7 Ways to Make Your Home More Sustainable and Eco-Friendly | HauteCoton
Shopping for sustainable homewares and furniture? Keep this in mind!
So you’re redecorating your home and looking for eco-friendly decor and sustainable furniture? Well, conscious consumer, you’ve come to the right place!
We’ve rounded up the top 7 ways to make the switch to green decor so you can mind your environmental impact and have a stylish home at the same time.
The best part? By choosing to fill your home with handcrafted, sustainable, and eco-friendly homewares, you can add even more meaning to your living space!
- Choose organic fabrics and textiles.
As a mission-driven textile company, it’s no surprise that we’re big fans of organic fabrics and textiles!
Opting for organic bedding, curtains, table cloths, cushions, and other fabric home decor items is better for the environment, healthier for our farmers, and safer for your family than using conventional textiles.
Organic cotton, for example, uses far less water and is pesticide-free, which means there are no toxic chemicals seeping into and poisoning our lakes, rivers, and waterways.
The harmful effects of non-organic cottons and fabrics run deep into our daily lives, causing symptoms like irritated skin, rashes, and even headaches and dizziness. Avoiding the chemical residues trapped in conventional fabrics is a total no-brainer in our books!
- Support local designers.
Explore your neighbourhood to find local designers, artisans, potters, and woodworkers who handcraft eco-friendly decorative goods. Every city has so many amazing (and entirely unique!) furniture pieces and home decor items with incredible stories attached.
By shopping locally for handmade items, you can eliminate the energy and fossil fuel expenditure involved in long-distance shipping and save on unnecessary plastic packaging. Plus, shopping locally supports your local economy and helps small business owners like us feed our families!
- Reclaim furniture and architectural elements.
As the saying goes, one person's trash could be your finest ‘green’ treasure!
One of the main principles of sustainable and eco-friendly decorating involves keeping landfills free of reusable things. So wander through your local salvage yard and flea markets to find furniture (think headboards, tables, chairs, dressers, mirror frames, and bookcases) that you can ‘upcycle’ with colourful coats of paint, decoupaged images, stylish hardware, and fancy finishes.
Looking for bigger pieces? Have some woodworking skills? Why not personalize your home with furniture items made from reclaimed architectural elements like floorboards, beams, columns, windows, doors, and corbels.
Stuck for carpentry ideas? Check out this Pinterest collection!
- Vintage is chic.
Vintage decor is so IN right now! And good pieces are so easy to find!
Check out places like consignment shops, estate sales, auctions, flea markets, and even your attic, where long-forgotten family heirlooms usually go to collect dust. Look for pieces like antique coffee tables, writing desks, bedside tables, and armchairs that you can reupholster or give a quick coat of paint for a new lease on life.
Antiques bring warmth and soul to a stark modern interior. The best part? Not only are they cost-effective and sustainable options, but anyone can join the antique revolution. You don’t need to be an experienced carpenter to bring vintage decor back to life!
- Choose eco-friendly and sustainable wood.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for second-hand, opt for wooden furniture and decor items made from FSC certified materials that are sustainable to grow (meaning the trees can easily be replanted after they’re cut down).
For example, Bamboo grows quickly and can be replaced rapidly, making it an ideal renewable resource for wooden furniture pieces. Simply because they’re replaceable, fast-growing species like Pine trees also tend to be more sustainable than slow-growing trees like Oak.
DID YOU KNOW?
While teak and mahogany look beautiful, they’re actually two of the world’s most endangered wood species.
- Shop at eco-friendly stores.
Finding ethical and sustainable decor brands for your home can be a lengthy and frustrating task, which is why we’ve put together a ‘short list’ of some of our favourites we just know you’re going to love!
- HauteCoton - us, duh! Organic cotton sheets and bedding.
- Armadillo & Co - 100% handmade, fair-trade, sustainable rugs.
- West Elm - sustainably sourced and FSC-certified furniture range.
- Pottery Barn - sustainably sourced and FSC-certified furniture range.
- Speck & Stone - hand-thrown pottery and tableware.
- The Dharma Door - fair trade homewares and accessories.
- Cultivate greenery indoors.
Finally, who doesn’t love greenery? You can never have too many plants!
Greenery brings a relaxing ambience and freshness to your home, while also removing many of the harmful toxins and pollutants in the air. For a simple (and stylish) way to boost your sustainability status and purify the air in your home, add a houseplant or two to every room.
According to NASA, the top 10 houseplants for removing indoor pollutants are:
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1. Florist’s Chrysanthemum 2. Peace Lily 3. Red-Edged Dracaena 4. Snake Plant 5. English Ivy |
6. Cornstalk Dracaena 7. Barberton Daisy 8. Broadleaf Lady Palm 9. Lilyturf 10. Flamingo Lily |
DID YOU KNOW?
For optimal air-filtering, NASA recommends placing at least one plant per 100 square feet of your home or office space.
Did you enjoy this article? Discover more ways to support the environment on the HauteCoton blog and Instagram account!