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
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.
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Jellio Debuts their Xylophone Coffee Table
by Beth Shea, 12/19/09
The designers at Jellio have added a music table to their kid-friendly interior design collection. This working rainbow hued xylophone coffee table will provide eye candy for just about any room, and we’re sure that both kids and adults alike won’t be able to resist tinkering away on its colorful notes! Anyone up for a festive rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’?
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COMPETITION ENDS TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT!
We’re ramping up our coverage of eco-conscious NYC restaurants, book stores, boutiques and parks here on Inhabitat and we’re turning to YOU, our knowledgeable readers, to let us know which NYC green locales are most worth checking out. To offer you a little extra incentive for your advice, we’re giving away this cool, handcrafted NYC Skyline Mirror by WrecordsByMonkey made from recycled LPs to the person who gives us the best tip for an under-the-radar green destination in NYC (all five boroughs included). This twelve inch round mirror is upcycled from a recycled vinyl record in Brooklyn, NY and is sure to add a dash of green New York City style to your room.
TO ENTER THIS FABULOUS GIVEAWAY
1. SIGN UP FOR THE INHABITAT NEWSLETTER
2. Leave a tip below by TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT, telling us your favorite green destination in the Big Apple. Don’t forget to include the address, a link to the website and why you love it!
Upcycled Ottoman Made From Coffee Bags
This smart Upcycle Ottoman by Gus* Modern is made of repurposed jute bags that were once used to carry organic fair trade certified coffee. Produced in a limited quantity, each piece is unique and shows the branding and markings of the bags used in the process. No word if they still carry that wonderful coffee scent, but you can still identify which company produced the beans and …
Recycled Paperpulp Cabinet by Debbie Wijskamp
It never ceases to surprise us that much of good, sustainable design is also deliciously fun. Take Debbie Wijskamp’s paperpulp cabinets, for instance. They are what their name implies: drawers and shelves made out of pureed paper mache. And while I want to write sophisticated sentences with phrases like ‘materials reuse’ and ‘resource conservation,’ I just can’t help thinking about how glorious it must be, in a third-grade sort of way, to mash paper into furniture. Wijskamp’s process validates these daydreams.
Zombie Chair Ressurected By Hongtao Zhou
Zombie chair! Out for your wood scraps! Oozing sawdust and pure carnage! Designer Hongtao Zhou, who we found playing with ice, decided to get Holiday on a broken, abandoned chair he found on the streets in Madison, Wisconsin. The result: chair of the undead, risen from the swamp and demanding the chance to sit in your living room looking creepy. Zhou created the drippy effect with …
Links Roundup of the Week: New York International Gift Fair
The New York International Gift Fair was this week and we are sorry to say that we missed it, which is why we paid extra attention to the buzz around it — and just like Design Week, we are hearing that there is no shortage of good green design.
Mother Nature Network provides a round-up of the …
Links Roundup of the Week: Seating
Summertime is fun, but can be tiring — and all you need sometimes is to sit your tush down on some nice, comfy seating. And if you are like us, you want to be locating yourself on a nice bench or stool that is sustainably sourced and constructed. There is certainly no shortage of functional and eco-friendly furniture to be found out there, and this is what we noticed this …
MotoArt Recycles Airplane Parts Into High-Flyin’ Furniture
We’ve seen designers recycle airplane parts to create desks, tropical eco-hotels and a hostel, and now we can add couches and beds to the lofty collection! MotoArt is a team of designers who transform airplane parts into sleek, highly polished modern pieces of furniture. Based in Los Angeles, the 6 person design crew creates an impressive line-up of upcycled furnishings, sure to please every airplane enthusiast’s flight of fancy.
