Interior Design Regulation

State should regulate who’s an interior designer; it’s a matter of safety
By SUSAN K. BALLARD, GINNY CALDWELL, ANNE G. DABBS and KATHERINE SETSER
Friday, 03/30/07

New Mexico has a problem. So does Tennessee. The law regulates the title of interior design without regulating the practice. The solution, however, is not to open the interior design field to all, as columnist George Will recently suggested. The remedy is to practice restriction.

On this, the courts are very clear: Where health and safety are concerned, the public deserves the right to distinguish between qualified and unqualified practitioners, just as it does in the medical, architectural, engineering and other professions. It is not an issue of “decorator” vs. “designer.” It is not “designer” vs. anyone. It is simply an issue of life safety.

New construction and renovation projects generally involve licensed architects, engineers and others, including interior designers. Drawings are reviewed by building departments, and projects are visited throughout construction for regulatory compliance. However, much change is made to interior space without code compliance review or the involvement of licensed design professionals.

Interior space content — finishes and furniture — is continually selected and installed outside of new construction or major renovation because of changes in ownership or tenancy, wear and tear, updating and reconfiguration of furniture. Often, these changes require no building permit and no oversight.

Yet interior finishes and furniture often determine the ability of occupants to get out safely in a fire or other emergency. The NFPA, creator of the Life Safety Code, considers interior content a critical element in lessening a life-threatening condition. In assembly occupancies, it is more important than on-site fire protection (sprinklers/alarms/fire extinguishers), more important than the exit path (number, location of exits/emergency signage and lighting).

Ignition of interior materials is responsible for more than 700 fires per month in public spaces, totaling 23 deaths, 330 injuries and $399 million in direct property damage annually. Still, much of this work can be specified by anyone who wishes to call himself or herself an interior designer, qualified or not.

All the while, the public assumes these spaces are safe.

Qualified interior designers are trained to understand interior material properties, including flammability and toxicity, and are skilled in selecting materials that meet or exceed code requirements.

It sounds absurd that Nevada requires a licensed professional to place any piece of furniture over 69 inches tall, but those pieces — or more likely, a sea of tall systems panel walls — can obstruct views of exit signage or otherwise impede the emergency exit path.

Tennessee state workers enjoy this level of protection. Interior space design for the state is overseen by qualified interior designers, and every state office space is reviewed by the fire marshal prior to construction. Would that every member of the public enjoyed the same protection in their place of work.

There are those who say that no one was ever killed by a bad color scheme.

But, when that color scheme is composed of inappropriate or substandard materials, the potential for injury and death is very real. Until the interior design profession is regulated, the public remains at risk.

Source

$92 Billion!!!

World Furniture Trade Forecast To Hit US $92 Billion
By Chong Jin Hun
March 30, 2007

GUANGZHOU: World furniture trade is forecast to hit some US$92 billion (RM318.32 billion) this year, up 6 per cent from the US$87 billion (RM301.02 billion) last year, in tandem with the rapid globalisation of the industry, a renowned trade fair organiser said.

Udo Traeger, vice-president for furniture and interior design with Germany’s Koelnmesse GmbH, which organises the prestigious “interzum”-branded international furniture production trade fairs, said the uptrend is ongoing as more players are exporting their products.

“Current forecasts suggest that trade will grow from US$82 billion (RM283.72 billion) in 2005 and US$87 billion (RM301.02 billion) last year to US$92 billion (RM318.32 billion) this year.

“I think it is a growing trend because the furniture and interior design industry is really globalising. More and more companies are looking for new export markets,” Traeger told reporters at the annual “interzum guangzhou 2007″ trade fair in Guangzhou, China.

The four-day event occupied some 30,000 sq m of space at the Chinese Export Commodities Fair Pazhou Complex.

Malaysia is believed to have exported up to RM8 billion worth of furniture last year, a 4 per cent increase from the RM7.67 billion in 2005, according to the Malaysia Furniture Entrepreneur Association.

Globally, European companies take the lead, accounting for about a third of the world output and exports, Traeger said. But China’s booming furniture sector is fast catching up, helped by the nation’s relatively lower labour cost, which translates into more competitively-priced products.

According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the country had exported US$8.43 billion (RM29.17 billion) worth of furniture in the first half of 2006.

China’s rise in the furniture-making fraternity is largely perceived as a threat by its global counterparts who have no choice but find other means to compete instead of engaging in a no-win price war against lower-cost producers.

