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Green Products
Staff -- Interior Design, 6/1/2003 12:00:00 AM
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Spring 2003 |
| accessories • building materials • fabrics & wallcoverings • flooring • furniture |
| kitchen & bath • lighting • office • outdoor furniture • seating |
| Spring 2003: Furniture |
Fall 2002 Spring 2002 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 |
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Happily ever after Josh Shear and Jen Carlson are too old to believe in the Big Bad Wolf. Just the same, the husband-wife team chose Straw, Sticks & Bricks as the name for their business, a designer resource for sustainable materials. "When we were building our own straw-bale house in Nebraska, we had to go to all those big-box hardware stores, and we found it difficult to locate less toxic options," Carlson recalls. After a substantial amount of legwork, she and Shear amassed in-depth information and an impressive array of green materials—and decided to set up shop. Staples such as TimberGrass's bamboo flooring, AmCork's cork wall covering and flooring, and Sandhill Industries's recycled-glass tiles are well represented. But Carlson and Shear have also unearthed some interesting surprises. For an alternative to fiberglass insulation, we like Bonded Logic's Ultra Touch, made from recycled post-industrial denim. American Clay Enterprises's Clayote is a plasterlike wall finish made from clay, aggregates, and natural pigment. Dakota Burl, a cabinet and tabletop material from Phoenix Biocomposites, started life as sunflower-seed hulls. And what of the dream house that inspired Straw, Sticks & Bricks? Carlson admits that it's still a work in progress: "Window trim has kind of taken a backseat to business." Visit their site.
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Ruckstuhl Handcrafted in remote eastern Switzerland, Nursa carpets are woven of wool and lamb fleece—the latter imparts unbelievable softness underfoot. The rugs come in custom sizes up to 9 feet 11 inches wide. Available in natural white or dark blue. Visit site.
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The Designtex Group Developed in partnership with Steelcase, the Environmental Impact line delivers sustainable seating and panel fabric that deserve notice—especially since none of the nine recycled polyesters require chemical backings. Besides utilizing recycled materials and state-of-the-art environmental manufacturing processes, the fabrics offer naturally inspired patterns and saturated colors. And price points are right on target. One of our favorites is Prairie. Woven by the famed Pendleton Mills, this polyester crepe has the luxurious hand and luster of wool. Visit site.
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Poesis Tired of disposable design, Robert Bristow and Pilar Proffitt vowed to design a chair that wouldn't be thrown away. Their initial prototype Pulp chair couldn't be—it weighed nearly 300 pounds. Substantially slimmed down, the current version is definitely heirloom-quality, made of maple and an eco-friendly, suede-soft compound of recycled newspapers and wax. 649 Litchfield Road, Norfolk, CT 06058; 860-542-5152; poesisdesign.com .
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InterfaceFlor A longtime staple in the corporate world, modular carpet tiles are finally coming home. Spring Planting is one of the most innovative. While the high-contrast stripes caught our notice, our interest was sustained by the material, a tightly looped linear weave of renewable and 100 percent compostable Ingeo fibers. Cargill Dow produces Ingeo by fermenting natural plant sugars. The result is a stain-resistant material that performs as well as synthetics. Visit site.
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Pallas Textiles Tracing the etymology of text back to its original meaning, to weave, graphic-design professor Jan Baker attended lectures and poetry readings and translated her notes into visual verse. These markings, incorporating prehistoric symbols and foreign alphabets, inspired a collaboration between Baker and textile designer Lori Weitzner. Jottings, a collection of Terratex upholstery fabrics, is the impressive result of their partnership. Visit site.
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Oceanside Glasstile Boasting 85 percent recycled content, iridescent art-glass Casa California tiles reinvent discarded bottles. This pinwheel pattern combines 8-inch square Casa California tiles in pewter and 2 1/2-inch square Haiku Tatami Deco tiles in spruce. (Haiku Tatami Deco tiles have no recycled content.) Visit site.
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Len-Tex Wallcoverings Say what you like about vinyl—its remarkable durability still gives the material a marked advantage in the wall-coverings market. Len-Tex has been interested in developing an alternative since the late '80s but has held off introducing a product that couldn't match or out-perform type II vinyl. Surface IQ does just that. It's also free of plasticizers, chlorine, and heavy-metal films, inks, and backings. Currently available in Asia (shown) as well as Jaipur and Urbana, with more to follow. Visit site.
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Sundara Painting
Sick of paint fumes? So were decorative painters Lela Shields and Alexandra Wagner. In response, they developed a line of low-odor, water-based and clay-based wall paints made from citrus-peel extract, essential oil, tree wax, lead-free driers, and natural pigments, among other naturally derived materials. The nontoxic products have no VOCs and are low-allergenic. 526 West 26th Street, Studio 803, New York, NY 10001; 800-656-6015.
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Q Collection
Though environmental consciousness isn't sweeping the high-end residential market yet, Anthony Cochran and Jesse Johnson are making a difference with their sustainable-chic furnishings. Interior designer Cochran shaped the look of the first line. Curves includes voluptuous variations on classics—take the Charles coffee table, derived from a Chinese pagoda table, and the Joe chair, which combines wing and club types. Johnson, who holds an MBA and MEM from Yale University, researched environmentally sound materials. Joe comprises natural latex foam, hemp and twine webbing, organic cotton muslin, metal springs with high recycled content, and a maple frame. Finishing touches include Q's organic, low-impact dyed cotton upholstery and formaldehyde- and polyurethane-free stains. Phone 212-431-4001 for information. |
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