Eco-interiors: how to look after your home and the environment

by Natasha Christou Digital Marketing Consultant

Eco-friendly design can go hand in hand with stylish interiors. Whether you’re looking to revamp your living room or deck out your log cabin, there is a way to create a gorgeous scheme while staying environmentally conscious. Check out our best tips and tricks to create a perfect, ethical home.

Eco-friendly curtains

As the textile industry has a lot to answer for environmentally, you should think ethically while picking your new curtains. Your curtains can work hard towards reducing your heating costs, if you pick wisely. Plus, the way the curtains themselves are made can also be very eco-conscious.

Fibres such as cotton, silk, bamboo, and wool are a good eco-friendly options. For a more earthy look, linen and hemp curtains definitely add to the vibe. Plus, making sure these materials haven’t been dyed (or, at least, ensuring they were dyed with low-toxicity/low-impact dyes), is a must for an environmentally friendly home.

If you want to keep your home cool in the summer months, opt for light coloured curtains. This helps with cooling your home in the summer and closing your curtains during sunny days will keep you house cool. Conversely, closing the curtains will keep the heat in the room during the winter months, meaning your radiators don’t have to work as hard.

Stylish sofas

Choosing your next new sofa can feel like a big commitment. Not only is it certainly an investment, it is also a big design choice. After all, the sofa can’t help but be a huge focus of your room!

If you pick a sofa purely because of style, you could fall into the trap of supporting a brand that has a negative environmental impact. There are a number of things to look out for where picking your perfect, eco-friendly sofa:

· Are the materials used to make it recycled?

o If not, are they sourced sustainably?

· Can the materials of the sofa be recycled again at the end of its life?

· For wood materials used, are they sealed with an environmentally friendly oil finish?

Environmental Shelves

Create a green vibe in your home with some eco-friendly shelves. You can embrace either the rustic, rugged look or the sleeker modern feel of wooden shelves: so long as it’s upcycled and reclaimed, you’re good to try any style!

Upcycled shelves are great if you’re keen on getting crafty. One on-trend and simple-to-make shelving idea is hanging shelves: a little rope, leather cord, or chain coupled with reclaimed wood, be it an old wooden pallet or an unused skateboard makes for a minimalistic boho look.

Green air fresheners

Air fresheners can be toxic to the environment and wholly unnecessary. Get rid of synthetic air fresheners and couple all your eco-friendly air freshener needs with another element of environmentally-sound interior design: houseplants.

Choose from this selection of houseplants, they will all keep you home smelling fresh:

· Devil’s Ivy

· Peace lily

· Spider plant

· Aloe vera

Ethical flooring

When it comes to flooring, you could go full rustic with a reclaimed wood look. Alternatively, there are a number of different materials to consider when picking out the best flooring option for you, including:

· Cork

· Bamboo

· Glass tiles

· Wool carpet

It is essential with flooring to do you research: some dyes used in household flooring are not eco-friendly. Some are highly toxic, so even if the material is sustainable, the process of making the flooring becomes decidedly not-eco-sound!

Once you’ve got your flooring sorted, you’ll want to start looking for a rug. Consider a sisal and sweet-grass woven rug. This plant-based rug is made from plants similar to bamboo, and they grow plentifully, meaning it doesn’t harm the environment to make them.

Making your home eco-friendly is beneficial to both you and the world around you — and when you can pair his with creating a stylish aesthetic, you’ll feel happy and achieved in your new space. Be sure to take an extra moment to consider the materials and their process in becoming furnishings before you commit to buying.