Eco-Chic Interior Design

An interior designer from Cherry Hill, NJ finds a way to bring the art of recycling to the Internet.
Written by Michael L. Brachman, Ph.D.

Eco-Chic Interior Designer from Cherry Hill, NJ launches UsedFurnitureFindex.com, a web site to sell and buy home furnishings, once loved.

Philadelphia, PA – Apr 19, 2007 — /prbuzz/ — UsedFurnitureFindex.com is an ecologically conscientious web site designed to make it easy for buyers and sellers of used furniture to find each other and help do it Green by recycling home furnishings. It is essentially a set of online classified ads but with pictures and a unique super-fast search engine designed specifically for furniture. The web site launched in June of 2006 and is a delight to all.

While there is nothing exactly like it out there, many ask how the web site differs from Ebay and Craigslist. Unlike Ebay, UsedFurnitureFindex.com takes no commission. The business model is very honest and straightforward. For sellers, it costs just $5.00 for a single listing and is free for buyers to find. The buyer and seller work out the delivery details just like a classified ad. The fantastic feature of zooming into each photo posted solves another problem of having to drive all over town, just to look at a piece of furniture saving precious time and gas.

Unlike Craigslist, UsedFurnitureFindex.com has a unique and super-fast search engine designed specifically for home furnishings. Users can search by keyword, condition, dimension, distance, quality level, price and more. The most powerful aspect of this search engine is its ability to search by dimension which allows users to find exactly the right size meeting the requirements of wherever it is going to be lovingly placed. Sellers can include up to four pictures. Buyers can zoom in and examine the furniture up close, almost like being there. Navigation is simple, easy and effective

When compared to classified ads, UsedFurnitureFindex.com offers a number of compelling advantages to sellers. Sellers can avoid the hassle normally associated with classified ads; dealing with the phone calls, having strangers wander through their house and the high cost of black & white three-line want ads. The web site is both regional and national. Built upon ZIP code, users can search locally or across the country.

Buyers include:

• First-time homeowners
• Young professionals
• Second home owners
• Newly separated or divorced people
• College students arriving at school or going off on their own
• Interior designers and their clients
• Businesses
•Charities

Sellers include:

• Empty nesters
• Estate liquidators
• Storage facilities
• Furniture stores
• College students leaving their furniture behind
• Manufacturers
• Spring cleaners
• Redecorators

New features are constantly being added to UsedFurnitureFindex.com; the latest being My Findex. Here users can add items to a watch list, create a wish list, manage their listings and their account information. Also included on the web site is the Home Improvement and Services Directory, listed by ZIP code. Users can find home-related services locally or regionally.

Denise H. Cooperman, the inventor of UsedFurnitureFindex.com, has been in the home furnishings industry for over 25 years and during those years, each client has questioned what to do with belongings no longer needed. Most do not want to list in the paper or even attempt using eBay. UsedFurnitureFindex.com answers all these needs. Denise herself practices the art of “reinventing” which is giving a piece of old furniture, once loved, a brand new life with a refurbishing or new function. Her catchphrase is “Do it Green, but let’s make it Aqua” to show that recycling can be both eco-chic and magnificent. So go to UsedFurnitureFindex.com and find that special piece that was once loved, give it a new home and keep our world green.

For more information contact:

Denise H. Cooperman
URL: http://www.UsedFurnitureFindex.com
Email: dcooperman@furniturefindex.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
Ph: 1-609-314-9668
Fax: 1-856-489-6281

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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.

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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.

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