If you're planning a green home makeover, you've probably looked into the neat, but often pricey, options out there for eco-conscious furniture and decor. But what are those of us on shoestring (or even half a shoestring) budgets to do? Well, if you're in the NYC area, I highly recommend you check out Build It Green, a warehouse in Astoria that's like a Home Depot for environmentalists. BIG is chock full of very reasonably priced lumber, lamps, chairs, toilets, tchotchkes, doors, and pretty much anything else you might need to spruce up your pad and the awesome thing is that they're all reclaimed from places around New York. I was lucky enough to pick up 2 huge panels of frosted plexiglass from an Oscar de la Renta showroom for only $35 each, and next week I'm heading back to try to pick up some carpeted platforms scrapped from the Conan O'Brien Show! Click through the slideshow to see more sweet stuff I encountered on my tour through this trove of
If you're planning a green home makeover, you've probably looked into the neat, but often pricey, options out there for eco-conscious furniture and decor. But what are those of us on shoestring (or even half a shoestring) budgets to do? Well, if you're in the NYC area, I highly recommend you check out Build It Green, a warehouse in Astoria that's like a Home Depot for environmentalists. BIG is chock full of very reasonably priced lumber, lamps, chairs, toilets, tchotchkes, doors, and pretty much anything else you might need to spruce up your pad and the awesome thing is that they're all reclaimed from places around New York. I was lucky enough to pick up 2 huge panels of frosted plexiglass from an Oscar de la Renta showroom for only $35 each, and next week I'm heading back to try to pick up some carpeted platforms scrapped from the Conan O'Brien Show! Click through the slideshow to see more sweet stuff I encountered on my tour through this trove of
Storytelling design is the first step towards a healthier future for patients at the Evangelisches Konigin Elizabeth Krankenhaus children’s psychiatric hospital in Berlin. Designed as a collaborative effort between the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Dan Pearlman Creative Agency, the center creates a fantastic narrative that guides patients on a journey to “Elise Island”, a safe place to play and rest hosted by Princess Elise.
Check out this tip we received from reader isupereco: “H2O Architects designed an incredible looking wall planter dubbed the “Grass Mirror.” The planter is 43 inches long and 4 inches deep and adds a stunning effect to any room. The “Grass Mirror” is actually made up of highly reflective polished stainless steel which creates a very unique look for your wall.”
Thanks isupereco!
A crowd that included actor/activist Don Cheadle gathered last week to celebrate the completion of the Upward Bound House Family Shelter in Culver City, Los Angeles, what is undeniably one of the prettiest and most cheerful homeless shelters we’ve ever seen. Once the site of a rundown motel with transient tenants, this 18-unit complex received a complete make over by an all-star cast of Los Angeles interior designers. With no budget at all, designers used their creative muscle to transform dark and dreary motel rooms into bright and uplifting spaces for homeless families in need.
Amenity Home Sustainable Home Decor for Spring On Sale
As we begin to peel back the multiple layers of winter (or are just starting to feel the chill, depending on what part of the world you’re in), Amenity Home launches their latest collection of nature-inspired bedding reflective of the emerging spring season. Taking their cue from ferns, their latest collection is offered in a vibrant palette of hues fit for the coming months. A modern, sustainable company and favorite to locals on the Inhabitat LA team, the Fern design is available in warm amber, fresh celery, and calming peacock. Inhabitat readers can visit the Amenity Home website before midnight tonight and use the code FERN20 to enjoy 20% off the entire Fern line and take part of their current Green Sale offering 30% off the entire original Amenity Collection (excluding Muir and Fern).
Berlin Factory Renovated Into Stunning Recyclable Live/Work Space
The Palomar5 “Camp” is an incredible project that brought 30 thinkers under the age of 30 from 30 different disciplines together for six weeks to foster innovation outside of the corporate world. To enhance their idea, Palomar5 called on the innovative minds at 45 Kilo and the ZWEIDREI group to design a completely green live/work space for the event. The environment was constructed inside an old empty factory building in South Berlin. It fostered creativity for six weeks and then was broken down and completely recycled.
Fashion4Home Unveils Bamboo Furniture Line, Lets Customers Vote On It
What if manufacturers could poll their consumers before making a product to see if people would want to buy it? It would cut down on surplus supply and the energy and materials needed to produce and ship it. That’s what one company, Fashion4Home.com, thinks, and they’ve implemented just such a voting system on their new website which launched today! We asked Fashion4Home’s co-founder and managing director, Just Beyer, about how the company is building eco-consciousness and waste reduction right into its supply chain and got some pics of their gorgeous and modern bamboo furniture line.
Students Create Intricate Furniture From Stacks of Recycled Pizza Boxes
What better way to get attention at a design fair than with an artfully designed booth? Taking this logic to heart, students at Germany’s Trier University of Applied Science turned late night pizza cravings into an ultra-unique booth at the imm cologne design fair. Their cardboard creation is made entirely from recycled pizza boxes arranged with the help of a computer program called Booth Generator.
ANDREA Reaches U.S. Houseplants to Filter Air
Hey, why not accelerate the natural ability of plants to filter the air around us? As we reported in November, ANDREA by Le Laboratoire does that. Now, this living air cleaner has entered the North American market, promising “to diminish the amount of toxic gases in your lungs and therefore to breathe more naturally and healthily.” ANDREA encases and enhances …
VIDEO: Inhabitat’s Green Renovation for the Comcast Town Contest!
