4 Green Flooring Innovations

3 by Becky Striepe on June 1, 2011

bolefloors flooring

I'm not sure what it is, but I have run across lots of gorgeous examples of unusual, eco-friendly flooring lately!

Flooring might not be high up on your list of eco-friendly home decor, but that flooring choice matters. Just like any other wood or paper product, irresponsibly harvested wood contributes to deforestation, and in the case of Brazilian hardwood flooring it's linked to slave labor.

Looking to green your home's flooring? We've got some gorgeous, unusual eco floors for your viewing pleasure.

Images via Bolefloors

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bolefloors flooring

Hat tip to my little sister for hipping me to these gorgeous wood floors from Bolefloor. These floors are designed to get more planks out of each tree that's cut. Trees don't grow in perfect boxy shapes, so why should wood floor planks be perfect rectangles?

Blolefloor scans and cuts each tree into planks optimized for the tree's shape to create a floor that fits together like a beautiful puzzle. What I couldn't find information on was where Bolefloor sources its wood. It would be doubly awesome if they used sustainably harvested wood!

Images via Bolefloors

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reclaimed leather belt floor

We've written before about this gorgeous reclaimed leather belt flooring from Ting London. Ting uses hand-picked vintage belts and water based adhesive to assemble each panel.

Ting London also creates accessories like purses and wallets from reclaimed belts.

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reclaimed-wood-floor

DC-based Universal Floors creates hardwood flooring from...old hardwood flooring! They also source wood from old buildings like wooden barns and fences and reclaims old wood from the 1800s, which was logging's heyday in the area.

The reclaimed wood isn't 100% pristine, but that's part of its charm. It's got saw marks and nail holes that speak to its past life. Some homeowners pay a premium for artificially "distressed" wood, but this is the real deal!

Photo via Green Building Elements

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recycled rug

These beautiful Moroccan rugs from Viva Terra are made using recycled soda bottles. Available in a wide range of colors and styles, these recycled rugs would brighten up any room!

Have you seen any interesting flooring innovations? Tell us about them in the comments!

Dani

I needed a new floor for my basement. We didn’t want carpet and we didn’t want linoleum, but we had had ceramic in previously and more than half the tiles had cracked due to the uneven floor. We weren’t sure what to use until we found Place N’ Go flooring. It’s an interlocking floor tile so, no adhesives; we have a couple of small kids and were worried about VOCs, so we loved that it was free-floating. It comes in a bunch of decorative finishes (stones, woods, slates). Best of all, it’s made with old carpet backing. There website is http://www.placengo.com, but I think you can find them on the Home Depot website too. Oh, I almost forgot, it’s waterproof! Really perfect for basements.
http://yandex.ru truenam

А мне понравилось!
http://www.floorsasap.com/ Ronald Hart

These are some beautiful floors! Flooring certainly is getting inventive without losing style.