Traeger said China’s furniture sector is going strong, with offerings targeted at a broad spectrum of consumers globally. As such, the pricing pressure on players in South-East Asia is expected to increase.

The latest interzum guang- zhou, the fourth since its debut in 2004, has accommodated some 500 exhibitors from 25 countries.

About 59,000 visitors are expected to attend the fair which precedes the larger-scaled “interzum 2007″ in Cologne, Germany from May 9 to 12.

The upcoming event, to occupy about 150,000 sq m of gross floor area, is expected to host some 1,300 exhibitors from around 60 countries, besides an estimated 50,000 global visitors.

Source

Modern Furniture: Are You Sitting On A Fortune?

Whether you’re buying a £20 chair on eBay or bidding on a million-dollar sun-lounger at Sotheby’s, modern furniture can be a smart investment.
By Helen Brown
28 March 2007

In the midst of the London Design Festival in September, Tom Dixon filled Trafalgar Square with 500 polystyrene chairs. They looked a bit like take-away burger boxes and this was intentional. The chairs were designed to be taken away. They were free. But only three months later, many of those who attended the “Great Chair Grab” got wise to the fact that they might (literally) be sitting on a nice bit of cash.

The chairs went on eBay for around £20. Which isn’t much in the designer furniture market. But it’s an awful lot for a freebie polystyrene chair – one of 500. And disciples of Dixon are still happily keying their card details into PayPal – the price is still rising and I wouldn’t be surprised if those who invested a couple of tenners might see their money double, treble or escalate even further in time.

As Jeremy Morrison, director of decorative arts and design at Sotheby’s, explains: “The designer furniture market has really taken off in the past two years. Lead by the New York collectors market, it’s beginning to blur with the contemporary art market. Designers’ prototypes, limited editions and so on are beginning to make tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds. People like Ron Arad, Marc Newson and Zaha Hadid produce ‘design art’ pieces of furniture that are essentially treated like contemporary art. Five years ago, pieces by the Australian designer Newson were making £20,000.

He was a craftsman, making pieces in limited numbers and almost struggling to sell things. Now the same item could cost you £400,000. One of his Lockheed Loungers recently went for $968,000 (£492,000) in New York.”

Its an odd idea, such huge prices paid out for nearly new loungers. And, at $968,000, this second-hand lounger is too expensive to fulfil its function and be lounged on. As Morrison says: “People are happy to put sofas or dressing tables on plinths now – to treat them as sculpture.”

Furniture has traditionally had to “earn” value by sitting around and accruing character until it becomes an antique, or, in the case of 20th- century “pieces” like Arne Jacobsen’s Seven Chair, they can jump the queue by becoming “iconic”. Even being fast-tracked as iconic used to take a couple of decades. But as culture seems to speed up, we’re making decisions about what styles define our eras much faster. Judith Miller, author of the Antiques Price Guide 2007, says that “furniture is ending up under the gavel much sooner after production than when I first began attending auctions”.

Flicking through Miller’s book, I find a sizeable section on modern designers smuggled in amid the Wedgwood and the Chippendale. How would Miller advise a potential investor go about snapping up a bargain? She laughs. “You can never know for certain that something will go up in value. The design world is very fickle. How much can one pay for an Eames chair? They go up to a certain price and then it’s almost as if, globally, buyers draw in their breath and decide ‘that’s an awful lot of money for a chair’. Trends are unpredictable. An interior designer like Jeffrey Bilhuber will suddenly use a chunky bit of oak in a Manhattan loft and the world cries, ‘Ohh! Oak!’ and forgets other woods.”

Miller is very keen on wood though. Good wood, good materials. “If a piece is beautifully made from beautiful materials, it’s probably going to hold its value,” she says. Miller is a particular fan of the exquisite craftsmanship of Senior & Carmichael, whose one-off commission creations for the likes of the Marquess of Bath and the Sir John Soane’s Museum will probably be just as desirable centuries from now.

But when it comes to the world of mass production and modern materials, investors are on dodgier territory. “Anything Philippe Starck made for Alessi, for example, won’t go anywhere,” warns Miller. So put your lemon squeezers down. And hang fire with the foam furniture, too – foam has a fairly limited life span. And lots of the 1960s plastic and fibreglass stuff – although cool – might have lost its sheen and strength.

