The Living Room
A big idea in eco-friendly lifestyles is living in a small space or using a single space for multiple uses; it’s the idea that we live in a smaller footprint therefore we use less water, heat, energy and we need less “stuff”. In the living room the plan was to show how to combine a living room and a home office in one space; function and form mixed with some great design details.
I thought that the living room would be a great spot to showcase a new treatment for the walls and I love the texture and warmth of seagrass wallpaper. Innovations Wallcoverings has a collection called Invironments and they are natural wallpapers made without toxins or PVC materials from renewable seagrass. The textures and color add such depth and dimension to a space.
I decided to use a soft tan that would work with a lot of colors. I knew the kitchen would be in shades of green, the bathroom in shades of blue and it seemed like a good idea to bring a color that had a little zip to it. Orange is a wonderful, cheery color to live with and looks great paired with browns and tans. Knowing that the walls would be a soft tan, I wanted the floor to be in a dark contrasting color so I chose a rich, chocolate hickory finish on bamboo flooring. It’s sleek and elegant but still casual because it’s bamboo.
The windows are from Pella and I love their 9-light Prairie Style windows from their designer series. They are triple paned Energy Star windows that have triple the insulation of an old window and they can even be ordered with shades IN BETWEEN the glass panes. Lowering your shades in the summer keeps your home cooler and saves on cooling energy and costs. It was nice to learn that keeping the shades up or open in the winter allows sunlight in and keeps your temperature up in your home. With the price of oil going up and up it saves you on heating costs, my home uses oil heat and by using this tip I’ve already saved a ton of money.
I loved the style of the windows because there are some panes for visual interest but the majority of the window is open and not blocked and I love that feeling of letting the outdoors in! The upholstery furniture is from the NaturalLee collection by Lee Furniture, I used a mocha colored linen on the sofa with an orangey mango color as the contrast welt.
The sofa throw pillows were the perfect opportunity to have green tips embroidered directly on the cases, giving great information in a fun way. The desk chair is in a fresh cream and coral pattern and the chairs across from the sofa have a rich wood frame but an orange and cream small geometric pattern, and again, that mango contrast welt.
I knew we needed a desk so we took an old paneled door, chopped it down to size, painted it cream, filled in the panels with pieces of old mirror, flipped it on its side and set it on top of some old saw horse legs painted the same color. Old doors are also great candidates to be repurposed as headboards, coffee tables and dining tables.
Some of the most disposable furniture out there is baby furniture, you really only use it for a set amount of time and if you don’t give it away you end up throwing it away. With this in mind I wanted to show how with a little imagination you can give that baby furniture a whole new life, and a stylish one at that! We converted an old baby changing table into a console to go underneath the television. The drawers and side panels were covered in the seagrass and new brushed nickel drawer knobs were put on to update the look.
A piece of mirror was cut and placed on the top where the changing pad would have been, it adds a polished look and helps give it a whole new feel.
The shelving unit to the left of the TV is made from reclaimed wood shelves and old plumbing pipes and flanges act as the frame and supports. The picture frames are from a bunch of old frames that I had in my basement, I painted the varying styles all the same color of chocolate brown VOC paint. By painting them all the same color it pulls together the look even though they were all different styles and the chocolate brown frames are a great contrast against the light seagrass wall covering.
I like to arrange photographs in a grouping around big plasma TV’s because I think it frames the TV a little bit and keeps it from appearing as this enormous big black hole hanging on your wall!
The lamps were designed and made by Robbins Tesar, they are the company who built the actual exhibit, they are so incredibly creative, it was such fun to work with them and see all the amazing things they created. The idea was to show you use 10 regular incandescent light bulbs to equal just one energy efficient compact florescent light bulb. Printing the tip on the lampshade was an innovative way to give the tip and drive the point home, and seeing the bulbs inside the Plexiglas lamp made it almost self explanatory.
For the accessories on the shelving unit I used old bottles and filled them with natural elements like pebbles, moss and twigs from my backyard. I found a cool old metal box at a flea market in Ohio. Jim, the older gentleman who had a booth with a bunch of old rusty farm tools, told me it was originally a locker box from the back of a tractor. I liked the shape and size as well as the history and I learned that looking at old items in a new way and rethinking them can add style inexpensively to your space!
Lastly lets look at the Utility Room.
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