Painting the Town (low VOX) Green
by Jillian Pritchard Cooke
With our society becoming more environmentally aware, eco-living has become a trend to stay. While the preface “eco” once inspired visions of a bohemian or “granola” lifestyle—featuring only products with limited materials and color—the style selections and color options for your home are now endless. Whether remodeling or re-decorating, once you know what factors to consider, making an eco-sensitive design choice for your home is easy.
You don’t have to compromise beautiful design to “go” green. Eco-sensitive design promotes health, beauty and balance within a space. It takes education and respect to achieve both health and balance in design. Ultimately, the incorporation of “green” products and practices into everyday life is what makes eco-sensitive design successful.
Anyone can be eco-sensitive. It begins with recognizing the harmful effects of certain products and embracing the benefits of others. Understanding the options, availability and longevity of items allows you to make choices that benefit both the environment and your living space. For example, when choosing fabrics consider the material content of fabrics, or unnecessary amounts of fossil fuel burnt in the shipping process. By employing environmental respect as a driving factor, eco-conscious decisions can be made for any home if you think about what is going on inside the house, leading to a healthier indoor living environment.
As eco-sensitive designers, our purpose it to educate clients on products and train them to ask questions, like: ‘Is there a Low VOC paint option that emits less toxin into the air?’ Or, ‘Can furniture be covered instead of adding it to a landfill?’ Eclectic is in. Adding paint or re-covering discarded furniture not only adds character to the house, but is also reclaiming an item that will not crowd a landfill.
Considering revamping your current home into an eco-sensitive paradise? Whether you hire a designer, or are a “Do it Yourselfer,” savvy homeowners can embrace eco-sensitive design and “go green” with the inclusion of many new earth-sensitive products. A little extra research is needed before making a purchase and there can be some initial costs, however, home products such as paint, fabrics and antiques are competitive in price—if not cheaper. Building with eco-sensitivity can cost more up front, but once these products are integrated into everyday life, monthly energy bills will decrease and ultimately, the products will pay for themselves.
Versatility and dedication makes Jillian Pritchard Cooke, and her firm, DES-SYN, a forerunner in eco-sensitive design. Headquartered in Atlanta, with offices in San Francisco, DES-SYN touts many industry-defining accolades. For more information about DES-SYN visit www.des-syn.com.
Jillian’s Eco-Sensitive Design Considerations:
by Jillian Pritchard Cooke
With our society becoming more environmentally aware, eco-living has become a trend to stay. While the preface “eco” once inspired visions of a bohemian or “granola” lifestyle—featuring only products with limited materials and color—the style selections and color options for your home are now endless. Whether remodeling or re-decorating, once you know what factors to consider, making an eco-sensitive design choice for your home is easy.
You don’t have to compromise beautiful design to “go” green. Eco-sensitive design promotes health, beauty and balance within a space. It takes education and respect to achieve both health and balance in design. Ultimately, the incorporation of “green” products and practices into everyday life is what makes eco-sensitive design successful.
Anyone can be eco-sensitive. It begins with recognizing the harmful effects of certain products and embracing the benefits of others. Understanding the options, availability and longevity of items allows you to make choices that benefit both the environment and your living space. For example, when choosing fabrics consider the material content of fabrics, or unnecessary amounts of fossil fuel burnt in the shipping process. By employing environmental respect as a driving factor, eco-conscious decisions can be made for any home if you think about what is going on inside the house, leading to a healthier indoor living environment.
As eco-sensitive designers, our purpose it to educate clients on products and train them to ask questions, like: ‘Is there a Low VOC paint option that emits less toxin into the air?’ Or, ‘Can furniture be covered instead of adding it to a landfill?’ Eclectic is in. Adding paint or re-covering discarded furniture not only adds character to the house, but is also reclaiming an item that will not crowd a landfill.
Considering revamping your current home into an eco-sensitive paradise? Whether you hire a designer, or are a “Do it Yourselfer,” savvy homeowners can embrace eco-sensitive design and “go green” with the inclusion of many new earth-sensitive products. A little extra research is needed before making a purchase and there can be some initial costs, however, home products such as paint, fabrics and antiques are competitive in price—if not cheaper. Building with eco-sensitivity can cost more up front, but once these products are integrated into everyday life, monthly energy bills will decrease and ultimately, the products will pay for themselves.
Versatility and dedication makes Jillian Pritchard Cooke, and her firm, DES-SYN, a forerunner in eco-sensitive design. Headquartered in Atlanta, with offices in San Francisco, DES-SYN touts many industry-defining accolades. For more information about DES-SYN visit www.des-syn.com.
Jillian’s Eco-Sensitive Design Considerations:
- Eco-friendly Paints. Low VOC paints (volatile organic compound) keep indoor toxic emissions to a minimum.
- Eco-friendly Carpet. Nylon carpet offers the best combination of affordability, performance, and decreased environmental impact. It is lightweight, durable, easily cleaned and recyclable.
- Lyptus. Building or remodeling? Use Lyptus, a sustainable, renewable source wood-- trees re-grow in three years. Great for your kitchen cabinets!
- Natural Lighting. Try solar tubes and skylights. Natural light is healthy and saves energy.
- Automated Faucets. Improve cleanliness and lower water consumption
- Forest Certified Wood. Similar to "organically grown" produce, forest certification is a seal of approval -- notifying consumers that a wood or paper product comes from forests managed with strict environmental and social standards.
- 100% Natural Fabrics. (cotton, wool, bamboo, linen, silk) They don’t emit toxins into the air like synthetics and are a renewable resource.
- Energy Star Appliances. The logo ensures they use less energy, save money, and help protect the environment.
- Use cleaning products touting environmentally safe materials and disposable, flushable paper goods–everything should be purchased with recycling potential, production methods or environmental considerations.
- Using local vendors vs. shipping items cross-country keeps fossil fuel emissions to a minimum.
- Using reclaimed items and transforming them (i.e. an old door as a coffee table) keeps the landfills from filling up.