So what about the gambler with a few hundred quid to play with and a stack of Wallpaper and Icon magazines in the back bedroom? Could somebody like that just try pottering round the design shows and taking a punt on an exciting new name? The experts say the odds are slim of finding the “new” Newson. But Rabih Hage, who runs a gallery in South London, says there’s fun to be had at all levels. “I began my gallery around just one sofa made of nickels by the American designer Johnny Swing. I bought it for $12,000 not so many years ago and now it’s worth $61,000. I work with designers to develop what can only be described as ‘collectibles’. We hosted Paul Cocksedge’s first solo show of 77 lamps priced between £495 and £1,770, and they’ll definitely go up in value. Once there has been a good show or book devoted to a designer, the price tends to go up.”

Who’s buying these “collectibles”? “People mainly aged between 30 to 55,” says Hage. “People who are quite confident in their own taste and buy instinctively.” He says the trend began in the mid 1990s when “people were intimidated by the art world but felt they had a right to their own opinions about design”.

I suppose there are lots of us in that category. The experts may be able to demolish our interpretations of the painters and sculptors – but we know what we like to sit in. And sometimes it’s polystyrene.

How to spot a modern masterpiece

* Don’t buy mass-produced work. Only limited editions and prototypes will stand a chance of making a fast return. Also look out for pieces connected with iconic buildings or events – the ocean liner, the ground-breaking hotel, the Olympics.

* “Look for that designer,” says Morrison, “who is doing new things with a new material. Look for the innovator, the person everybody else will follow.”

* Think about how the materials will age, and what conditions they will require to be kept at their best. Hard woods will acquire a rich patina with use, but white plastic from the 1960s will loose its sci-fi Barbarella appeal if its scuffed and marked with ball-point pen.

* Look what the museums are buying. If the V&A have an order in, then you’re on to a good thing.

* Study interior design magazines. Not only do such magazines identify who’s currently cool, but they’ll be thumbed by interior designers looking for retro chic in 20 years’ time, when you’re looking to sell.

* Don’t buy at the major metropolitan auction houses if you’re looking to snap up a bargain. Go out to the sticks where, as Miller says, “they don’t give a toss if it’s an Eames or an Arad”.

* Only buy what you like. Trust your instinct.

* Avoid anything restored, and make sure handles and any ornament or gilding are original.

Source

It’s Easy Being Green

It’s easy being green: Little things can add up to a more eco-friendly home lifestyle
By SAMANTHA STILES
Monday, March 26, 2007

You can be green in western Colorado without buying a zippy hybrid car, leveling your 100-year-old downtown home or stinking up your apartment’s balcony with a compost pile.

It’s as simple as evaluating what you may be doing that’s detrimental to the environment and developing a strategy to conserve natural resources. Anybody can make their home green.

“There are hundreds of small things you can do every day to live for the future health of our environment,” said Randa Morgan, a designer at Interiors Etc. “Small changes add up. Designing with an environmental focus does not mean a sacrifice, it means designing and building smarter.”

WHAT IS ‘GREEN’?

An energy-efficient, healthy home that incorporates sustainable resources is a green home. The ultimate green homes are green from the beginning, starting with the orientation of the home to obtain the most natural light. They’re properly insulated and are built from recycled materials or with lumber that has been harvested using sustainable logging practices. Living green doesn’t have to be so drastic.

Morgan is an allied member of the American Society of Interior Design who is also studying for her Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design credentials. LEED sets guidelines on how to design and build green buildings. A building can achieve a LEED rating based on credits and can rate up to a platinum level.

“Green can be achieved in a lot of different ways in a lot of different aspects,” she said.

Morgan said qualities often found in green products are that they contain natural, nontoxic materials, they are durable and need little maintenance. Green products are locally manufactured or salvaged from another project for re-use, such as wood that can be made into furniture or accents in the home. The products are free of ozone-depleting materials or volatile organic compounds (commonly found in paint). Also, the environmental cost of extracting, manufacturing and transporting the items is minimal.

An obstacle green building seems to face is the stigma that it’s not for the everyday person.

“I feel like it’s designing smart,” Morgan said. “Not designing hippie-ish, it’s smart. It just makes sense.”

GREEN IN YOUR POCKETS

Living green means following some of the advice learned in third-grade informational videos hosted by cartoon lightning bugs, such as turning off unnecessary lights and electronics when they’re not needed. Then you can step it up a notch.

The Colorado Environmental Coalition suggests purchasing more energy efficient appliances that are U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star-rated, using compact fluorescent light bulbs and setting the thermostat lower at night.

