greenUPGRADER » Furniture

Spotted: Stunning Suitcase End Table

Becky Striepe — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:00:49 +0000

Confession: I am an old suitcase fiend! I've got a little collection of vintage suitcases that I use for craft markets and as decoration in my studio. So! You can imagine how happy I was to run across the photo above of a gorgeous vintage suitcase end table at Cupcakes and Cashmere.

It looks like she just stacked these up and put a vintage mirror on top to provide an even surface for her lamp. That's especially cool, because it means you don't have to alter your precious vintage suitcase to make that table. When you're ready to redecorate, you can just unstack and use them for something totally different!

Spotted: DIY Succulent Planter Table from Pallets

Becky Striepe — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:00:36 +0000

Succulents are a great way to add green to small spaces. They don't need a lot of space to grow, and they're low maintenance, too! So, of course, I swooned when I ran across this gorgeous, outdoor table featuring a built in succulent mini-garden.

Far Out Flora combines two things that we love: plant life and a pallet project to create this rustic table. The instructions for the pallet table are a scaled-up version of the adorable little succulent coffee table she made previously. You can check out the pallet table project along with a ton of other photos over on Far Out Flora.

She made this to live outdoors, but you could make an indoor version with a few alterations. You'd want to make the succulent bed a bit deeper, line the wood with some kind of plastic to prevent leaking, and line the bottom with a few inches of rocks to allow drainage. The planter part would need to be removable so that you could drain it manually, just in case you over-water it. Maybe you could make some recycled, fused plastic to use as the liner and attach it to the inside of removable box with a staple gun?

Have you guys run across any creative succulent planter ideas? I'd love to hear more in the comments!

Fresh, Eco-Friendly Furniture by Anderson Modern

Becky Striepe — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:44:55 +0000

When Jacob and Kristen Anderson had their son, they "began to transform [their] home into a kid proof toxic free zone," hunting down chemical-free alternatives to conventional products like housewares and furniture.

At the same time, Jacob - an Atlanta designer and all around DIY type of guy - was bored with the furniture he was finding. He wanted pieces for his home that had soul. He ran across a linseed oil-based stain at IKEA, and something just sparked! He loves the rustic look that the Behandla stain lends his work and started making more pieces.

Jacob's a fan of "simple designs" that are "brutalist, shaker, and modern," and his work has a lot of influence from music. You can count on encountering what he calls "library music," or droning electronica in his workroom.

He creates all of Anderson Modern's furniture using reclaimed, locally-sourced wood. It's not so much that he's drawn to eco-friendly materials, but he says that, "materials that are earth friendly came to me. They were already begging to be left unadulterated, and kept in their most simple form."

The result is a collection of furniture featuring clean lines and showcasing the natural beauty of his materials. Atlanta folks can find Anderson Modern's pieces at Criminal, a local record shop. For custom pieces or folks outside of the Atlanta area, you can email Jacob at andersonmodern@gmail.com.

Sleek Chairs Made from Empty Soda Bottles

Becky Striepe — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:09:10 +0000

Coca Cola and Emeco's Recycled PET 111 Navy Chairs

Americans go through a lot of plastic soda bottles every year. A lot. And it turns out we only recycle about 20% of them, which is pretty disappointing. Sure, conventional plastic can't be recycled over and over, but a recycled bottle does help reduce the amount of new petroleum we use in plastic production.

Text reads: "When you recycle a plastic bottle, you're doing something good. When you recycle 111 of them, you're doing something great. Help your bottle become something extraordinary again."

Coca Cola saw this problem too, and they decided to do something about it. Back in 2006, they teamed up with chair-maker Emeco to design and manufacture chairs using PET soda bottles from their recycle plant in South Carolina. It's called the 111 Navy Project, and the aim is to show that recycled plastic does have value and encourage more folks to toss those empties into their blue bins.

The chairs are made up of a mix of 60% rPET and 40% pigment and glass fiber, to make sure the finished product is sturdy. Emeco is using the same design that they first created in 1944 for the U.S. Navy. Each chair takes 111 empty bottles to make, and according to Gregg Buchbinder at Emeco that adds up to, "the potential of reusing the PET from about 3 million plastic bottles a year." That's a lot of plastic diverted from the landfill!

