Design Public

We are totally digging the designs over at dylan gold this week. Everything they make forces you to think “Hmmph, check out that little twist” or “Ha! That’s clever!” or “Why didn’t I think of that?” However, the piece that gives us the environmentally friendly happy glow is the one that reuses waste pieces of wood and puts them together into a beautiful piece of furniture. The Wasted #1 and Wasted #2 coffee tables are modern and clean, yet they pulled together from a patchwork of scraps, which is very apparent. It’s a great dichotomy. I also like the idea that each one they make will be dictated by which pieces they collect, and thus will be unique. There’s nothing like having a piece of furniture that no one else will ever have.

Wasted #2

Wasted #2

Wasted #1

Wasted #1

What makes it green? Materials may vary, but those shown are Europly, Marine ply, exotic and domestic hardwoods - scrap pieces that would otherwise have wound up in a landfill.
It is coated in water-based polyurethane.

For more information on where to buy and to see the entire collection, click here.

Some of you youngsters may never have seen one of these before. It’s called a rake. Before everyone looked like Ghostbusters and blasted the neighborhood peace away with their stupid, gas-guzzling, obnoxious leaf blowers (thanks neighbor across the backyard, who was leaf blowing THE WOODS for AN HOUR in the THE RAIN first thing this morning - idiot!), there were these things called rakes. You scrape the ground with them and they gather the leaves. Then, instead of blowing the leaves either (a) deeper into the woods (b) into the neighbors’ yard so that they can blow them back in a few days or (c) into the street to clog the gutters, you can gather the leaves into this thing called A COMPOST PILE or you can put them in PAPER LEAF BAGS and put them by the street so that the city can pick them up for mulching for these places called PARKS.

You can find these mysterious implements at places like Ace Hardware, Target, WalMart, Lowe’s, hell, CVS probably even has them this time of year. Let me know how it goes.

Labor Day is over. This is when I start to think about switching up my bedding to cozy up for the winter - I like my room cold with lots of blankets to snuggle up in, and I find it’s the easiest way to switch things up when I get bored. Since I am trying to incorporate being more eco-friendly into my life, I decided go for 100% organic cotton and thus browsed DP’s sustainable bedding section.

The easiest way to keep your bedding different is to keep a neutral duvet cover and shams, and switch out your throw pillows, quilt, and/or blanket. Unison’s Larch print provides such a graphic punch that I’m picturing it changing up my bedding, and then once I get antsy to change things up again up there, throwing it over the back of my sofa to give my living room a new look.

Yesterday I mentioned reading an article and I could not remember where I’d seen it. When I picked up today’s New York Times I remembered that it was in the Home section last week. Dan Phillips of East Texas builds homes from the castoffs of others. One of my favorite move was how he made this beautiful ceiling from leftover frame shop samples:

To view the entire article and the fascinating slideshow of his creations, click here.

photo by Michael Stravato for The New York Times

Today is recycling day in my ‘hood. This got me thinking about a man I think of as the ultimate recycler, Mr. Thomas Wold. Thomas has a fantastic feature in ReadyMade where he struts his creative repurposing stuff. The most recent project was inspired by this pile of salvaged pieces:

With a little magic Wold-dust, some Thomasvision, and some elbow grease, this was the result:

Bravo Thomas! To see the whole story and Thomas’s process, I highly recommend clicking over here. As a side note, ReadyMade magazine has always been cool, but lately the content has been off the charts. They feature so many ingenious and do-able D.I.Y. projects, as well as the hip and innovative people who come up with them. I especially love the features on creative types’ abodes. You can get a taste of ReadyMade right here.When I clicked over today, they had a two year subscription for the price of one special! To shop Thomas Wold’s other creations, click here.

Do you have anyone you’d like to nominate as the ultimate recycler? I just read about someone this past week who makes houses from recycled materials that reminded me of Rural Studio and Samuel Mockbee - there was an entire ceiling crafted from recycled framing store sample frame corners. As soon as I remember where I saw it, I’ll provide a link. If you know of any great links to creative recyclers or stories of your own creative recycling, please let us know in the comments!

photographs from Thomaswold.com; first photo by Thomas Wold, second photo by Markham Johnson.

Green Idea of the Week: This week after spotting a massive dust bunny under my sofa, I thought about how much work would have to be done to make my home photoshoot-worthy. It depressed the hell out of me. I looked around at the excess tables that don’t I don’t really have a space for, checked out some of my art that was out of rotation, realized I’d had two extra chairs sitting in my dining room that I couldn’t even walk around, and that I had USPS boxes stacked under my desk that needed to be stowed away. It seemed a major makeover was in order. Unfortunately, I was in too much of a Hoarders-inspired frenzy to take time out for “before” pictures, but in a nutshell, I rotated art and furniture in and out of different rooms (kids, don’t try this at home without some Clariton and a dusting cloth on hand), and felt like I had a whole new interior. My point is, you can completely redecorate and freshen up your home without consuming any more products (besides the aforementioned Clariton). Do you even know what you have stashed away in the nooks and crannies of your home?

That being said, it’s probably hypocritical to pick a favorite green product to tempt you with, but I’ll tell you why I feel comfortable recommending the STAACH Cain Collection Bench. It’s made by two hands with two tools right in New York, and it’s made from certified sustainable wood sourced in the U.S.A. The reason I thought of it after reflecting upon my makeover frenzy is that this is a multipurpose piece. You can rotate it in and out of any room in your home. In the living room, it’s a coffee or side table that doubles as an extra seat. In the kitchen, you can use it to boost you up to the high shelves. In the bedroom it can serve as a bench at the foot of your bed or as a nightstand. In the bathroom it can hold folded towels next to the bathtub. If you choose black, gray, maple, poplar, or white, it will go with almost any color palette.