“Taking the time to find cheap and practical methods of increased energy efficiency and water use can save homeowners a significant amount on yearly bills,” said Joe Neuhof, Western Slope field director for the environmental coalition. “And at the same time allow them to take part in a national push.”

Matt Garrington, field director for Environment Colorado, said making an investment in energy efficiency is the number one thing people can do to not only help Colorado’s energy resources, but to save money in the long run.

GREEN IN THE AREA

A green home, although it may be made from unusual materials, does not necessarily look unusual.

Rebecca Chariton who is in charge of marketing for Chamberlin Architects in Grand Junction, said that when she first starting working in their building on Main Street, she had no idea that the flooring downstairs was bamboo. She said it looked at first glance like regular hardwood floors.

Some of the creative products being used in green building are old tires, recycled plastic bags, clay, hemp, cork and bamboo. Harvesting bamboo instead of trees can help preserve forest areas. It grows faster and can be just as durable. Bamboo can be used to make everything from kitchen utensils to cloth.

“We as architects are at the leading edge of making buildings more sustainable,” said Ed Chamberlin of Chamberlin Architects. “We think it’s the right thing to do.”

Interior designers Casey Sievila and Amy Lentz actively incorporate some green products into local buildings that they design. Chamberlin Architects and partners were involved in the redesigns of the city’s Central Library and St. Mary’s Hospital. They purchase some of their flooring from Abbey Carpet & Flooring in Grand Junction and Sustainable Flooring in Boulder.

“It’s as easy as asking vendors how much of this carpet is recycled,” Lentz said.

Recycled carpet is ground up, mixed with other materials and melted down to create new carpet.

Carol Allee, a design and color consultant with Abbey Carpet, said if a customer has questions about green flooring, store representatives are happy to “help you through it.” She said they have environmentally friendly flooring such as bamboo and cork on display.

Chamberlin Architects used Kwal’s paints with low volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the hospital and library remodels to maintain the air quality and reduce the effects of the fumes on patients and patrons. Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore have their own low-VOC paints as well. Other paint options are clay-based or water-based.

Ultimately, when designing a home, the best thing you can do is purchase quality products that are neutral, classic and timeless so they won’t have to be replaced frequently, Sievila said.

Samantha Stiles can be reached via e-mail at sstiles@gjds.com.

QUICK TIPS

The Colorado Environmental Coalition has put together a fact sheet on energy conservation with quick, affordable tips:

Use available energy-saving settings on dishwashers, washing machines and refrigerators.

Close drapes at night to prevent heat loss to the outdoors.

Install a low-flow shower head.

Replace your most frequently used incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.

Plug obvious air leaks to the outside around doors and window frames.

Install a programmable thermostat.

Other tips with more upront costs, but that might pay for themselves quickly are:

When major appliances wear out, seek the most energy-efficient replacements. Check for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star-rated appliance.

Upgrade to better windows, especially if you have older single-pane windows.

Get a full energy audit of your home and follow through with the recommendations.

Source

States Regulate Interior Designers

Western States Regulate “Interior Designers”, Where’s the Public Interest?
By Warner Todd Huston
March 23, 2007

The State legislature of Nevada wants to be sure your home’s Feng Shui is smooth. New Mexico’s officials want to be sure that your “space” is well arranged. They are all about home decor. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if they have the Home Improvement channel constantly playing in all state offices so that legislators can keep up on the latest tips. They must be experts, fanatically concerned with interior decorating, after all.

Why, you ask?

Well, because they have wasted the time of the legislature and the money of the State’s treasury to make sure that there is a legal, licensed difference between an “Interior Decorator” and just those lowly, unskilled “decorators”. Worse, there is now the iron boot heel of government standing behind the supposed “professional” status of an “Interior Designer” because if you hire someone who claims to be just a “designer” and he does work of an “Interior Designer”– whatever that is supposed to be — well, the black helicopters swoop down upon you, they unleash the hell hounds to run you to ground, and you’ll end up in the deepest pit the State of Nevada can find for up to a year, not to mention fining you $1,000.

That’s right, folks. The State of Nevada wasted its time defining what interior design “means” and has developed a license and fee schedule to control it all.

Things like these are why government at all stages has reached absurdist levels in the USA today. Our Founders waged a Revolution over a tax of a few cents on tea. We, on the other hand, are sitting still while government regulates how we can move our furniture around in our homes, or who we hire to paint a wall.