Coke and Emeco started designing the 111 Navy Chairs back in 2008 and completed the first prototype just this month. They launched them last week at the Milan Furniture Fair. You can find the 111 Navy Chair on Emeco's website for $230 apiece.

[h/t Greenopolis]

Bamboo Flooring and Furniture: Green or Greenwash?

Becky Striepe — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:34:07 +0000

We've talked about the pros and cons of bamboo here before, when the FTC decided to crack down on green claims about bamboo fabrics. Now, eyes are turning to products like furniture and flooring made from the fast-growing grass.

The Boston Globe published an editorial that talked about some of the problems with the bamboo industry.

The article cited "overharvesting, treatment with non-green chemicals, and shipping across the globe" as just some of the things that consumers need to keep in mind when looking at bamboo products.

There's also the issue of how manufacturers turn the grass into usable planks for things like flooring and cabinetry. Since it's hollow in the center, you can't just cut planks like with traditional wood products. Instead, it's cut into strips which then get glued together, often with very toxic adhesives.

Fortunately, none of this has to rule bamboo out as an eco-friendly building material. It just means that we as consumers need to be diligent in finding out where products are coming from and learning about the different certifications.

I've got to tell you, I looked high and low for information on bamboo certification for building purposes and had a really tough time turning anything up! The Forest Stewardship Council did certify one sort of bamboo flooring. It also looks like a company called Scientific Certification Systems also has certified some bamboo flooring.

In the face of very little information about certification, though, I was hoping to turn to you guys! Does anyone have information on certifications for bamboo that are trustworthy or ones that are all greenwash?

Image Credits:
Bamboo. Creative Commons photo by xJavierx

Piet Hein Eek: Reclaimed Wood Furniture

LiveOAK Staff — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:42:04 +0000

Piet Hein Eek

There are many roots to our addiction to consumption, but in this post I am going to discuss just one of them... aesthetics. It's funny that dispite the inherent aesthetic beauty of nature and the environemnt, our desire to make our own environments aesthetically pleasing can wreak havoc on the former. Now obviously there are exceptions to every rule, and Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek is one of those exceptions.

Eek doesn't tout himself as a Green designer but he embraces the ideals of sustainability in his work out of a respect for the environment and commitment to efficiency. Eek is best known for his "Scrapwood" collection of furntiure, in which he uses all bits and pieces of reclaimed wood to create beatiful, sturdy and timeless pieces of furniture. In an interview with Dwell he explains his philosphy:

"The major thing is that you make durable things. If you buy a couch from IKEA with FSC-certified wood and you throw it away after two years, it is much worse than a non-FSC wood couch that you keep for 100 years. Recycling is good, but if you calculate everything, it's not actually much better, because it takes energy to move the material to be recycled. If you account for everything, often the balance isn’t as clear as you thought it could be. For me, it's about quality and creating a look that is timeless rather than a design that is fashionable. Most of our furniture gets old in a beautiful way."

As an amature DIYer/builder I can tell you how much easier it is to build something from fresh new materials instead of making use of what you already have (particularly when using wood). It's easy to work in straight lines and even blocks. It takes real vision and creativity to look at a pile of trash and envision it's rebirth. Eek has that vision...

"I see something I like and start thinking of all the possibilities for how it could be used. If I go for a walk in the woods I always come back with plastic bags full of pieces of the forest. It's about seeing materials and techniques that are available for design, but not being used for that purpose. Scrap wood could be gold. It could be everything."

Sources: Dwell & Studio Forbes

Re-Inspired Elements: Once a Wine Barrel

LiveOAK Staff — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:18:19 +0000

Re-Inspired Elements: A Tasting Installation

This "Wine Tasting Station" was once a wine barrel holding Newton Vineyard Red Wine. Now it has been given a second life, resurected by Claire Danthois and tasked to hold wine once again. Dainthois is known for her work reclaiming old timber planks and turning them into beautiful pieces of furniture.

“I am inspired by the stories that dwell within reclaimed materials and intrigued by the notion that I can recreate objects of value from items that have ‘lived another life.’"

She pulled together this 6ft tall bar using 122 pieces of oak to symbolize the 122 vinyard blocks at Newton Vineyard in St. Helena, CA. Five of these were made. One will stay on desplay at the vineyard, three will be sold to the public and one will be auctioned off for an estimated price of $20,000, which will be donated to Global Green.