Metal wall art, made from recycled aluminum cans by Transcendant Treasure.  These pin up onto the wall in any configuration you want.

Love Pillow sewn from recycled plastic bottle felt by Personal Pillow.  The heart is a pocket you can hide a little note or treat in.

Light a torch in your loved one’s heart with this red current scented, 100% soy wax candle from Torch Illumination.

A heart you can step on and not feel guilty!  This heart shaped rug is made of recycled t-shirts by Talking Squid (you just have to love that shop name!).

Simple and sweet, these scrap wood blocks from Uniquely Different Too spell it out for all to see.  And hey, if things don’t work out, you can always switch them around and claim you have an unabashed fondness for voles.

A bit over the top, but maybe that’s why it looks so fun.  This refurbished vanity chair is by Picks4U.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, this is for the narcissist in us all…  Made by Upcountry Design in Hawaii from old, corrugated iron roofing, this mirror can also be fitted with a light kit that really makes it glow.

“My love is like a read, read rose” (my apologies to Robert Burns – well, his ghost anyway).  This pretty, recycled book page rose is by The Mad Recycler.

Lastly, we have this sweet little distressed wood frame by Katie Herman Designs.  Made from reclaimed oak flooring, it has oodles of old fashioned charm.  Yes, I said “oodles”.  We all have our favorite words…

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

This will help make room for other post ideas I have for this blog (not that I actually have time to make any of them happen, but that’s another story).

~ Rachel

Valentino Spring 2012

As I flipped through magazine after magazine, a particular trend caught my eye.

Louis Vuitton Spring 2012

Designers were embracing lace.

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2012

A LOT of lace.

Which means that the current trend for vintage lace in interiors is only going to get stronger.  But how do you embrace the look without going full on frilly?  Here are some suggestions….

First off, you should limit yourself to only one, at most two, lace items in a room.  This vintage lace hanging lamp, from Etsy seller Nice, makes a great statement, without seeming fussy.  Plus, the shadows from the lace further soften the room.

Speaking of softening a room, that is the second thing you should take away from this post – lace works best as a way to introduce a softer line to rooms that would otherwise seem too harsh or stark.  So if there is a room in your house that feels dead or cold, try adding a touch of lace.

Lastly, keep in mind that the vintage lace look doesn’t actually have to be, well,… lace.  It can take the form of a stenciled floor…

a pretty piece of decorative ceramic (love these bird bowls!)…

or even a concrete curtain.

So go on, give vintage lace a try.  You KNOW you want to!

Oh, and to find out more about these images, and many other cool ways to use lace, check out my Trending – Vintage Lace board on Pinterest.

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

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.

Vigor, the seriously awesome, recycled, drag racing steampunk dragon sculpture by Etsy artisans Reclaim2Fame.

Just look at that face!

And look at that attention to detail.  Love!

The Year of the Dragon is considered the luckiest of the twelve years in the Chinese zodiac.  Whoever snaps up this amazing little guy will be lucky indeed.

By the way, if the price tag for Vigor has you spitting your coffee out on the screen, take heart.  Reclaim2Fame also makes more affordable sculptures, like this adorable robot dog.

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

These are the original 1950 plans for the house I was working on.  Aren’t they beautiful!?!  Being a draftsman back then involved a LOT of hand writing and line work, along with attention to detail.  The blueprints truly were blue, and an amazing shade of it too.  The color was the result of the chemical reaction of ammonium ferric citrate impregnated paper to light.  Areas of the paper exposed to light turned a deep blue, while areas blocked from light exposure (most often from laying india ink drawings on thin tracing paper between the paper and the light source), stayed white.  Of course, there was a nasty smelling chemical bath that the blueprints had to go through to get the blue areas to develop, but after 62+ years there wasn’t a whiff of it.

I’m trying to convince the homeowners to have the drawings scanned for future use, and then have the floor plans framed as art for their walls.  What a conversation piece, no?

Thanks for visiting (and more about the new business next week when I can catch my breath)!

Rachel

Okay.  So, let’s go!

Wait a minute.  We’re here to talk about interiors, aren’t we?  And so we are.  Specifically, about a very basic, humble, overlooked bit of interior design, one which certainly could use some glamour and snap:  the shower curtain.

Somewhere in the broad field between the two extremes of utilitarian and opulent lies style, sophistication, and wit.  Check out these travel-themed curtains from the New York-based firm, Izola.

What’s more romantic than Venice by candlelight?  Or perhaps Paris?   Mmmmm…

Now, beyond the basic fun of the images, comes an added bonus: these shower curtains are made from PEVA, a vinyl type that emits no Dioxin.  I like that.  PEVA is also biodegradable, and I like that, too.

Izola offers nineteen such “eco-friendly” curtains.  Most are photographic-quality images of famous cities, including a startling view of the Brooklyn Bridge, but, if views aren’t your thing, there are also subway and geographical maps available.

As the bath water heats, browse detailed charts of the London Tube, or the subways of the Chicago, Boston, or New York Transit Authorities.  Muse over the intricacies of the New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego city maps.  Wonder at the isolation of Hawaii, or the immensity of California, or, if you’re in the mood to think internationally, peruse a map of the world (have the political boundaries changed since yesterday?).

In departure from these options is the whimsical Homebound, an original pattern created by artist Rika Shimada.  Although described by Izola as “a tribute to all things nautical,” for me Homebound evokes the work of eminent tattoo artist Sailor Jerry, which makes it all the more endearing.

~ Emerald

So excited to share it with you!  I’m still devoted to sustainable interior design, but will now be doing more consulting, writing, speaking, and outreach.  I’m on the road right now, but will tell you more about it when I get back.

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

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.

Wood can lend such warmth and texture to a wall – even when it is just a small section.

Of course, you can go for the whole enchilada too!

Focusing on the DIY contingent, Everitt & Schilling sells by the square foot through their Etsy store.  Might be fun to order a couple of square feet to play with…

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

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.”

On offer are more than a hundred wallcoverings that contribute to LEED points.  Many of the styles contain recycled pulp or rapidly renewable materials (derived from plants that are harvested on a ten-year or shorter cycle).

A star among these styles is Newsworthy, which is 100% recycled and recyclable.  Newsprint strips are hand-woven on a loom and then paperbacked to make the product wall-ready.  As an unexpected alternative to traditional grasscloth Newsworthy has many charms, among them true variability – the weave teases the senses and, on close examination, the brain, for all the thousands of tiny textual snippets beg to tell their stories.

Movie lovers will enjoy Cinema Posters, a similar product woven from reclaimed movie posters.

My personal favorites are Currents, which looks stunning framed between glass, and Eden, with which a designer could achieve some pleasing effects with light and shadow.

Special care must be taken while cutting all these products – Weitzner recommends using a new, clean blade for each cut – and several require dry cleaning. The website contains specifics on each design.  It also features a specialized clickable search engine to help designers find the exact look they need.

~ Emerald