Interiors

Italian food has firmly staked its claim as one of the world's most popular cuisines. A treat for the eyes, nose, and taste buds, it's easy to see why the kings and queens of pasta live such happy and healthy lives.

The sights and smells of the Italian countryside serve as inspiration for California based Nomine's line of soy candles. Pronounced "noh-mi-neh", Nomine "simply means 'name' in Latin and was chosen to celebrate the power of the meaning behind names."

Started by Nancy Covello as part of her dedication to alternative health therapies and a vegetarian lifestyle, all of Nomine's burning beauties are made from only soybean wax and essential oils - 100% free of petroleum ingredients found in "traditional" paraffin candles.

Our wax burns longer, cooler, and clearer than paraffin candle waxes, with little to NO carbon build-up. Soy wax does not produce black soot, which can leave residue on furnishings and walls. The wax is made predominantly from domestically grown crops supporting U.S. farmers and the economy.

Available in both jars and as tea lights, there are four scents in the Nomine collection, each representing one of the four seasons. You can buy each candle individually from the Nomine website, or as set of all four seasons (shown above, includes a box of matches). Each of the candles in the "Botanical Jar Collection" feature a beautifully applied image on their glass jars, adding both pleasant smells and sights to your own eco-abode.

After the blue jean insulation is fitted, the low-VOC paints have dried, and the solar panels are functioning, it's time to focus on the inside of your new home. With air quality indoors being rated as 4 to 5 times worse than outdoors and the fact that we spend 3/4th of our day indoors, the items that we choose to decorate are rooms with are just as important as our home's basic building elements.

Sunny days call for open windows and screen doors, allowing the outdoor breezes to flow freely and temporarily remove many of the toxins captured indoors. When the temperatures drop, sealing cracks around doors and windows help to keep those breezes out (in turn, keeping us from cranking up the heat).

When the sun is out and the breeze is blowing, a funky chicken or mouse doorstop from Refab UK adds a nice hint of color to any home. If the temperatures are low, a psychedelic snake will keep out those nasty drafts.

Made from vintage, reclaimed, and organic fabrics, each of Refab's items are unique. Refab UK's creations come flat, allowing you to fill them with rice, beans, herbs, or any personally-chosen mixture (the snakes are already filled with buckwheat). Very soon, Refab will be offering cushions, bags, and accessories on their website, all of which they already sell each weekend at the Greenwich Market.

Yet another fabulous shopping weekend looking at eco-friendly products for the house. We discovered the Eco-wise store, which got the Best of Austin 2007 award for the most eco-friendly, green store. Good for them!

We met a very animated, yet friendly sales guy giving us the scoop on eco-friendly/sustainable flooring, countertops and rainwater collection.

Basically, there are several types of flooring:

• Bamboo flooring, which is a fast growing type of grass that is easily grown and harvested, but shipped from China. Bamboo is hard, resilient and can be made into many different beautiful patterns. There's a variety of quality, so be careful what you pay for!
• Cork flooring, which is made from the bark of cork oak trees, and when stripped, does not destroy the tree. Advantages are that they are softer on the feet, especially in an area where you stand a lot (i.e., kitchen), and are recycled and have no VOCs (volatile organic compounds).
• Linoleum flooring, which is an all natural, non-toxic flooring made of linseed oil, produced by pressing seeds from flax, an easy to cultivate and abundant plant. They are usually warm and softer on the feet than cold tile flooring and come in a variety of colors. The problem is the look of it, in my opinion, as it has that 70s retro look that doesn't evoke beauty to me, but hey, beauty is the eye of the beholder :-).
• Local or reclaimed wood, specific to your area. Check out wood that has been taken from buildings that were demolished. You can sometimes find great deals in reusing it for your flooring, banisters, ceiling beams, etc! We are checking out using hickory, which is a near diamond hard wood that is found in Arkansas and milled locally in the Hill Country. It is a beautiful wood that can be stained to your desired color and will last decades.
• Stained concrete with fly ash, which is basically the mineral residue resulting from coal plants and when mixed your concrete, greatly reduces cement production and therefore eliminating much of the carbon emissions. They are quite fashionable in homes nowadays, as it can make your home look very modern by staining or creating patterns in the concrete. It also provide a large thermal mass for your home. A thermal mass is some sort of structure (i.e. stone) that keeps a constant temperature and thereby positively affects the temperature in your home. Concrete floors are relatively cheap, as they can be part of your foundation, and you can then stain it, and then instantly have your floor ready. You can easily repair them if they crack and are durable, but the only problem is that concrete can be hard on the feet and unforgiving if you drop something on the floor.

We also looked into concrete countertops with varying degrees of recycled glass in them or using sorghum or bamboo as a countertop as opposed to concrete. There are even countertops made of recycled paper that are even stain, scratch and heat resistant! You have a lot of options to create the look you desire.... MORE HERE...

Before the leaves start falling and the chilly temperatures set in, there's still time to get a fresh coat of paint on your house, garage, tool shed ... etc. Maybe that's why Portland-based Yolo Colorhouse just released their line of Green Seal-certified exterior paints.

Available in three different finishes (velvet flat, satin, semi-gloss) and sizes (quarts, gallons, fives), the "Outside" collection is zero VOC, 100% acryclic, and especially designed to handle full sunlight. A palette of 36 colors are arranged into six families - cloud, prairie, forest, ocean, desert, and canyon. It goes without saying that all of them are inspired by nature, along with mixing and matching seamlessly.

Ready to give your favorite exteriors a new coat? You can buy all colors and sizes from Yolo's interior and exterior collections online. Living in the United States? Find a nearby retail location to check out Yolo in-person (and save on shipping).

