Eco Friendly Garden Furniture

When choosing eco-friendly garden furniture, is it enough for it to be FSC certified? Should we be sticking to local materials or choosing garden furniture made from salvaged or recycled materials?

Is it more sustainable to choose garden furniture made from local materials, or garden furniture made from salvaged wood?

These elegant loungers are made from salvaged teak

The sustainable furniture option does not have to mean compromising on design

The teak will age elegantly over many years to a soft silver grey.

No need to oil, wax or varnish.

Sustainable garden furniture choices can be a minefield as there is no one right answer. Here are some simple tips to keep in mind when making your decisions...

1/Buy garden furniture made from locally produced wood

There is no excuse for buying teak furniture (even if it is sustainably forested) when so much environmental damage is done shipping it halfway around the world. Choose English Oak from local managed woodland, or if you must have teak, choose furniture made from salvaged or recycled wood

2/Buy recycled garden furniture, or garden furniture that is made from reclaimed materials

Furniture made from recycled or reclaimed materials is clearly the most sustainable option. Garden Boutique have a great choice of stylish recycled metal garden furniture and wooden furniture made from reclaimed wood. These materials are already in circulation and so have a limited impact on the environment.

3/Avoid oil based paints and stains.

Choose wood that is suitable for outdoor use without treatment such as oak, sweet chestnut, larch, western red cedar or douglas fir. If you must colour your wood, choose water-based products so that any wooden furniture can be recycled or composted at the end of its useful life.

This garden furniture is made from 100% recycled aluminium. 

Making this garden furniture reuses waste aluminium and consumes only 5% of the energy needed to produce aluminium from ore.

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Furniture by Pinch

Top: PONTUS. A generously proportioned partner desk combining walnut, oak and painted finish with cable management system and hidden router/hard drive storage built-in. The pigeon-hole unit is available as an option and can be placed directly on the surface of the desk or wall mounted as shown.Above: CLYDE. A 3-legged side table with a turned solid wood top and triangular shelf below. Available in 3 finishes; stained black Elm, Elm and Walnut/Elm combination.Furniture by Pinch

Above: SOREN. The Soren light makes a virtue of its frame, which is apparent through its banana-fibre outer when illuminated. The multi ringed copper frame contrasts with the organic look and feel of the shade itself.

Above: TWIG WALL PANELLING. Twig panelling is made from solid Ash forest thinnings and is designed as sculptural wall finish for large interior walls through to smaller alcoves. The panels are hand built to order and can be made to bespoke dimensions. Recommended for interior use.

Above: BRODY. A club chair with refined proportions offering a wide seat and gentle recline whilst assuming a modest footprint.

Top: PONTUS. A generously proportioned partner desk combining walnut, oak and painted finish with cable management system and hidden router/hard drive storage built-in. The pigeon-hole unit is available as an option and can be placed directly on the surface of the desk or wall mounted as shown.Above: CLYDE. A 3-legged side table with a turned solid wood top and triangular shelf below. Available in 3 finishes; stained black Elm, Elm and Walnut/Elm combination.

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Modern Minimalist House Design Inspiration

This is another modern and minimalist house design for your inspiration of planning your home. This house façade processed consist of playful square sectors, ordered forward and backward. One of wall part intent to made higher, like tower and decorated with wooden pergola, so become attractive accent.

Almost of front house surface dominated with wide windows and simple covered passageway, in order to get wide view and maximize natural light, beside get fresh air circulation. Foyer is for formal guest, informal guest (friends) received in family room that unity with dining room and pantry. This house has unique area, inner courtyard with two floor void and skylight. Beside of that there is open area in first floor, consist of sitting room and water fountain, surrounded with foyer, stairs, dining and family room, only partitioned with fold glass door.

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FreeGreen: Bringing Green Design to the Masses!

Solar Decathlon blew us away, but we were particularly fascinated by a stunning Solar House from Cornell University. This team brought a beautiful zero-energy home to the mall in Washington, D.C., and had just launched ZeroEnergy Design, a home design firm focused on zero-energy design. Continuing their momentum as green home design gurus, two of the Cornell Solar Decathlon team members have just launched a new endeavor aimed at bringing custom green design to the masses through an innovative business model called FreeGreen. Started by David Wax and his partner Ben Uyeda, FreeGreen is making green home designs free to everyone!