What are we… MICE or Europeans?

I get this story from George Will’s March 20th column, “Government regulation goes step too far in Nevada”. Will makes some great points with it, too.

Will pegs some of this to the “Interior Design” interests in the western states.

Being able to control the number of one’s competitors, and to dispense the pleasure of status, is nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you have a legislature willing to enact ”titling laws.” They regulate – meaning restrict – the use of job descriptions. Such laws often are precursors of occupational licensing, which usually means a mandatory credentialing process to control entry into a profession with a particular title.

Will understands rightly that this licensing thing is just a racket set up by certain trade groups who are trying to control their own industry, preventing competition. And some nanny-state politicians who love a “cause”, not to mention the benefits of a trade union or guild that is beholden to them, are happy to comply.

Will spends most of his column on the issue of the quashing of competition among decorating businesses but does briefly bring up another point.

Government licenses professions to protect the public and ensure quality. It licenses engineers and doctors because if their testable skills are deficient, bridges collapse and patients die. The skills of interior designers are neither similarly measurable nor comparably disastrous when deficient.

To me, that is the far more pertinent issue. Where is the Public’s compelling interest in how “professional” someone is in painting a wall, or moving an ottoman? Where is the pressing public good affected by regulations on “Interior Designers”?

Indemnity insurance is another thing, of course, and that is a compelling interest of the law. But why is it any business of the government if someone can color coordinate your carpet with your drapes? The fact that state governments even assume such power is indicative of the overweening, nanny state into which we have slid.

And every state has idiotic laws like these, not just the western states. In the dead of night, these politicians with pockets full of IOUs from one industry or another pass these kinds of boondoggle laws meant solely to scratch the backs of pals and serving no legitimate interests of the State. And, as each year passes on we are more enslaved to government than ever before through overarching regulation.

Thomas Jefferson said that the blood of tyrants and patriots should water the tree of liberty every so often. We have long since passed the time when our Founders would have found government intolerable.

Source

Karastan Teams Up with Thom Filicia

MARCH 22, 2007 — Karastan, part of Dalton, Ga.-based Mohawk Industries, is taking its “Decorating From the Floor Up” (DFFU) in-store consumer event and putting it on the road with help from interior designer and TV personality Thom Filicia. Karastan has signed on Filicia and is creating an added component for its DFFU program, which brings decorating experts to participating retailers to conduct interactive seminars focusing on flooring solutions. “We are enormously enthusiastic to team with Thom Filicia and add a whole new dimension to Decorating From The Floor Up,” said David Duncan, vice president of marketing for Karastan. “Thom’s boundless talent as an interior designer plus his magnetic personality make him irresistibly appealing to a broad range of consumers. Our plan is to amplify the concept of DFFU and continue to offer our retailers and their clientele a service that no other floorcovering manufacturer can match.” The initial plan calls for visits in 2007 to several major markets, such as Boston and Chicago. Rather than appearing in-store, however, Filicia will headline events staged in local venues where several hundred consumers can attend. A Karastan gallery will be incorporated, as will an incentive to drive consumers into an authorized brand retailer following the event. A significant advertising campaign, including a mix of newspaper, spot TV and radio, and even regional buys of national magazines, will support this venture. And, to give it even greater traction, there are plans to offer a personal “meet-and-greet” with Filicia to individuals who make a contribution of $100 or more to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The charity, which funds education and research for breast cancer, has a longstanding partnership with Mohawk Industries.

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The New ‘Not Too’ Look

Call it Neo-Transitional. This middle ground for home furnishings falls between austere and overstyled – and it’s catching on.
By Patricia Hart McMillan
March 23, 2007

Fashion — even home fashion — is fickle.

Once-favorite styles eventually overstay their welcome.

Think Old World — overscaled, over-embellished, and, eventually, just plain over.

Think Modern — with its severe lines and austere surfaces that deprive the emotions.

The newest trend in home furnishings transitions between the “too-much” Old World and “too-little” Modern styles. Call the new, “not-too” look in home fashions Neo-Transitional style.

Neo-Transitional tweaks other styles. But it’s not necessary to become a furniture historian to tell the difference between Old World, Modern, and their Neo-Transitional counterparts. Old World and other fancy period styles become leaner, cleaner and scaled-down. Austere styles, such as Modern, Shaker, and Arts & Crafts, get softer, more gracious lines and perhaps a bit of carving or other embellishment.