Sustainable ‘Alphabet Drawers’ from Kent and London
Kent and London know the ABC’s of sustainable design, and we’re singing the praises of their stylish, FSC approved, solid oak chest of Alphabet Drawers. These 26 letter drawers spell function for the entire household, offering a variety of uses from storage in a child’s playroom or bedroom, to easy filing for a …
Scrap Lab: Furniture Made of Industrial Scraps
Scrap Lab is a group of designers based out of Bangkok’s Kasetsart University’s Architecture program that creates fun and innovative furniture out discarded industrial scraps. The group makes an eclectic variety of furniture, from a funky shaggy lamp to a lounge chair with a quilt-block pattern — all masterfully re-purposing materials that were once considered waste. While their list of materials includes traditional materials such as wood and metal, it also includes less traditional items such as foam and rope. The purpose of the group’s work is to not only create physical products, but also to collect research on how discarded materials can be used effectively to design functional and aesthetically pleasing pieces.
Recycled Egg Carton ‘Tamago’ Furniture by Merci Design
We’re impressed with this ‘grade A’ upcycling of egg carton pulp into multifaceted children’s play funiture. The Tamago (Japanese for ‘egg’) furniture series by Latvian design team, Merci Design consists of seven soft-contour furniture forms which may be easily manuvered to create letter and number patterns for playtime learning and fun. …
Renewable Cork Eco-Furniture and Accessories by Corque
If you’re looking for unique home accessories that are environmentally friendly and have a clean and elegant design quality, you’ll want to check out Corque’s new collection crafted with – you guessed it – cork! From the fun Rolha candle holder which allows users to turn old bottles into candelabras, to funky Topography placemats, which bring rough terrain to the table, their “Designing Living Objects” line truly showcases the versatility of cork.
‘Whatchawant’ Stool: A Modern Spin on the Rocking Horse
Swedish designers Charlotte Ryberg and Johanna Strand created their Whatchawant stool as a fun piece of furniture that would inspire the imagination. They built this timeless piece, made of plywood, and containing no screws or superflous parts, with an eye on sustainability and a desire to do away with …
Palo Samko’s “Only Men’s” Chest with Top Secret Surprise
How many times have you found yourself saying, “I sure wish I had a hidden drawer to keep all of my top secret documents”? Carpenter and designer extraordinaire Palo Samko must have heard you, because he created just that–an elegant chest of drawers with a cleverly concealed compartment for storing your most treasured possessions. Each bureau is made to order by Samko, who uses reclaimed materials such as plywood, pine and buttery tan leather. This chest and its secret drawer are so sweet, you may want to have a backup location for your valuables because you’ll probably end up showing all your friends!
Inhabitat Reports from BKLYN Designs 2009!
Yesterday morning, the Inhabitat team gathered in DUMBO for the opening of BKLYN Designs our favorite locally-grown furniture design show. In its seventh year, the annual showcase of locally-designed furniture provides visitors with sampling of the best in the borough. We saw lots of our old green BKLYN favorites such as Brave Space and Uhuru as well as plenty of exciting new faces and designs — and were especially excited to see what this year’s Pratt students had in store for us. This year’s show, while smaller than last year, proves once again that functionality, eco-sensitivity and beauty can come together under a smart designer. If you live in New York City, we hope you make it out to DUMBO before the weekend is over, to catch our BKLYN Designs Editors’ Choice Awards – which will be given out on our green design walking tour at 3pm on Sunday. To entice you, here are some of our favorite designs from the show…
And don’t forget to check out our photo album >
Hugh Hayden’s FUNiture Tennis Ball Chair
Hugh Hayden showcases his colorful FUNiture
Recycled Sweater Stools by Sara Ebert (at the Pratt booth)
WAY BASICS Eco-friendly Flat-Pack Furniture
Love the idea of flat-pack in concept, but think the reality involves a frustrating wrestling match with an allen wrench and a cryptic set of Swedish instructions? Not so fast! …
MILAN 2009: Designersblock Show
Each year the Designersblock show at the Milan Furniture Fair brings together an incredible assortment of designs by a diverse range of designers, and their 2009 offerings did not disappoint. At this year’s show it’s back to basics with simple, raw and natural materials dominating the exhibition. Some of the designs appear to have come out of an afternoon spent in the woods or countryside. Others look like they were shaped by nature itself. Designers seem to have made it a point to give new value to worn out or overlooked objects and to work locally with traditional makers and manufacturers. Designersblock once again showcases some of the most relevant thoughts on today’s design.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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