Images from Lori Dennis' website
She is soon to release a book worth reading: Green Interior Design. I must remember to get it from Amazon this Christmas :)
Images from Amazon
Promising to be a beautiful book with gorgeous photos, projects and extensive resources who practice green behavior and business strategies. Of course, Lori includes plenty of inspirational and cost-effective tips to creating glamorously green interiors in almost every aspect of creating a beautiful house and home, from furniture and accessories, window treatments, fabrics, surface materials, appliances, plumbing fixtures to the outdoor living.
Images from Lori Dennis' website
Make sure you tour Lori Dennis' home!
Images from Lori Dennis' website
Lori shared some simple and zero-cost eco-green tips for us all:
1. Clean often (and vacuum) with non toxic products. That layer of dust in your home includes dead skin from humans and pets (no so bad) and a breakdown of walls, fabrics, paints, plastics which probably contain carcinogens. This is why interior air is often more harmful than exterior air. Keeping it clean is one of your best Green Interior Design strategies. A proper green clean arsenal includes:
• white vinegar, baking soda, peroxide and rags for cleaning
• vegetable oil with a few drops of lemon for polishing
• a hefty portion of elbow grease
2. Remove shoes when entering your home. You wouldn’t believe how many toxins your shoes pick up from the streets, driveways and gardens. Taking off shoes before entering a home helps to prevent these chemicals from coming inside. Yay, being from Malaysia, I'm glad I was brought up taking shoes off at the door and keep it to this day even in Australia.
3. Open the windows and let the sunshine in. Sunlight is a natural disinfectant. Even if you live in an apartment, you can place pillows, blankets and mattresses in front of an open window to allow solar rays and fresh air to help sanitize them.
It’s a lot easier than steam cleaning them too! Yes I can't stand being in homes where the windows are always closed, four seasons, 365 days around. Sunshine is the best feeling. While I don't like being in the sun directly, I almost NEED sunshine in the home. I also don't like using a dryer. I much prefer the sun beating down on my linen. I love whitening my white linens with sunshine rays. Beats harmful bleaches.
4. Reuse what you already have. If you are inspired by a space you see in a magazine, look around your home or office. What pieces do you have that are a similar look, scale, color? Arrange existing items in the same way as the magazine spread. You’ll be amazed by how you old things take on a fresh, new look.
Images from Lori Dennis' website
5. Next time you’re going to buy cut flowers, consider a flowering plant instead. If you take care of it, it can last for decades. An added bonus is that plants help to clean the air and produce oxygen. Gerber Daisies, Peace Lilies and Bamboo are cool looking plants that do this well. Studies have shown that plants improve your mood. Market cut flowers are expensive and usually grown with copious amounts of petrochemical pesticides, insecticides and herbicides, plus they often travel across continents to get to you. That’s a lot of poison production and wasted energy.
6. If you really want or need something entirely new, comb through what you have. Sell something that you aren’t using on Craigslist or at a yard sale to offset the cost of the new item. Preferably buy the “new” item used. One man’s trash is another’s treasure.
7. If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down. Arid states like California are familiar with this drought time slogan. In an attempt to use less water only flush when absolutely necessary- or when guests arrive. Yes. hehehehe we have done this for years hahahaha
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