Why this shift in design direction? Sensitive designers respond intuitively to society’s shifting moods.

“As a designer, I want to make things that seem fresh and of their era, but that are grounded in tradition,” says Jonathan Adler, a New York furniture designer who has a condo in Palm Beach and a namesake store on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach.

“Right now, some really traditional pieces look great, but they need a modern spin.”

And spin he does. In his Lampert sofa, for instance, Adler based some of the proportions and details on Louis XVI furniture, but cleaned up the lines and streamlined the details.

“It has the essence of a traditional formal sofa, but is a modern take on it,” he says.

Upholstery fabrics are also transitioning. The patterns, including those for pillows and rugs, are a modern, cleaner take on the traditional. He sees the Neo-Transitional look as one with a long life “because it has that `classic-ness.’”

“Much of what is being shown in design and decorating magazines and on the Internet and TV tends to be practical and functional, yet stylish,” adds Stefani Lucas, senior vice president at Rowe Furniture, parent of Robin Bruce, an upholstery line noteworthy for its clean-lined simplicity, classic proportions and brightly colored fabrics.

“Today’s consumers tend to want a sofa, for example, that they will not grow tired of. In the late ’80s and early ’90s there was a crescendo of fussiness — overstuffed, overscaled, overdesigned furniture. In the 2000s, there was an extreme swing to minimalism in color, form and decoration. Today, we’ve reached a nice balance,” she says.

This balance — the “not too” approach — is showing up in casegoods (the catchall word for dressers, chests and tables).

Stanley Furniture’s Louis Louis Collection presents a fresh interpretation of classic Louis Philippe design, adding discreet embellishment to this gently curved, not-too-robust, essentially plain style. Think of a Neo-Transitional Louis Louis piece as a little black dress — a timeless classic and wardrobe basic that can be dressed up or down.

Since kitchens are the new living room, kitchen cabinetry is following furniture’s lead.

Bill Ohs, founder and designer of Wm Ohs, an upscale kitchen cabinet line, says the new, less ornate designs combine Traditional overtones with Contemporary simplicity.

Designers know that the fashion-conscious are ready for a brand new look throughout the house. They also know that others will appreciate the fact that Neo-Transitional pieces mix and mingle easily with existing furniture and furnishings.

Source

A 12-Step Program For Going Green At Home

March 20 2007

If friends of the planet are like flowers, then I’m a dirt clod. I have painted with toxic paint, taken long showers, left the lights burning in rooms long abandoned, and run the air conditioning when I could have opened a window. I’ve done loads of laundry for only three items, used a 100-watt bulb when a 60 would suffice, driven when I could have walked, and dumped chlorine bleach straight down the drain. Now the ice caps are melting, and it’s all my fault because I’m guilty of everything. Al Gore says so.

I recently came out of my blissful state of being a planet pariah and noticed that everything around me was green. Not just because spring is here, but also because green is all anyone in the home design and building world is talking about. Magazines are launching green editions; builders are hosting green conferences. I’ve even heard talk of painting the White House green, with low-volatile- organic-compound paint of course, to form a Green House, for the soon to be installed Green Party, which will win for the first time in the next election thanks to a certain Inconvenient Truth posed by Al Gore, who really is a member of the Green Party but won’t admit it.

Anyway, call me late to that party, but this spring, I’m turning over a new leaf, a green leaf, an eco-friendly leaf, possibly from a bamboo tree, bamboo being an incredibly sustainable wood source since one stalk can grow 3 feet in one day, like an adolescent.

But back to my guilt trip. Realizing that I’m helpless in the face of my addiction to water, energy and certain chemical substances (like paint), I knew I couldn’t detox alone. I’d need a support group. First I reached out to a green book, “The Earthwise Home Manual – Eco-Friendly Interior Design and Home Improvement” (Green Home Publishing, 2006), by Kristina Detjen. This clarified my crimes and deepened my resolve to get green and sober. Then I called Detjen and said I needed a 12-step program for planet junkies. She said she would see what she could do. I also asked John Dunnihoo, general manager of West Coast Green, the country’s largest residential green building tradeshow, for help.

I confessed to both that I was skeptical of the whole green movement. I don’t want to slide back to the ’70s when people talked to their plants to help them grow. I’m sorry, that was just bizarre. However, I do want to do my part to preserve the planet, make a better world for my children, leave a softer footprint on the earth and all that. Detjen and Dunnihoo both graciously accepted my skepticism. (Denial is common among planet abusers, they said.) And they took on the challenge of making me greener at home.