FreeGreen provides a selection of green home designs for free, with a range of styles from traditional to modern. While the basic designs are free, homeowners can take the process even further and customize their designs for an additional (and very reasonable) fee. The cost of the design process, and of the free home plans, is kept to a minimum through partnerships between FreeGreen and green building product manufacturers – paid placement from product manufacturers.
As homeowners consult with FreeGreen for customized designs, they are introduced to healthy, energy-saving, sustainable products that are sponsors of FreeGreen’s eco-enterprise. It is a win-win-win collaboration that introduces people to green building principles and products and allows consumers on any budget to own a custom designed, green home.
Ultimately, FreeGreen is about providing people with the options and knowledge to make informed decisions. Green building products are widely available but sorting through the myriad choices, or even knowing where to look, is a daunting task for most new homeowners. Freegreen is solving this problem by offering excellent green building consult at little cost to the consumer. According to the founders, “The goal at FreeGreen is not to produce the greenest possible home but rather to provide a variety of different home plans that allow people to create homes that fit their lifestyles in a responsible and equitable manner.”
FreeGreen is launching this month starting with several great designs including our favorite, The Suburban Loft, a modern home suitable to all climates. Characterized by open floor plans and high ceiling loft spaces, this design will be available in a range of sizes to fit many lifestyles and landscapes.
We think FreeGreen is a great idea and a wonderful way to bring information, innovation and green design choices to everyone – “because green design should be accessible to all.” We are thrilled to announce the launch of FreeGreen!

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Hillside Residence is a Sustainable Gem in the Marin Hills Read more: Hillside Residence is a Sustainable Gem in the Marin Hills | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

For almost as long as they’ve known each other, Scott and Tracy Lee have been designing and building the Hillside Residence, a sustainable gem in the Marin Hills. The house represents their personal merger — or marriage — as much as that of their professional talents. Scott is the principal at SB Architects and Tracy is vice president of spa development for Auberge Resorts. Their house, which was featured in the AIA San Francisco’s Marin homes tour, blends modern and green architectural influences with a spa’s love affair with wood.

Built into a hillside, as the name implies, the house consists of four small stories, totaling just 2,116 square feet. There’s a basement, a floor with a guest bedroom, a child’s bedroom, and a tiny nursery. The master bedroom gets its own level, and capping it all off is the living area, whose height earns it an exquisite view of woods and the San Francisco Bay.

A porch swing greets you at the entry to Hillside Residence.

Then again, it’s hard to say where the house’s square footage ends, because it moves so seamlessly between airy indoor spaces and partially enclosed outdoor spaces — which include a patio, a couple of outdoor showers, and an almost entirely enclosed porch, complete with a fireplace for weathering Marin County’s coolfoggy nights.

Did I mention the wood? If you’ve ever doubted that recycled wood can be lush, and even alluring, the Hillside Residence will banish that thought. All of the home’s abundant exposed wood is Douglas Fir, salvaged from a single seed plant in Idaho. It’s the DNA of the house’s character, and links it to its surroundings, connecting it visually with the redwood porch swing in the portico to suggest Mill Valley’s logging past.

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Modular House in Madrid, Spain by A-cero architecture Studio

Directed by Joaquin Torres, the first luxury modular houses that located in Madrid, Spain, was finished by A-cero architecture Studio, introducing a modular architecture product based on the principles of the Industrialized Construction. It applies the same ‘production line’ standardisation procedures to the construction, modularity, technology, quality control and time spaces that are applied to other many fields of human activity. The Modular House benefits from the speed and cost advantages of assembly line production. Producing in-factory and assembling on-plot means that within just 3 months a house design can be enjoyed after signing. More specialized labour can increase productivity and quality as well as reducing the costs.
A-cero plan to roll out the offering of bespoke modular houses offering decoration as equipping as an extra service, in the same way you would receive a boat. Example prices are divulged as 69,000€ for an 82 sq m house as standard, or fully decorated and equipped for 85,000€. Joaquin Torres A-cero architecture Studio also advised that this system need not be exclusive for residential construction – schools, offices, retirement homes or student residences could also benefit from this modular buildings technique
The project is unique from the typical prefabricated house in offering luxury but distinct from Daniel Libeskind’s recently revealed luxurious prefab (Libeskind Villa, the German-made Future House) in offering luxury at an affordable price, not simply for the economic elite.

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Modular House in Madrid, Spain by A-cero architecture Studio

Directed by Joaquin Torres, the first luxury modular houses that located in Madrid, Spain, was finished by A-cero architecture Studio, introducing a modular architecture product based on the principles of the Industrialized Construction. It applies the same ‘production line’ standardisation procedures to the construction, modularity, technology, quality control and time spaces that are applied to other many fields of human activity. The Modular House benefits from the speed and cost advantages of assembly line production. Producing in-factory and assembling on-plot means that within just 3 months a house design can be enjoyed after signing. More specialized labour can increase productivity and quality as well as reducing the costs.
A-cero plan to roll out the offering of bespoke modular houses offering decoration as equipping as an extra service, in the same way you would receive a boat. Example prices are divulged as 69,000€ for an 82 sq m house as standard, or fully decorated and equipped for 85,000€. Joaquin Torres A-cero architecture Studio also advised that this system need not be exclusive for residential construction – schools, offices, retirement homes or student residences could also benefit from this modular buildings technique
The project is unique from the typical prefabricated house in offering luxury but distinct from Daniel Libeskind’s recently revealed luxurious prefab (Libeskind Villa, the German-made Future House) in offering luxury at an affordable price, not simply for the economic elite.

