Paula Mitchell Bentley | greenUPGRADER

Grow Some Balls…Eco Ball Chairs That Is!

by Paula Mitchell Bentley on March 24th, 2009

Who wouldn't like a chair called "Let's Grow Some Balls"? This cool design is by Doreen Westphal of Krejci. I love it's two fold environmental aspects of being made from recycled plastic and housing plants. Another green aspect to the chair is that you don't have to get rid of it when you tire of it's style and design. Instead, you can just replant and give the chair an entirely different feel.

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Posted in Home+Decor 2 Comments

Sleep it Off Inside a Wine Cask

by Paula Mitchell Bentley on March 15th, 2009

Ever found that you drink a little too much on holidays? Now you can sleep it off inside of a wine cask in these repurposed 14,500 litre casks turned into hotel rooms. The Hotel de Vrouwe van Stavoren in the Netherlands offers you the opportunity to choose from one of their four upcycled rooms that are amazingly comfortable looking considering their start in life.

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Posted in Architecture, Travel 38 Comments

Upcycled Cardboard Sculptures

by Paula Mitchell Bentley on March 7th, 2009

These amazingly realistic, lifesize sculptures are made with nothing more than cardboard and glue. Chris Gilmour is an artist whose creativity has been captured by the idea of upcycling. He literally picks up cardboard boxes from the street and takes them into his studio to be transformed into incredibly beautiful sculptures.

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Posted in Art 5 Comments

Green UpGrade Your Kid’s Toybox

by Paula Mitchell Bentley on March 6th, 2009

This toy recycling truck is made in the United States from recycled milk jugs. How’s that for an eco-friendly toy for all of our green kids out there? The company making this toy, the aptly named Green Toys Inc., produces a whole line of toys from these used milk jugs that contain no BPA, lead [...]

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Posted in Fun+Games 3 Comments

Repurposed Aircraft: Jumbo Hostel

by Paula Mitchell Bentley on February 24th, 2009

This decommission jumbo jet is a 747-200 which was built in 1976. It was last operated in 2002 and was purchased in 2006 by the hostel’s owner. It has 25 rooms with 85 beds in total. Most contain 3 bunk beds each except for the luxury suite in the cockpit.

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Posted in Architecture 5 Comments

Green UpGrade Your Kids Wardrobe

by Paula Mitchell Bentley on February 24th, 2009

Environmental awareness is finally “popular”. What better way to spread the word than by plastering our kids with our messages? Everyone checks out cute kids…why not make their shirt something worth reading rather than another ad for Dora the Explorer or Disney? Many of the shirts available for sale have part of the proceeds go [...]

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Posted in Clothes+Accessories 0 Comments

Green UpGrade Your Kids Bookshelf

by Paula Mitchell Bentley on February 18th, 2009

An author named Jen Green has made it easy (and super affordable at $6.99 each on Amazon) to teach our kids how to go green. She has a series of books, “Why Should I…?” illustrated by Mike Gordon helping to answer those non-stop questions that kids always ask. These books not only say [...]

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Posted in Books 4 Comments

Looking for Love in all the Right Places

by Paula Mitchell Bentley on February 11th, 2009

Photo by Flickr User Marina Cast. Green and single on Valentine’s Day again??? Don’t give up all hope just yet and confine yourself to a life of a lonely, middle-aged ecosexual with a house full of cats, bamboo and organic vegetables. There are many dating sites on the internet made just for people like you. Dating [...]

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Posted in Shopping+Services 0 Comments

Charlotte Hughes-Martin aka Milk Bottle Banksy

by Paula Mitchell Bentley on February 4th, 2009

Milk bottles have long been recycled, even before it was expected or regarded as cool. The milk man has been delivering milk to homes for decades — dropping off full bottles and taking the empties. Just this fact in itself makes milk bottles intriguing to me. They have been reused over and [...]

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Posted in Art 5 Comments

Poop Management — Cloth or Disposable?

by Paula Mitchell Bentley on February 2nd, 2009

Or is there a third option that is easier for parents than cloth and better for the environment than disposables? Matt touched on these flushable diapers in his piece aptly titled Green Diapers: A Lot of Sh*t to Think About in which he examines all the pros and cons of both cloth and disposable [...]

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Posted in Clothes+Accessories 1 Comment