Recognizing me for the hedonist I am, Detjen let slip that by going green I could also save some green – money, that is. Now she really had my attention.

Together they offered the following green tips, which I fashioned into a 12-step program:

Admit that you are powerless over your need to consume wastefully.

Give over to the higher power of your global community. Acknowledge that only through collective effort will we restore the planet to a balanced state.

Agree to replace all light bulbs in your home with compact fluorescent bulbs. Accept that though CFLs cost more, they last 10 times longer and use one-fourth the electricity.

Commit to actually use your home’s programmable thermostat the way it was intended. If you don’t have one, buy one. Promise to never again run the air conditioning when there’s a breeze outside.

Dedicate yourself to only running full loads of laundry, using the coolest water possible. Don’t over-dry clothes, and hang them up to dry more often.

Search for the Energy Star label when buying a new appliance. (The label is the Environmental Protection Agency’s stamp of approval for energy efficiency.)

Use more cloth napkins and towels, fewer paper ones.

Fully acknowledge the limits of our water supply. Scrape plates rather then rinse them when loading the dishwasher. Install a drip system for watering outdoor plants, and put a water-saving device (a capped jug of sand) in the toilet tank.

Choose paints with low or no VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Accept that they may go on runnier, but they won’t hurt the planet or give you a paint hangover.

Recycle everything you possibly can. If you don’t know how, check www.earth911.org.

Strive to repair, refinish or restore furniture you have rather than buy more. Or even better, buy more antiques.

If you fall off the wagon, get back on.

Source

Chic Junk

It’s Not Junk: It’s Chic
By Bonnie Britton
Monday, March 19, 2007

Repurposing for your home can mean anything from thinking of a new way to use a piece of furniture to turning junk into imaginative furniture and decor. It’s a way of life for some.

It’s a way of life for some.

Steve and Jim Kelley star in the popular HGTV show “Junk Brothers.” Taking a tired, burned-out electric stove and tricking it out for use as an outdoor grill is just one of their junk-to-die-for projects.

“There’s stuff we do on the show that’s over the top,” Jim says. “But there are parts of what we do that can be applied to everyday things.”

Sue Whitney and Ki Nassauer, editors-at-large and columnists for Country Home and JunkMarket Style magazines, are goddesses in the world of turning garage sale finds and trash into treasures.

“We really like the green aspect about recycling and reusing rather than putting it in a landfill,” says Whitney. “People with $3 million houses are (repurposing).”

So are interior designers. Annarie Cox of Annarie Cox Interior Design in Indianapolis moved to a new home and didn’t want to get rid of some cherished pieces.

So she removed the upholstered back portion from a mahogany ottoman and placed an unused piece of black marble on it for a top. She and husband Howard hung a gold-leaf pier mirror over it with the bottom resting on the base.

“Use and reuse your treasures throughout life for real pleasure and great joy,” says Cox.

TV’s “Junk Brothers” use their treasures to help others. They got their start in a family business, restoring fine antiques in Ottawa.

Now they scour neighborhoods for junk that’s been set out as trash, spirit it away in the night, and return it on the eve of the next trash day, repurposed.

That takes imagination, says Steve. “By brainstorming and bouncing ideas and a little trial and error, you never know what you’re going to get.”

Whitney and Ki Nassauer’s book, “Decorating JunkMarket Style,” and magazine are proof that castoffs can be turned into decorating items and furniture with cachet. In 2000, they started JunkMarket, a retail business, and now appear on HGTV’s “Country Style.”

They met as hockey moms in Minnesota and discovered a mutual passion for the throwaways at flea markets; soon they found themselves traveling the country looking for items they could transform.

Whitney says her children used to make fun of her, but now they understand her passion for making a house look great without spending much money.

The magazine and book are filled with how-to projects. Iron vents and woodblocks become a decorative ladder shelf. Mechanical games, predecessors of modern pinball machines, look great on walls as art. Vintage faucet handles mounted on factory thread holders hold fresh laundry. An upside-down birdcage easily transforms into a planter filled with cocoa matting.

Whitney estimates that over the years they have repurposed “thousands” of items, and jokes that she does it even in her sleep.

A 1930s truck door proved a challenge she couldn’t work out, though.

It was too heavy. She wanted to turn it into a case with a TV behind it. “I just had to say OK, can’t do it.”

A round grate that used to surround a stove vent is transformed into a candle-holder with the addition of a hurricane glass.