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Wall Decoration

Nothing in your home says more about you than the art you have on your wall. The reason for this is unlike your sofa or any other piece of furniture, there are no practicalities to consider when choosing wall art- it is merely a case of what you like. Whether you chose your art for the composition and colours that handily match your room or because it had some personal relevance, everything thing on your wall tells a little story. Therefore it is wise to give a little thought when it comes to choosing some, be a wild and wacky as you want just be sure it feels relevant to you. If a picture of a smoking dog playing pool dominates your front room, what does this say about you? If you have no art at all, are you a blank canvas?The brilliant thing about art is you can go as pricey or as cheap as you want, you can even paint some yourself- it is available to everybody and it still the quickest way to bring some life to a tried old wall.For some Georgian or Victorian splendour, you should really emphasis the frame. A huge oversize guilt frame with shapes that match your cornicing is what you are looking for. Fill it with either traditional country scenes or even better would be a family portrait. Scouring junk shops and markets might just lead to bargain if this is your style so spend an afternoon having a look before you pay top price in art dealers.The huge popularity of the modern-retro look means there is lots of discount wall art around in the style of Pop artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. The simple compositions of such pieces coupled with the blocks of bright colours mean they are easily the most cost effective way of introducing some flair to a space whilst allowing you to impress your friends with by referencing an important period in art history. Increase the impact for next to nothing by pairing these pieces with a brightly coloured roller blinds.

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Modern Furniture Wall Units and Entertainment Centers by Momentoitalia

Offers contemporary entertainment centers yourself and stay it clean with these modern wall units, compartments for television and cabinets on the walls. This wall unit furniture ideas by Momentoitalia belongs in the decorating living room with striking marriage of wood and intricate designs. Modular wall unit system can be customized to your own taste to make modern compositions for decorate your plasma tv or modern wall units with the Italian design and high quality furniture. Colors, commonly used for modern wall units and entertainment centers are wenge (dark oak) or light oak wood veneer or white and black lacquered matt or high gloss. Frosted, clear or painted in matching black and off-white color glass is also used for highlighting a modern look of your wall unit. This collection are available for nearly every conceivable space and there are those that even provide fireplaces and home heating living room wall units. 
[Momentoitalia]

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wall unit magnificent piece

This wall unit is a magnificent piece of art created in the center of Mr. Gonzales’s family room. He is a star from the big leagues and his preference was using a nice refreshing paneling unit to bring beauty to his main area to enjoy when watching games in a 65” top of the line LCD flat screen TV, with friends and family.

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Wall An elegant

An elegant wood wall unit that incorporates marble countertops and glass cupboards. The many drawers make it a very useful piece of furniture, being a great design element for your living room or dining area.

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Desiron Arte

Available in Dark Walnut and Grey Oak, the Arte Console has a solid wood case with three touch latch doors providing tons of storage space for all your TV and stereo equipment. The interior is fitted with adjustable shelves which can be moved according to the size of your stereo and home theater components. The shelves and case are also fitted with concealed grommet openings to manage all your cords and wires in an invisible way. A great looking contemporary media storage console and TV stand made from wood from sustainable forests that will look fantastic in your home.

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Desiron NoHo TV Stand Console

Made from sustainably harvested wood, the NoHo TV stand and media storage cabinet has a sophisticated form mixed with functional elements. It’s four sliding doors cover a concealed area for storage. Each door opens to reveal adjustable shelving and concealed grommet holes tom invisibly manage your cords and wires.

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Zita Modern Media Stand

In the manufacture of this TV stand only legally harvested and forested lumber is used, no lumber from ecologically significant, socially valuable, specially protected or uncontrolled forests. The Zita Media Stand provides four bays for audio/video equipment and a top surface large enough for a Plasma or LCD TV up to about 50in size. Excellent for surround sound systems, the center divider is recessed to allow a small center-channel speaker to be ideally placed under the TV and it has storage for more than 120 DVDs on its four outer shelves.

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Zacara Costes Sable TV Stand

Constructed of select hardwoods, walnut and zebrano veneers, the Zacara Costes TV Stand in Sable will be a wonderful addition to your living room. This modern TV stand is extremely functional with plenty of drawer and shelf space and equipped to handle al your electronics with a ventilated back and grommet for electrical cords. THe Zebrano veneers and rich Sable finish turn this TV stand into a great-looking piece of furniture.

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Life Modern TV Storage Wall Unit by Acerbis International

Wall units are most often made of different species of wood such as cherry, oak or maple. Sometimes wood veneers are also used in the creation of modern wall units with adjustable shelves. But apart from employing wood, glass and metal is also often used in wall units’ manufacture.

Here are some modern TV entertainment / storage wall units from Acerbis International of Italy.The Life from designer Roberto Monsani is shown here as a modular storage wall system, and as an entertainment wall unit with combinations of finishes, shelves, and cabinets vastly different in appearance.Spacious and stylish shelves may help you beautifully arrange your books, family photos and extensive collections of DVD and CD.

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