Low Impact Design with High Impact Style
by Patricia Gaylor
Some years ago, as I began a demolition on a kitchen for a client, I began to wonder where all the materials that were being ripped out would go. I saw them go into a dumpster, but where was that going? The answer I got was “AWAY”…. And to me, “AWAY” wasn’t so much a state of mind, but a place. A real place, called the LANDFILL where these materials would languish for years, perhaps even centuries. So quite simply, that’s where my quest began to search for materials that were going to be kinder to the planet and make less of an impact.
“Low Impact” to me means many things: it could mean buying things locally, to cut on carbon emissions from transport over long distances. Or using lumber that’s from a protected source. Energy efficient appliances, WaterSense certified plumbing fixtures, or materials that can be recycled after their usefulness is over. I think we all know about most of these things at this stage of the game, and it’s becoming pretty easy to find materials that are green, even at the local home store.
As an interior designer, it’s also becoming easier to find furniture and finish materials that are low impact. It wasn’t the case a few years ago. Everything that was ‘natural’ or ‘green’ usually had an organic or ‘hippie’ type look to it. I really wanted to get away from that, and deliver a sleek, sophisticated interior with no compromise. Nowadays there are a number of really great furniture companies that practice sustainability. Sometimes these things come with a higher price tag, and that can be a deal breaker for someone who’s on a budget.
When I was designing the interiors of this year’s ReVision House in Orlando, I really wanted to make a statement about the RE in ReVision. After all, this house was a RE-model of an existing home. Remodeling existing housing stock is the greenest thing you can do, and I wanted to try to find materials and finishes for the house that would ultimately carry the RE theme throughout the house. I decided to use existing or second-hand furniture. Reupholstering existing sofas and chairs that were mis-matched in a unifying fabric would work, so I began looking around for some used ones. I found some at a garage sale, and at a local thrift store, and got some amazing fabric from ENVIRO TEXTILES in a natural organic hemp fabric, which retails for around $25 a yard. I covered virtually everything in this fabric, to give it a cohesive look, even though the pieces were all a little different. I also found a cool coffee table made from reclaimed lumber, and an outdoor table and stools that I re-purposed as a wine-tasting table. The ceramic tile I used throughout the main areas of the house from Ragno boasts a whopping 40% pre-consumer recycled content. Pretty impressive!
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HEMP FABRIC from ENVIRO TEXTILES ReVISION House RAGNO’s “TEXTILE” CERAMIC TILE There’s a company in Wyoming called Centennial Woods that reclaims wood from snow fences across the state and sells the sustainable harvested wood for both interior and exterior applications. Unlike other reclaimed wood (barns and other structures), this snow fence has never been painted or chemically treated, and is a more reliable source for lead and arsenic free reclaimed wood. They have repurposed more than 5 million feet of wood, saving snow fence owners more than $9M and avoiding more than 9,000 tons of CO2 emissions. The wood can be used for flooring, furniture, and exterior siding. Here’s a beautiful floor made of the reclaimed snow fence. Gorgeous!
So here’s what I’m getting at: Think about what you want or need before you buy it. I mean really THINK. If you can’t afford the latest and the greatest, can you do with what you have? Can you RE-use or RE-purpose things you already own? It can be made to be fresh, beautiful and RE-useable, if you give it a chance. If you do need to buy things like wood flooring or ceramic tile, check out what’s available with a RE-cycled content, or made from RE-cycled wood. It’s all here already. And that’s its own RE-ward!
Posted: 3/7/2011 11:08:18 AM by
Heather Wallace | with 0 comments
Recently, I was on a train travelling back from a day trip into New York City. It was a Sunday, so the train was mostly full of families returning from one outing or another, and also a smattering of business people. As the train pulled away from Penn Station, I settled back and shut my eyes and began to think about the events of the day. After a few moments, I began to realize that someone in the seat in front of me was talking. And talking. And TALKING. It was a young girl in her teens or early twenties chatting on a cell phone. She was speaking in a foreign language, so I was uncertain what she was talking about, although I could certainly hear her loud and clear. This went on for the entire length of the train ride, which was around 20 minutes. I began to wonder just who the other person was on the phone that was actually listening to the girl going on and on, and if that person was as bothered as I was.
There was a woman sitting across from me reading a book. Several times, she glanced up from her book and looked at the young girl. At one point, she caught my gaze and looked at me and shook her head. We both smiled and had a bit of a giggle over such an annoying occurrence. I got off the train at my designated stop, and left my chatty travelling companion still talking away.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that I’ve been assaulted by a person ‘over-communicating’ in a public place. Be it a cell phone or just a conversation between two people, lately I feel like wherever I go, there’s a whole lot of talking going on. I think maybe the reason it bothers me so much has something to do with my age. I don’t know at what point things like this start to annoy the hell out of you, but unfortunately, I’ve reached the age where it has.
But here’s my question: WHY? I have to honestly admit, I simply don’t have that much to say. For the life of me, I cannot imagine talking about any one subject for that long without stopping, hesitating, or letting the other person at least say one or two words.
