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!

Read the rest of LAST CHANCE to Win a NYC Skyline Mirror Made from Recycled Records!

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Post tags: "green furniture", green mirror, lp mirror, new york city, recycled lp, recycled mirror, recycled records, upcycled mirror, wrecords

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 where they came from.

+ Gus* Modern

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Post tags: "green furniture", eco furniture, eco ottoman, eco-friendly furnishings, eco-friendly ottoman, Gus Modern, upcycle ottoman, upcycled, upcycled furniture, upcycled ottoman

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.

Read the rest of Recycled Paperpulp Cabinet by Debbie Wijskamp

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Post tags: "green furniture", cabinet, Debbie Wijskamp, eco furniture, eco-friendly furniture, furniture recycled materials, paper mache, paper pulp, Sustainable Materials

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 wood scraps and sawdust (and probably some monster blood and glue). Expect this chair on your front porch Halloween night, demanding all the sweet linseed oil you can muster. Happy creepy chair night, everyone, happy monster night.

+ Hongtao Zhou

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Post tags: "green furniture", environmental art, furniture design, halloween, Hongtau Zhou

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 latest green products at the fair.

Habitually Chic creates some online buzz for a new company at the fair this year, oomph!

Treehugger reveals an extremely wasteful aspect of giant expos: the booths — and shows us one example that is doing it with salvaged materials.

Re-nest spotted Ronel Jordaan’s stunning hand-dyed and hand-felted blankets, pillows, and curtains at the fair.

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Post tags: "green furniture", green design, green gifts, green home goods, green products, new york international gift fair, nyigf

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 week in the blog-o-sphere.

Notcot features a modular and biodegradable lounging chair made of plywood, and a stool made of chopsticks and steamer trays.

Core77 tells us about a hand-woven aluminum chair.

Re-nest is highlighting chairs made from recycled whiskey barrels.

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Post tags: "green furniture", eco friendly chairs, eco-friendly furniture, eco-friendly seating, green furniture, recycled furniture, Seating

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 home office. Inspired by vintage printing blocks, this chest is a throwback to a bygone era, but it fits perfectly into our modern day desires for beautiful, eco-friendly design. L-O-V-E it.

READ MORE AT INHABITOTS >

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Post tags: "green furniture", abc drawers, alphabet chest of drawers, alphabet drawers, eco furniture, kent & london, reclaimed wood, sustainable wood, unique dresser, unique furniture

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.

Read the rest of Scrap Lab: Furniture Made of Industrial Scraps

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Post tags: "green furniture", eco-friendly furniture, industrial scraps furniture, leftover scraps furniture, re purpose waste, reycled materials furniture, scrap lab, Sustainable Materials

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. Tots will enjoy wielding their crayons or markers and drawing directly onto the blank canvas of Tamago furniture, leaving their mark without consequence… much like Merci Design made their mark with this recycled collection, while leaving no environmental impact.

READ MORE AT INHABITOTS >

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Post tags: "green furniture", DMY Berlin 2009, eco-friendly furniture, green kids, Latvian furniture design, Merci Design, non-toxic furniture, recycled egg carton furniture, recycled paper furniture, Tamago collection, Tamago series

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.

Read the rest of Renewable Cork Eco-Furniture and Accessories by Corque

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Post tags: "green furniture", cork furniture, corque, eco furniture, portugal, renewable furniture

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 the “wear out then throw out” mentality often coupled with today’s mainstream furniture. Meant to last for generations, this modern spin on a rocking horse is destined to become a classic.

READ MORE AT INHABITOTS >

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Post tags: "green furniture", 21st annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair, Charlotte Ryberg, CHILDREN’S DESIGN, eco stool, ICFF, Johanna Strand, kids sustainable furniture, multifunctional kids furniture, stylish children’s stool, WHATCHAWANT Children’s Stool

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!

Read the rest of Palo Samko’s “Only Men’s” Chest with Top Secret Surprise

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Post tags: "green furniture", BKLYN Designs, only men's chest, palo samko, reclaimed wood, recycled furniture, top secret chest, top secret drawer

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

UHURU Booth 2009

Hugh Hayden showcases his colorful FUNiture

Recycled Sweater Stools by Sara Ebert (at the Pratt booth)

Buoy Chair by Evan Dewhirst (at the Pratt booth)

Read the rest of Inhabitat Reports from BKLYN Designs 2009!

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Post tags: "green furniture", brooklyn designs 2009, eco furniture fair, furniture fair new york, furniture festival, industrial design brooklyn, industrial design new york, industrial design students, inhabitat bklyn designs, inhabitat team, jessica mischner, jill fehrenbacher, local furniture fair, mike chino, olivia chen, yuka yoneda

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! Aiming to improve upon the not-so-user-friendly IKEA flat-pack experience, Way Basics is a beautiful line of eco-friendly, family-friendly furniture that makes flat pack assembly easy and fun. Made entirely from recycled paper, and requiring no fasteners or screws of any kind, Way Basics is the first green ‘no tools’ line of kids furniture on the market, and we can’t wait to check it out.

READ MORE AT INHABITOTS >

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Post tags: "green furniture", "sustainable furniture", eco childrens furniture, eco furniture, flatpak children’s furniture, flatpak furniture, flatpak kids furniture, Green Childrens Furniture, green kids furniture, ikea furniture, ikea kids, modular childrens furniture, modular kids furniture, recycled childrens furniture, recycled kids furniture, sustainable kids furniture, sustainible childrens furniture, way basics

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.

Read the rest of MILAN 2009: Designersblock Show

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Post tags: "green furniture", "sustainable furniture", eco furniture, green design, Milan Furniture Fair