You may (or may not) recall that last year we ran a virtual home makeover design contest with Comcast Town, where the grand prize was a sweet collection of new home entertainment electronics and a green room makeover by yours truly – the editor and (LEED-AP designer) of Inhabitat.com. The lucky winner of the Comcast Town contest was a certain Howard J Dudy (aka Richard), and we headed down to his pad to give him a sweet green home renovation. For anyone who was wondering what happened with this eco renovation, we are thrilled to say we FINALLY have our video of the project all edited down to a nice watchable 5 minutes for your viewing pleasure. Here is our snapshot of the eco-renovation – hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave a comment – we’d love to hear what you think!
READER TIP: How to Put Your LED Holiday Lights to Use Year Round
If you made the switch from traditional energy-sucking holiday lights to efficient LED ones this year, we applaud you. But we also know that they aren’t the cheapest thing in the world. That’s why were were absolutely delighted to receive this clever tip from reader SleepySyrup that lets you leverage your LED …
Soviet Fish Factory Retrofitted Into Beautiful Modern Home
Architect Zaigas Gailes Birojs has transformed an abandoned soviet fish factory in Kaltene, Latvia into a beautiful modern residence. Situated on the coast of an island in the Baltic Sea, the industrial-chic home is a stunning example of adaptive reuse that comes complete with a shiny nautilus-inspired bathhouse. The greenest buildings are those that are never …
IKEA Unveils New Line of Solar-Powered Lighting
Now there’s no excuse not to bring solar power into your life – in just a few weeks IKEA will be stocking their shelves with a new line of solar-powered summer night lighting! Dubbed SOLIG, the collection ranges from the practical to the decorative and features energy-efficient LED bulbs. Best of all, these new lamps are not only fun, funky, and earth-friendly — they’re affordable as well!
The New California Craftsmen Going Green in Stride
The New California Craftsmen have begun to make a name for themselves on the Los Angeles design scene, thinking up one-of-a-kind creations made from re-purposed scraps and found materials. Collaborators since first meeting in art school years ago, James Cerasani and Justin Murphy pride themselves on their uncanny ability to design just about anything from, well… anything! From bent wood pendent lights to sculptural steel plant walls, their portfolio is chalk full of inventive and inspiring pieces.
Greenspotlight: Hanging Streetlight Planters Appear in the Netherlands
Photo Credit: Ernie Buts
Some of design’s most satisfying moments occur when two seemingly unrelated objects are married effectively into something that is much more than the sum of its parts. That’s exactly what happened on a small pedestrian street in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, which was dotted with numerous lampposts and small planters that were serving more as clutter than as functional objects. Addressing the issue elegantly, design firm BYTR suggested combining the problematic obstacles into unique, floating streetlights with lush, living lampshades. The design, simply called the GREENSPOTLIGHT, was an instant hit. Who wouldn’t prefer these leafy light fixtures hanging overhead to awkward posts and pots blocking your way on a narrow path?
100% Recycled Cardboard Interior is Totally Tubular
The British menswear label Smithfield recently teamed up with furniture designer Peter Masters to create an eclectic and 100% recycled interior for their new Manchester shop. The dynamic space uses mailing tubes and shipping boxes as elements of digital-age styling, recycling them into incredible wall coverings, light fixtures, hanging sculptures, and clothing displays.
World’s Largest LED Project Completed in Abu Dhabi
If you think your neighbor’s holiday lighting spectacle is an exercise in excess, wait till you see the world’s largest LED project, recently completed in Abu Dhabi. Created by Asymptote Architecture with lighting design by Arup, The Yas Hotel is a wrapped with a sparkling shell composed of more than 5,300 diamond-shaped panels bristling with over 5,000 LED fixtures. The curvilinear field of lights is capable of running color-changing light sequences and can even display low-res three-dimensional videos.
Michelle Kaufmann Tours Twitter’s New Eco-Friendly Office
Michelle Kaufmann, one of our favorite design heroes, just took a tour of social media giant Twitter’s brand new eco-friendly office space in downtown San Francisco, and we’ve got all the sweet details and pics! We’re super jealous of the Twitter team’s plush sustainable furniture and fabulous design aesthetic conjured up by the very talented Sara Morishige Williams, who happens to be the wife of Twitter CEO, Evan Williams (@ev). Working for a hot internet company certainly has its perks – some of which are a bird’s eye view of San Francisco, eco-friendly and non-toxic finishes, playful and inspiring decorations, and your very own DJ booth.
LED Sparks Create Energy Efficient Light Sculptures
What if you could design your own lighting fixture in the time that it takes to unscrew a light bulb? That’s the premise behind Daniel Becker’s Spark system, a series of energy-efficient LED bulbs that can be linked together to form beautiful light sculptures.
Living Light Sculpture Maps Seoul’s Air Quality
Seoul, South Korea is filled with blinding light-up displays and headache-inducing neon screens. But residents of the city who want to see these displays put to good use need only take a trip to the World Cup Stadium’s Peace Park, which is where this beautiful Living Light sculpture blooms. The permanent outdoor pavilion and glass canopy projects up-to-the minnute information about local air quality, and locals can send it a text message to receive a report from anywhere.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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