So, what lazy green thing have I been up to this week? I signed up to follow AltUse on facebook. That way, when they tell me some wacky way to reuse something or a new way to use something simple and organic and it’s not crazy, it will stick in my head and I’ll waste less. It doesn’t really get much lazier than simply following something on Facebook, does it? I never claimed I was a go-getter.

Also, I really loved this article over at Styleture about Sustainable Interior Design. Check it out here.

Now, for the sustainable product of the week….drumroll please…

I LOVE the Vitra Cork Stools. I love that there are three shapes, though I kinda wish there were four, just to even things out. The top one reminds me of fungi, and the bottom two remind me of chess pieces. I think it would be really cute to have two pairs of them around a kids table, since they are only 13″ high. This is also good coffee table height, and end table height if they are next to a low modern sofa or daybed. I have to say, the pricetag forces me to think of these more like functional art in the form of sculpture, but when I pick my favorite products, I have no budget constraints holding me back.

So what makes these eco-friendly? Cork. Cork is a natural product harvested from trees in the Mediterranean basin of Spain and Portugal. While many people think cork is a new technology, it has actually been used for thousands of years. Unlike hardwood, the useful part of a cork tree is the bark, not the lumber of the tree itself. Cork is only retrieved from mature cork trees and is limited to being harvested in 9 year cycles so that the same tree can harvested for generations making it an environmentally friendly resource

Oops, I forgot to do anything lazy and green last week. I did not decrease my carbon footprint whatsoever, well, except I finally learned how to use my stupid digital thermostat. I had lost the instructions and the thing is surprisingly complicated. I miss my old school thermostat, to tell you the truth. It’s not easy being green sometimes. However, it’s not very hard either.

Anyway, it was hard for me to stop rinsing my dishes before stacking them in the dishwasher. It feels gross. Also, a word to the wise, if you have a bowl with bits of cereal or parmesean cheese stuck to it, you’re going to have to give it a little soak or a wipe in order for it to get clean; your dishwasher is not a miracle worker, however, press on! In Georgia, now that we are conserving water so well, the price of water went up in order to make up for the water company’s lack of profits, which is really bad karma for the water company, but anyway, the less water used, the better and even the cheaper. If you aren’t concerned about water usage yet, go pick up this month’s issue of GOOD magazine. Personally, I’m not real anxious to drink my own urine anytime soon, so I’m happy to do my part to conserve water.

Onto more fun things: The Product! This week I looked under my nose to see if any sustainable products here on DP were calling my name and low and behold, it was the Unison Larch Organic Blanket. This blanket is 100% organic cotton. I love the photographic quality of the image and how striking it is. While I think this looks great in the styled product shot, I can also see it used more as a spread, and in my own home, I think I would drape it over my super boring neutral sofa in order to give it some oomph. This also makes a good wedding present, so long as you have a good idea of the couple’s taste. Personally, I am usually way too disorgainzed to get to order from the registry before all that’s left is a $150 knife from Crate and Barrel.

Well, it seems everything Artecnica is catching my eye this month, even if I cannot seem to ever spell the company name correctly on the first pass! I’m a wicker FREAK, and even I never would have thought to put it together with a recycled scooter tire in a million years!

Tires are pretty much the bane of the planet’s existence. When Lake Lanier was so empty during the drought last year, way too many of them were discovered dumped in its basin. Have you ever seen a tire fire on the news? They rage on for days. I say, whatever uses we can find for used tires, go for it.

While I’m not sure how I would truly use this as a bowl, I picture a bunch of them arranged into some fabulous composition on a wall. A straight line of them would be great in a loft space with high ceilings, and a random arrangement on a smaller wall would be very graphically striking.

Here’s the rest of the scoop on what makes them green, and also how they help to alleviate poverty in Vietnam:

transNeomatic is designed by Estudio Campana and handcrafted by skilled artisans from rural Vietnam. Through Vietnamese non-profit organization Craft Link, Artecnica collaborated with Hai Tai rattan weavers and Hmong women weavers to create each piece. Disadvantaged Vietnamese youths were also enlisted to assemble the totes, providing them with artisan training and a framework by which they could establish sustainable livelihoods.

transNeomatic is a conceptually innovative container bowl crafted from a repurposed scooter tire and natural wicker. Each tire is thoroughly steam-cleaned and finished in an eco-friendly sealant. transNeomatic comes with an optional handwoven hemp cover that slips over its rubber base. Each piece is packaged in a reusable drawstring tote.

I read with interest about GreenPrint this week, a company selling software that cuts down on the amount of ink and paper used in printing. The story’s angle was more about how to go from a great idea to a successful venture, but regardless of how far along the business end has come along, the idea is great, and apparently, the latest version of the software has ironed out a lot of hiccups they encountered along the way. For more information, click here. Of course, the lazy version of this is to at least print on the front and back of paper, and to keep a paper recycling bin next to your printer.

In the right under my nose category of living greener this week, I pick the Artecnica TaTu Coffee Table as the product I am currently coveting. Besides the fact that it can break down into a large bowl, tray, and basket, and that it is handcrafted by South African artisans, here’s what makes it green:

Artecnica’s Design with Conscience® products spotlight the design process from concept to creation, calling recognition to the value of artisan labor and craft techniques. In creating these products, Artecnica uses eco-friendly materials and production methods, promoting manufacturing processes that are environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable.

If you dig this, be sure to check out the TaTu Side Table and the TaTu Stool.