[via Apartment Therapy: Green]

RELATED:

+ Episode Six: Exterior Finishes

+ Exterior Finishes Workshop

Widely promoted customizable carpeting company InterfaceFLOR can now earn builders up to two extra LEED points via Innovation in Design credits.The "Innovation in Design" credits are awarded for products that have net zero greenhouse gas impact under the LEED Green Building Rating System.

"The availability of this new credit provides further incentive for manufacturers to reduce the environmental footprint of their products," said David Hobbs, president of InterfaceFLOR.

"We have long taken ownership of the impact of our products across their entire life cycle, so we invest to offset the impacts from the rest of our supply chain. We are pleased that the USGBC has taken this step to ensure recognition for qualified, third-party analysis of products' environmental claims."

Interface has two different lines - one for commercial usage and another for homes. Though we aren't working to achieve LEED certification while building and designing our own homes, the USGBC's new design credit system will help drive companies big and small to continue to advance their sustainable processes and products.

[via ENN]

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+ Interface Inc. at NeoCon

+ Episode Two: Foundation

Some may see steel as a cold, emotionless metal, but from an environmental sense, it has a lot of style and can be easily reused. Southern California's Twenty Gauge furniture is vintage steel from a fargone American era which has been fully restored to its former glory.

Available online, through select international stores, as well as the infamous Sundance Catalog, Twenty Gauge carries an unheard of variety of home and office pieces. Have a specific color palate in mind? All Twenty Gauge pieces can be custom-finished with your choice of colors and fabrics.

J.C. Hryb, owner and founder of Twenty Gauge and having emmigrated from France over two decades ago, has been a leader in the hand crafted, collector quality vintage furniture industry for over a decade. Twenty Gauge has been the first and only company to specialize in conserving, customizing, and making vintage steel furniture available to the public.

Just like other antique and vintage purchases, Twenty Gauge pieces are to be seen as heirlooms - objects of beauty and quailty to be handed down from generation to generation.

RELATED:

+ Keetsa Introduces ... The Keetsa Mattress (made with 100% recycled steel springs)

+ GreenBuildings News :: August 9, 2007 (Company Opts For Recycled Steel Frame Panels Over Wood)

The common idea is that anything sustainable or eco-conscious has to be sparse or spiritless. A whole host of companies have been started in just the past decade, bent on changing this outdated concept.

Nestled in the bohemianly urban city of Providence, Rhode Island, Balanced Design began as a simple idea while founder Melissa Cox walked the streets of Paris. Working as a logo designer gave her the power to find beauty in simple and abstract shapes.

Embracing the beauty of design; color, shape, and form; Balanced Design's home accessories (currently a striking collection of pillows made from hemp, linen, wool felt, and organic cotton flannel) prove that being green is an essential part of modern style.

Started by Marin County, California's Kimberly Rider, Atmosphera is a full-service, broad-range interior design firm. In particular, they specialize in working with homeowners, real estate professionals, and developers to create personal, custom designs.

"People are becoming aware that design is all around them, ...not only in retail environments, but on the web, on television and in the growth of home improvement”, says Kimberly. “They understand they have the power to change their environments. I built this company to provide the guidance and resources necessary to help clients realize their own sense of style."

A featured guest expert on HGTV's "Curb Appeal", Kimberly has also authored two green living books for Chronicle Books of San Francisco. The first, published in 2006, is titled "The Healthy Home Workbook" - which leads the way to creating a space that is friendly to the environment, reflects the owner's personal style, and won't break the bank. Released in February of this year is her second non-fiction book, titled "Organic Baby" - offering parents dozens of solutions that fit their priorities and their lifestyle—and their budget.

The range of services Atmosphera offers includes (but is not limited to): detailed landscaping; color consultation; space planning; light remodeling; and custom furniture, window coverings, bedding, and textiles. As a Co-op America Approved Green Business and a Registered Bay Area Green Business, Atmosphera is truly dedicated to making sustainable living beautiful and beneficial.

A worker-owned cooperative operating in San Francisco since 1997, Woodshanti constructs impeccable custom furniture, cabinetry, and built-ins of all kinds. Using responsbily harviested and reclaimed woods, they create lasting pieces that could easily become family heirlooms for generations to come.

Shanti (shän-tee) is the Sanskrit word for peace and symbolizes this effort towards harmony. This includes everything that we interact with or influence, from the materials we use, to the companies we support, and everything in between. Our concerns fall into three main categories: economic, ecological, and social.

Not only is the wood sustainable, but so are the finishes that are applied to it. Using nothing but natural oils nurishes the wood the way nature intended it to, as well as reducing the environmental impact of the pieces themselves and the company as a whole.

This five-person crew has featured their work at three past Green Festivals, and will again be showing at the San Francisco Green Festival this November. If you are headed to the upcoming West Coast Green event next month (Sept. 20-22), make sure to stop by their booth - they'll be displaying their pieces there also.

When browsing their online portfolio, each piece is specific whether it is made from FSC, SmartWood, reposonsibly harvested, or reclaimed/rediscovered lumber. Their custom kitchens and built-ins are deliciously impressive and inspire creativity just looking at them - my personal favorite is the kitchen and living combination.

We've just posted our detailed guide to all of the products, services, experts and links mentioned in Season One, Episode Seven: Interior Finishes. Nothing is more rewarding after all that hard work laying a foundation and erecting a solid structure than finally getting to add the finishes and flourishes that make a home uniquely yours. Join Kevin as he explores earth-friendly finishes that delight the eye while keeping your interior enviornment healthy and safe.

You'll also find descriptions of episodes One through Six as well as video clips in our Building Green TV section. And look for a new episode guide each week from now until the season finale.