There’s a lot to be said for silence. It’s almost becoming a lost art. Silence gives you the opportunity to reflect or think through a problem you’ve been having. Silence is also a great way to relax and quiet your mind and remove yourself from the stresses of the day. I think it’s important to sit quietly every day for a few moments and just BE. We are all so connected now through social media sites, email, cell phones, smart phones, etc., that I think it’s easy to forget how important it is to remove ourselves from our daily routines and focus on not only ourselves, but our interaction with other people. Is anyone really listening? Or is there constant, unending meaningless chatter?
I’m guessing you are wondering what this has to do with what I usually blog about: green design. Of course, it has nothing to do with it, except that I deal with people all day long and sometimes it’s difficult to even listen to my clients. I think sometimes that we listen to people talk too much all the time we forget to LISTEN to what they are saying. And listening to my clients is probably the most important thing I can do in order to deliver a design they will be happy with.
I’m going to make a conscious effort to try to listen more to what people have to say. And also try not to chat on my cell phone in a place that I know would bother other people. It’s time to become more aware of my surroundings, other people, and mostly, aware of what it means to be silent.
Posted: 1/30/2011 11:08:48 PM by
Heather Wallace | with 0 comments
by Patricia Gaylor
Last year I wrote about the ReVISION House™ in Las Vegas and how a tight building envelope can create some indoor air quality issues if the proper materials aren’t selected. And as time goes on, I’m happy to say it’s getting a lot easier to select furniture and products that meet the criteria for good IAQ.
Both the VISION House™ and the ReVISION House™ in Orlando this year are again designed with good indoor air quality in mind. Here are some great interior features that promise a clean, healthy (and gorgeous!) interior design:
MOHAWK, a frontrunner in sustainable choices in flooring, leads the way with an amazing engineered wood floor that’s green on many levels. We’re using a vintage hickory wide plank floor in the VISION house that’s actually salvaged from old buildings, so there’s no virgin lumber used on the surface. It’s engineered as well, so the amount of salvaged wood used goes even further. It’s bonded to a no-added-urea formaldehyde substrate called PURE BOND that doesn’t off-gas any toxins. Not only is it a super green product, but it really looks great in our urban farmhouse. It has an aged appearance with a nice patina, so it looks like an existing floor in a New York City loft or factory building…very cool!
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MOHAWK QUEENSTOWN VINTAGE HICKORY
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The ReVISION House is a deep green retrofit of an existing home. It has the same tight building envelope as the newly constructed VISION HOUSE, due to the foam insulation from HONEYWELL, as well as the gorgeous stone look façade from SURETOUCH that increases the R value on the exterior by virtue of its ingenious foam panel installation.
The interior design of this home is a calm and uncluttered NAPA STYLE, with simple lines and much less of the “Tuscan Villa” look so popular in years past. The flooring is ceramic tile throughout the main areas. Easy to maintain and keep clean, tile harbors no dust mites which can trigger an asthma attack in some individuals. Many of the choices I made from an incredible array of ITALIAN TILE have green attributes. For example, the faux wood planking tile from EMIL that is being installed in the breakfast room is manufactured using no harmful chemicals or heavy metals, and emits no VOC’s. In the laundry room, I’m using a thin tile from EMIL called GREEN LITE that’s about half the thickness of regular tile, and can be installed OVER existing tile that would normally have to be demolished and wind up in a landfill. All of these tiles are being installed with adhesive and grout from MAPEI, which are low VOC.
The bedroom furniture from STANLEY’S YOUNG AMERICA collection has recently been awarded GREENGUARD certification. When purchasing furniture for infants and young children, not many parents consider what goes into the manufacture of the furniture they select. Did you ever buy a piece of furniture and get it home, only to discover that when you opened a drawer, there was an unpleasant odor of paint or varnish? Not only can this odor be unpleasant, it could harm you. Growing immune systems in young children, or kids with compromised immune systems shouldn’t be exposed to any materials that can possibly trigger an adverse reaction. Stanley’s Young America furniture collection has dozens of GREENGUARD certified pieces to choose from in wonderful colors and finishes. Stylish and affordable, this furniture is not only healthy, but you can add pieces later so it can grow with your child through the years. It’s made in America and built to last. I’m using pieces from the MY HAVEN collection.
Posted: 12/13/2010 11:27:11 AM by
Heather Wallace | with 0 comments
By Patricia Gaylor
I think I developed my love of architecture from my mother. When I was a young girl, she would occasionally pile my siblings and me into the car and drive through nearby neighborhoods, pointing out various styles of homes. She loved looking at the big mansions on the hill in a nearby town, and talk about Victorian architecture, or what a Tudor style looked like. She’d tell us stories about how it was to live back at the turn of the century, and how those people who made their fortunes built these giant monuments to their wealth.
