers go the extra mile to sample their products in a less wasteful manner.  When I asked Ellen Blakely if she could send me a sample of her studios work, not only did she send me a cool little bag of tempered glass so I could see what the raw material was like (image at top), but both tile samples came with a cork backing so I could use them as coasters!  Now that’s sustainable sampling!

]]> http://www.theinteriorevolution.com/archives/878/feed 0 http://www.theinteriorevolution.com/archives/717 http://www.theinteriorevolution.com/archives/717#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:10:40 +0000 Rachel http://www.theinteriorevolution.com/?p=717 A major dilemma for interior designers trying to lessen their environmental impact is the need for a sample library.  Although people outside the industry might wonder why we can’t just switch to looking at things online, we designers know that is simply impossible.  Above and beyond the desire to have a tangible material in our hands, there is simply no way to render color online that is accurate.  Besides the variation in image uploading and monitor color rendition, is the simple fact that all materials reflect light in different ways, creating color perception issues.  Anyone who has seen a flat vs. a glossy paint sample of the same color can attest to that.  Add to all this the need to see samples for quality control, and the desire to pull samples together during the creative process, and you can see why designers need such large storage spaces!

From time to time I run across some innovative or creative ways to lesson the overall impact of all this sampling, and I though I would share a couple of those ideas here:

Primer from Tricycle, Inc. on Vimeo.

Product development company Tricycle tackled this problem by creating Tryk, a process for high resolution, color accurate flat samples, to be used for preliminary design work.  This system cuts down enormously on the amount of material and space needed for samples by carpet companies such as Tandus, Interface, and Shaw.  In the initial design stage, these samples can be used for color and pattern, and can be applied easily to mood boards.  Later in the design stage, an actual sample of the desired carpet can be requested for final approval.

Here is a different way of approaching the sampling problem.  The other day my sales rep for The Woven Company stopped by with their new sample set.  While their actual format hasn’t changed, the box definitely has.  And what a great sample box it is!   Not only is this woven grass container attractive to look at and easy to use, it has the potential for a truly useful life long after The Woven Company has moved on to other things.  A picnic basket, a child’s overnight case, perhaps a place to store yarn for knitting?  I have half a mind to call them up and ask if I could buy a few more!

When the rep dropped it off, it really got me to thinking about how wasteful all those sleek, logo encrusted sample kits manufacturers regularly send me are.  Once the product line is no longer valid, what do I do with the container, much less the actual samples?  I’ve donated many to local design schools, but they will still wind up in the landfill someday.  Wouldn’t it be nice if all these samples came in something useful?

If you have any ideas for great ways manufacturers could provide samples to lessen their impact, or another fun sample container idea, please feel free to share it in the comments below!