Eco-Friendly Living Room Redecorating Ideas

Monday, February 18, 2013 , ,


The living room is the second most used room in the house after the kitchen. I don’t mean a formal living room, like I grew up with. I mean the room you and your family actually ‘live’ in! Some people might call it a family room or the t.v room. It’s where the family gathers in the evening and where you entertain your friends. With all that use, it should be a healthy and energy efficient space.

Natural light, windows and coverings, and air movement.

Windows for natural light will keep electric use down during the day. They can be opened in warm weather to create a breeze. As with a ceiling fan, moving air is cool air, and a breeze can cool you off. Heavy drapes or quilted window curtains are good for cold weather to keep cold air from infiltrating and hot air from moving outside.

Paint that’s friendly to your living room environment.

Paints and finishes should be low- or no-VOC. These are water-based instead of oil-based, so they are healthier and clean up is easy. If you need turpentine to clean your brush, it contains toxic ingredients that will off-gas for years.

Choosing earth-friendly fabrics and surface materials.

Textiles are a big part of your living room. Rugs, upholstered furniture, carpeting and drapes can have a huge carbon footprint and an adverse effect on your air quality. The textile industry is a huge polluter. Cotton is a water intensive crop. When a mill bleaches cotton, the wastewater goes into nearby waterways. This water makes it into your house for you to drink. Cotton farmers also use copious amounts of pesticides. Even though cotton is a natural material, the way it’s grown and processed is not very earth friendly.

The plastics in carpeting are made from oil. A green remodel should be using fewer fossil fuels, so carpeting is not a good choice environmentally. It is also an allergen magnet. If you have allergies, skip the carpeting and install hardwood floors. Throw rugs can be washed easily.

The backing on carpeting often has formaldehyde in it, and the padding of recycled foam pieces is toxic. When I had two rooms of really old carpet removed, the contractor wore a respirator. Not a mask. A respirator!

It wasn’t long ago you couldn’t find interior decorating textiles that were healthy for you or the planet. Now most designers and manufacturers have a ‘green’ line of fabrics that are organic, recycled, recyclable, natural, biodegradable and/or renewable. Non-toxic dyes are more prevalent than before, too.

Even if you buy second hand furniture and want to reupholster it, you can find eco-friendly fabrics. Here is some great information about that.

Living room comfort, and your insulation.

If you have the opportunity to add insulation to the walls, do. More important, though, is to insulate the ceiling. Heat rises, and if you are short on insulation above, it will rise right out and into the sky. It will melt the snow off your roof, too. That is a good indicator, by the way, of how much insulation you might already have or not have up there.

If you live in a hot climate, ceiling insulation will help keep your living areas cool, reducing cooling bills. In either scenario, a ceiling fan helps heat and cool. It can help distribute warm air, pushing it back to the floor. When it’s warm out, moving air is cool air, and a fan can drop the temperature five degrees or more. Ceiling fans are an inexpensive way to lower your energy bills.

Healthy living room, healthy environment.

Paints, windows, earth friendly textiles that will improve your indoor air quality, and saving on your energy bill are all apart of an eco-friendly living room remodel. You and your family will be healthier, and you will have stretched the planet’s resources. That’s a green remodel.

Tips on How to Nurture Your Furniture

Monday, February 11, 2013 ,


Vintage, distressed, shabby chic whatever you call it, there's no denying that well-worn furniture is in style in homes today. Just because some of your décor is trendily tattered, doesn't mean it's all right to beat up the furniture you bought new. Follow these tips to protect, clean and care for what's in your home, no matter the material.

Fabric Upholstery

One of the most important things to remember when caring for fabric upholstery – or really any type of furniture – is to keep it clean. If you don't, the dirt inside the fabric can cause it to deteriorate, warns Daniel Danforth, vice president of education for Fibrenew, a Black Diamond, Alberta-based company that specializes in the restoration of leather, plastic and more.

Danforth recommends having your upholstered furniture cleaned about once a year by professionals who can identify the particular fabric and the appropriate cleaner for it, and also says people should "put a fabric protector on there after they've had it cleaned."

Fabric protector is available at most hardware, home improvement or furniture stores, but make sure to check the label that it is safe for the type of upholstery you are protecting.

Leather

"Think of [leather furniture] like the skin on your hands," says Geoff Shadman, owner of the Portland, Maine-based Furniture Repair Services of Maine. "If you allow it to dry out and you don't keep it conditioned, it cracks, it peels, it flakes up."

To prevent damage to your leather, Shadman suggests using a leather conditioner/cleaner every four to six months.

Between treatments, Danforth says people should wipe down their leather furniture with a damp rag or mild leather cleaner to prevent buildup of dust and body oils. He also recommends a leather protector instead of a conditioner, and says people should "stay away from wives' tales products," like mink oil.

Plastic

Care for plastic furniture is simple. "Wipe it down," Danforth says, and don't keep it under the sun. Direct heat and sunlight, which can also dry out leather furniture, will make plastic more brittle.

Wood

"Water and wood – unless it's a boat – doesn't mix," Shadman says. When cleaning your wood furniture with a water-based product, "dry it immediately so it doesn't soak into the wood and expand the wood grain and cause flaking, separation, things like that," he adds.

Danforth also suggests using a furniture polish, which can "create a barrier between the finish of the wood" and the outside world.

Other wood protection tips from Shadman and Danforth include using coasters and mats to prevent water and heat damage, or getting a glass (but not plastic) overlay for a table.

"Plastic is not a good idea because plastic sweats and it can hold moisture," Danforth says, which will damage the wood.