Bored with the decor of your home? You can give your home a facelift with some fresh and unique eco friendly ideas. All of these ideas can be realized using environment friendly materials, sourcing locally, or upcycling furniture to create new designs and styles from almost nothing. You could introduce biophilic design elements into your living space to renovate / decorate your tired rooms and transform them into an inviting and beautiful space. Keeping this in mind, here are a few tips to inspire you to go green in your home renovation:
Go vintage
Antique, charity and vintage shops stock many interesting furniture pieces at reasonable prices. There might be a few flaws, but you’ll be able to easily rectify them by polishing or by applying a lick of paint in any fresh color. It would help to conserve new timber if you redesign your home with old / upcycled furniture, which would cost less and still look good.
View from your rooms
If you are going for an extensive renovation, and would be pulling down walls and so on, you could incorporate nature by having one of the walls a glass wall, which would give you a great view of the outdoors. You can enjoy the view of the trees and plants outside, or landscape your garden in a way that your room looks out on the beautiful landscape design.
Ambient / natural light
With many studies proving that daylight is an essential factor to maintaining good health, you should try to ensure that your home is filled with natural light. Natural light is known to improve our sense of well-being and mood, so your home renovation should include daylight and moonlight wherever possible. You could follow Scandinavian design in which natural light plays a very important role.
Use natural pattern fabrics
Using fabrics which feature flowers, foliage, birds and so on helps to liven up a room. Your upholstery can have floral patterns which look elegant and refreshing. Instead of buying new furniture, reupholstering can save you a lot of money. You could also use fabric which is produced locally to support local artisans / factories and help your local industry survive. Buying locally saves on fuel, so you’d be reducing your carbon footprint as well.
Paint your old furniture in bright colors
Brighten your rooms with a dash of paint. You can give your furniture a fun and quirky look, by painting the legs of your coffee table or ottoman with any bright blue or green leftover paint.
Nature pictures
If you live in a high rise, and the view from your windows is a dreary building, don’t despair. You can still include the nature element in your home with the help of nature pictures. According to studies, looking at pictures / posters of nature such as a forest scene or a mural which depicts nature can relax you and put you in a positive frame of mind. Using posters helps to avoid indoor air pollution causing lead paint.
Make your own nature based paintings
Collect your own botanical specimens on your morning walk, or from your yard itself, like flowers and twigs and create your own painting by pressing the flowers till they are dry. You can stick the dried flowers and leaves on piece of linen or you could just frame the flowers.
Use household items to create unique displays
Use old but pretty dessert plates, cake stands, glass jars, serving trays, saucers and so on to use as the base for flower arrangements for your coffee table.
Make a driftwood planter
If you can find a nice piece of driftwood, drill holes in it and plant some succulents to make a gorgeous succulent planter, which you can hang from a wall or use as a stand out centrepiece.
Curio cabinet
Mount a vintage drawer on a wall to create an eye-catching curio cabinet. You can fill up the different sections with shells, bird’s nests, rocks and other such items to add a décor element to your home which is inexpensive but classy.
You can buy furniture made from sustainable materials such as bamboo, reclaimed wood and so on. Even your bedding can be eco friendly as there are organic bedding options available on the market these days. Green home renovation is quite easy once you focus your attention on earth friendly materials, which are plenty and readily available these days.