Since then, I’ve been interested in older homes, and over the years, I’ve become an avid preservationist. It doesn’t matter to me anymore how big the house is, or how grand. I love any size or style well designed home, and enjoy studying just what exactly makes them so beautiful and livable. Last year I designed the interiors of a gut remodel in a mid-century modern home in Las Vegas, and it was a good example of how a humble design can still work today with some minor tweaking.
One of my favorite styles of home architecture is the classic farmhouse. Honest and straightforward, this particular style bears no pretense, and is designed with primarily function in mind. Large windows let in lots of light and breezes, and it generally has a very simple floor plan. I’m currently working on a newly constructed home for the International Builder’s Show in Orlando, Florida. It has that simple farmhouse look. When I first saw the renderings of the house, I loved the symmetry, large windows, and the two open porches across the front. This type of design still works really well today. The architect, Ed Binkley, put a twist on this classic style by creating a somewhat open floor plan on the first floor, where the family can interact between the kitchen and living room. High ceilings help to make the space feel much larger than it is, but yet it still feels homey. It boasts all the amenities that are so popular today with homebuyers- things like state of the art appliances, a neat laundry and craft room, a home office and a quiet retreat space over the garage. It’s got all of the charm of an older, gracious home, yet it’s adapted to relate to the family of today. Of course, the icing on the cake is in the construction. Insulated concrete forms create a hurricane proof and well insulated domain. Charming cottage style windows provide an excellent shield from solar heat gain. And it has an incredibly cool galvanized metal roof that’s EnergyStar rated.
As the interior designer of this home, it’s been my job to create an interior that’s both beautiful and sustainable. For example, I specified a gorgeous wide plank floor from Mohawk Industries that’s engineered and bonded to a no-added urea formaldehyde substrate. This flooring will give the home the farmhouse look and become a background for an eclectic mix of modern and classic design. The lighting throughout the home is from Barnlight Electric Company, which reproduces the look of industrial ‘factory’ lighting from the turn of the century. And the GreenGuard certified natural quartz countertops from DeNova look like polished concrete, which adds that slick ‘urban’ vibe. So the look is a little bit country, and a little bit rock ‘n roll.
It’s a great thing when you can marry good design with classic style. It’s even better when the design includes items that are locally sourced, have good indoor air quality, or are made from materials that are renewable or sustainable. I call that a real win-win situation.
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Barnlight Electric's Goodrich Aero Gooseneck Light
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Mohawk's Queenstown Hickory Engineered Flooring
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DeNova's Natural Quartz Countertop "Armadillo Alto"
Posted: 10/18/2010 2:06:59 PM by
Heather Wallace | with 0 comments
A 200 year old New Jersey home gets a green kitchen makeover
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I recently completed a major renovation on a home built in 1800 in suburban New Jersey. The old kitchen was a hodge-podge of small rooms that had been added and subtracted over the years. There were exposed leaky pipes, walled over windows, and an array of dangerous looking electric outlets in odd places. The homeowners wanted to maintain a classic, casual farmhouse look that would blend with the rest of the home and not appear that the new space looked….well, NEW. They were very interested in being as ‘green’ or sustainable as possible, and also save money on their outrageous heating and cooling bills, due to the leaky windows and inadequate insulation.
It’s often a difficult task to make any new kitchen renovation look as if it’s been there for many years and still have all the ‘bells and whistles’, like the latest and greatest in appliances. Taking off the ‘new’ edge and giving the space a timeless look is difficult enough, but adding energy efficiency, water conservation, good indoor air quality and sustainability makes for a pretty tall order. And ‘green’ design isn’t generally known for it’s traditional look. Up to now, most of it looked pretty modern. But that’s all changing. It’s now become easier than ever to create beautiful spaces of any style.
Indoor air quality is one of the basic tenets of green design, and I specified plywood with no added urea formaldehyde to make the cabinetry, and finish them with a no VOC painted finish. The wide pine flooring was from a flooring manufacturer in New Hampshire, so it qualifies as a ‘local’ product. This particular company, Carlisle, practices responsible forestry and uses either recycled wood from old barns, or harvests lumber from local forests.
The homeowner wanted soapstone countertops, which is a gorgeous stone that’s enhanced with food-grade mineral oil, so there’s no chemical sealing. But since soapstone is imported from Portugal, the amount of fuel used to get it here had to be considered. We compromised by using a local stone from Vermont called Danby marble in the baking area. Also, selecting the highest tier Energy Star rated appliances was another way of trading off in order to justify the imported stone. The use of fluorescent lighting, and an under-cabinet water filter added more to the sustainability message. Just think of how many hundreds of plastic water bottles that didn’t get used because of the simple addition of a water filter.
Think locally, use what space you have efficiently without adding uneeded square footage, make trade-offs on items that your client can’t live without, and you’ve got a good start on creating a green kitchen that will endure for many years, and leave a smaller, gentler footprint on our planet.
YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT THIS KITCHEN IN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF TRADITIONAL HOME MAGAZINE
Posted: 7/25/2010 8:35:35 PM by
Heather Wallace | with 0 comments