REPURPOSING TIPS

Got junk? Here’s some advice for repurposing household items.

From Jim Kelley and Steve Kelley, the Junk Brothers:

Have fun with it.

Ask questions.

Stay within your skill set.

Make sure the piece is functional when you’re finished.

From Sue Whitney, half of the original JunkMasters:

What stops most people is lack of confidence. Style and design is about your inner person. Start small. Take a glass lampshade from the 1930s, turn it over, put it on a base and make a fruit bowl.

If you look at something, forget about what it was and think about what it can be. As soon as you say, “This is not a steering wheel,” it’s a lazy Susan.

Old wire collapsible laundry baskets are great because you can use them to hold towels or kids’ toys. Slap a piece of glass on them and use them as a side table.

Watch for vintage fabrics. With ’60s or ’70s fabrics, stick to less bright colors and they’ll become more timeless.

If you’re going to make something from a drapery panel, buy one that’s soiled or with a bad spot. You’ll pay less and it still will serve your purpose.

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Creating A Green Office

Emerald Coast thrives in Thousand Oaks
By Stevi Costa
3/16/07

Improving the quality of your workplace for both customers and employees may be as simple as adding a few plants to your office.

But don’t worry if you don’t have a green thumb; interior landscaping companies can take care of all plant-related matters for you.

As proof of the popularity of plants at work, the five-year-old Thousand Oaks-based interior planting company Emerald Coast Plantscapes has made a name for itself through good design and client referrals. Emerald Coast owner and designer Kevin Urquhart and his team have created the interior plants for the Oxnard headquarters of Sysco Food Services of Ventura, Wachovia Securities of Westlake Village and Saxon Surgical Center of Thousand Oaks, among others.

“From a business perspective, buildings and offices that use plants are perceived to have a more prestigious feel to them,” Urquhart said. “But it also creates a general well-being for the employees and people who visit the building.”

Recent studies by both Rentokil Initial, the parent company of Riverwoods, Ill.-based Initial Tropical Plants, have proven that plants in the workplace have a number of benefits for the workplace, including the creation of better acoustics by diffracting background noise, increasing relative humidity for comfort, and purifying the air—all of which lead to reduced absenteeism among employees.

“There are a lot of things that people don’t realize that plants do for business,” said Todd Ferguson, regional vice president of Initial Tropical Plants for the Los Angeles offices, which services the counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles.

Initial Tropical Plants is responsible for the interior landscapes of Calabasas-based Cheesecake Factory and each of its restaurants throughout the United States. Ferguson and his team also designed and maintain the interior plants at Ventura’s Pacific View Mall.

In addition to creating a more pleasant environment for workers in the building, using plants in restaurants and shopping malls encourages shoppers to stay longer and spend more time and money in the facility, Ferguson said.

Another way in which Initial Tropical Plants creates pleasant environments is through Microfesh ambient scenting. Microfesh can be filtered through a building’s air system so that the pleasant smell will create an ambiance throughout the building. The technology is used in a number of department stores, such as Nordstrom’s, and in many Las Vegas casinos. For example, “MicroFresh technology scents the entire New York, New York hotel to smell like a green apple,” Ferguson said.

In addition to his young “plantscaping” business, Emerald Coast owner Urquhart has 20 years of experience in interior design. Emerald Coast Plantscapes works hand-in-hand with local interior designers who are looking for decorative plants and containers to match the feel of the room they’re creating.

“I have a background in horticulture and interior design,” he said. “Interior designers trust me to create the right look.”

Emerald Coast Plantscapes is not a nursery open to the public, although design clients can sometimes visit Emerald’s headquarters and choose plant accessories from stock on-hand when faced with tight deadlines.

The company uses live specimen-grade plants that are grown in Hawaii and Florida, imported to California and acclimated in greenhouses for indoor-use.

Emerald Coast also specializes in utilizing interior plants to enhance real estate transactions.

“Plants increase the marketability of a building for leasing or for sale,” Urquhart said. Apartment complexes, model homes and commercial retail spaces utilize interior plants to make the rental and leasing spaces more marketable to tenants, and also help in retaining tenants.

Both Emerald Coast Plantscapes and Initial Tropical Plants provide routine maintenance with their interior plant installations and will replace plants that do not thrive. Both companies are supporters of Plants at Work, a national information campaign that works with the interior landscaping industry to promote the benefits of plants in the workplace.

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