In Your Space
Eco Chic
By Amelia Tham on 5th January 2011
Amelia Tham from Iconic Designs loves creating beautiful spaces and sharing her passion through her blog. Her style is fluid and she captures her current fixations in her postings. A proud Malaysian, Amelia is set on promoting local talents to her worldwide readers.
There is an old Native American saying, “We have not inherited the Earth from our ancestors, we are borrowing it from our children.” As world populations soars, our impact on the earth increases more rapidly. The harm that we do to the earth is cumulative and takes years to reverse if our actions are not sustainable. There are small changes that we can introduce into our living and working spaces without having to make drastic changes to our lifestyle. What better time to start but now? The effort that each of us make now into conserving the future of the earth and the land of our future generations will make a difference. Green Lighting A simple step that requires just the change of a light bulb can go a long way. The next time your bulb fuses, replace it with an energy saving one. These are easily accessible in supermarkets and hardware shops so there’s little reason not to use them. If you happen to be renovating your home and have the opportunity to rewire your lights, design them in a way that you will have an option to turn on a set of one or two lights and building up the brightness of a room by switching on more sets of lights. If rewiring is not possible, simply remove light bulbs from areas where bright lighting isn’t always needed and replace with a free standing lamp which provide an option to be switched on when more lighting is needed.
Bamboo bedsheets via Furniture Home Design
Bamboo Bamboo – a beautiful, durable, biodegradable, highly sustainable and renewable resource that’s often grown without pesticide. It is used on flooring, as veneers in carpentry and furniture, made into fabric for clothing and bedding and landscaped in our gardens. I can’t think of a more versatile material that is also sustainable. Bamboo has a high amount of natural antibacterial and antifungal qualities which are inherited into the products that they are created into. Fabrics made from bamboo are especially valued for its soft-as- silk and hypoallergenic properties. Second Chance I have previously written about decorating with pre-loved furniture, accessories and materials so I won’t delve too much into this topic. However, it’s worthwhile to reiterate the point that vintage pieces are typically more than a couple of decades old and the fact
that it is still around means that it was built to be durable and durability is a key attribute to sustainability. Green Gifts Plants are cheap, available in all shapes and colours and make ecologically chic ornamental pieces in your space. Give them as gifts at your next house-warming or at the next office Christmas gift exchange and encourage eco-friendly gift giving this season.
Potted orchids in a mug via Cyber Monday
As manufacturers are now in the process of changing their materials and manufacturing process to reflect a greater push towards green, our choices for eco-friendly gifts are greater. In the end, it all comes down to you, the consumer, because it is all about demand and supply. Dispose Responsibly Finally, as you renovate and decorate your space, there are bound to be some things that, for various reasons, you will want to dispose of. There’s no need for anything to go to waste and there’s always someone out there, somewhere who will see gold in your junk. Call your local recycling centre and they will happily take it off your hands. Some will even pick it up from your doorstep for a small donation - the amount is up to you.