Green Tips to Furnish Your Eco-Conscious Home

Posted on Thu Feb 21 2008

By: Gloria Campos in Daily Green Tips

Furniture may be less expensive for consumers to buy these days, but the environmental impact it has is not so good. Along with deforestation, modern furniture also often contains highly toxic chemicals, which are poisonous to the earth as well as the consumers that buy them. For those of us who want to keep our homes as green as possible this doesn’t mean our homes have to be vacant.

There are many ways to keep our green homes furnished with greener furniture without further negative impact on the environment. All we need to do is learn where and how to look for it.

1. Second hand. Some people consider second hand furniture as filthy and unusable. In reality most used furniture is very usable. True it will need some cleaning, but so does regular furniture. If used furniture looks used (chipping paint, rough around the edges) a little cleaning, sanding and eco-friendly finish can make it look new all over again. That is the wonderful thing about furniture, in most cases, it can be restored and reused. Second hand furniture can be found in local places like consignment stores, antique stores, friends’ and family members’ homes, flea market or online in places like craigslist, freecycle.

Be careful when considering second hand mattress and sofas. Avoid reusing these types of furnishings unless it is second hand/hand-me-down from someone you know well.

2. Reclaimed lumbar. If you must buy wood furniture buy furniture made of reclaimed lumbar. Furniture made of reclaimed wood can come from a number of sources: other old furniture, flawed wood, houses, wood scraps, sunken logs, etc. This helps avoid the use of new wood, especially from tree species that are endangered. Look for the Rediscovered Wood Certification label from The Rainforest Alliance. Also check out the SFC, the Sustainable Furniture Council here.

3. Restore. Just because your furniture looks old and raggedy doesn’t mean it is no longer useful. The furniture you have now still has plenty of life left. All it needs is some TLC so have it restored. Do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. Yes, it may be a bit more expensive to hirer a restorer than to just buy a new piece of furniture, but remember you are doing it for the environment and you now have the choice to give your furniture a new look.

4. Buy furniture made of recycled material. Just about everything can be turned into furniture. I’ve seen rulers, milk jugs, skies, street signs, clothes, etc., recycled into a new piece of furniture (table, chair, sofa, bench, etc). Recycled materials require less processing and fewer resources. All you need to do is make sure that whatever recycled furniture you buy or find is durable so that you won’t want to trash it in a year or two.

5. Bamboo made furniture. Bamboo (a grass, not a tree) is a strong material for making furniture. Bamboo grows fast and usually grown using few or even no pesticides. Consider it the next time you go shopping for furniture.

I practice what I preach. Half of my home furnishings are green. The large solid wood desk I sit at to type these tips is a hand me down from my mother-in-law. The cute white drawers that sit on top of the desk to my right are a gift from my parents from a consignment store. My dinner table and chairs came from a consignment store. Two of my bookshelves came from my father in-law. My armoire in my bedroom is from a consignment store…I could go on. These are all pieces of furniture that came at half the price, had only a few minor scratches and look great in my house.

Sources

Greenlivingtips

How to buy Green Furniture

Treehugger

The Green Swear Jar

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