Natural and Sustainable

The fabrics you pick for your upholstery pieces and the lighting fixtures you place overhead and at tabletop height can make a room sparkle or fall flat. Hi-sheen fabrics like chenille or silk, jewel-like materials and lots and lots of lighting to bring a space to life. Special touches such as classic nail a space to accentuate upholstery profiles and several lighting fixtures with mother-a-pearl and glass beads for sheer iridescence. With each room makeover, ask yourself, Where is the sparkle? Here’s how to get that question answered:

FABRIC: Drawing attention to a focal piece. Determine which upholstery silhouette to accentuate. Choose a design detail on one or two pieces that you want to draw attention to, such as a dramatic rolled arm or multibutton tufts, and selecting fabrics with some sheen. You want to let the details shine in a luxuriously shiny fabric. To give the room added interest, incorporate contrasting elements throughout, like textured rather than shiny fabrics on the accompanying upholstry or a rugged coffee table or wall cabinet. Contrast brings depth and balance to the décor. You don’t want every piece in the room to have some sort of shine to it. It’s too much. So pick and choose which upholstered piece to wrap in a luminescent fabric and let the lighting do the rest.

LIGHTING: The most important element, of any renovation is lighting. Without it, décor falls short of the sparkle factor, and the project budget is wasted. To determine the layout, look at the space from a theatrical stand point-like a stage with a good lighting plan. Position recessed lighting to hit the folds of a drapery panel or the pin-cushioned seat back of a sofa. For tabeltop lamps and wall sconces that add to the room’s glistening glamour, try fixtures that incorporate materials like the mother-of-pearl and maybe some beach glass.

FIXTURES: Play up the lighting. Use traditional fixtures and incorporate reflective materials for signature sparkle. Don’t be afraid to bring fixtures into your décor of contrasting materials. Equally brillant and bright are fixtures constructed of unlikely combinations of sleek and not-so-sleek materials like mother-of-pearl, which has a iridescent color quality to it, with dark wood or leather. It’s about playing up to the surrounding décor.

BULBS: Use ones that truely flatter. Halogen bulbs are the designer’s No. 1 choice in overhead, or recessed, lighting. Place them at the perimeter of the wall to light up things. “Can” lights do the same things but those on a “track” get the job done as well. Halogen bulbs are a good choice for the remainder of the lighting. They produce true colors and tend to be more flattering, giving off a natural white light. Stay away from iridescent or incandescent light bulbs, they produce a yellow tint and often make the décor look dull. They are also worse on your electric bill. For more natural decorating tips go to Norwalk Furniture or Aflighting.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women. Read how you can help with the cause and protect yourself or your loved ones from this silence killer, here.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Cover pots on the stove to avoid losing excess heat and wasting energy.

When rains rinse and refresh the outdoors, decks, patios and everything on them get a bath too. But, once it’s dry you see the remining film that stays: dirt, bird droppings, sticky tree sap and buds or whatever other debris that gets carried in the wind to land on your patio. These outdoor elements and others cause your furniture to stain, discolor and wear out much faster. Keeping patio furniture looking like new for a long period of time is not difficult. Proper cleaning and maintenance will extend the life of your furniture. Here are some tips to caring for your outdoor furniture everyday and especially during the winter months in a natural more earth friendly way:

• Wash it with a good cleaner at the beginning of the season and then once a week rinse off with a hose. Both dirt and chlorine in the water will deteriorate patio furniture.

• When cleaning viunyl patio furniture, never use a harsh brush or bleach. The brush may create pores in the vinyl, damaging it and causing it to lose its shape. Plus, the bleach will deteriorate the vinyl.

• Check to make sure that none of the bolts holding the furniture together are rusty. Replace them if they are, and tighten them throughly.

• If the paint on aluminum furniture is in poor condition, rub it gently with a piece of fine steel wool or sandpaper to smooth it out. Next, take some standard car-wash polish to buff the furniture back to tis original luster.

• Touch up wrought-iron furniture immediately if bare metal is exposed to prevent rusting. A rust-resistant primer on the spots will help the rust from spreading under the paint.

• Wicker furniture will stay looking its best if it is kept in the shade, as the sun tends to dry it out. If the wicker finish is damaged, bring it back to life by using a permanent marking pen that matches the color to blend away the exposed areas. To give a piece a whole new look, spray paint each piece with outdoor spray paint.

• Don’t forget to clean your glass patio table. Remove the glass top carefully, over the grass (so it doens’t shatter if you drop it).

• Put furniture, wood, metal and glass or plastic aways for the winter by covering it with plastic, and storing it in a dry basement or garage. If it must be kept outside, cover it with a tarp.

The Madame Tussauds Wax Museum opens in Washington, D.C., read all about it here.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Always wash your clothes in cold water. For stained or heavily dirty clothes, use warm or hot depending on the stain. All others should be washed in cold water. If you are washing bedding, wash it in cold and use color safe bleach to kill bed bugs and to get out stains and odors. Cold water gets out smells and everyday wear just as easy.

Dust is full of chemicals!
Clean Production Action, a nonprofit group that promotes the development of sustainable products, tested the vacuum dust in 70 homes across the country and found toxic chemicals in every sample. The list included not only PBDEs but also phthalates (plasticizers in vinyl, hair sprays, and nail polishes), organotins (an additive in vinyl), alkylphenols (found in paint and cleaners), perfluorinates surfacants (in floor polishes, herbicides, and insecticides), and pesticides. These substances may cause allergies and asthma; harm your cardiovascular, nervous, and reproductive systems; and lead to breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers.

So how did they get into your house? It is beleived that these chemicals are in every home with consumer products. Computers, shower curtains, and wallpapper emit chemicals that settle into dust, which we breath, eat, and absorb through our skin. Manufacturers didn’t expect these chemcials to leach out of their products, but it’s happening. They off-gas the most when the’re brand-new, but continue to do so at lower levels through their life. What is not know yet is the level at which this exposure become a poison. To be safe, lower your home’s chemcials burden by keeping it well ventilated (open windows!), using a HEPA vacuum, and avoiding products made with flame retardants and vinyl. Go to Safer-Products for a list of manufacturers that are phasing out these chcmeicals.

For more environmental knowledge go to Environment Talk

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: To reduce your carbon footprint, only leave footprints when you travel. Never leave behind trash. Never pick vegetation unless you’re going to eat it. And you should never pick flowers, trees, or berries in a nation forest or nation park.

A Bend business is couching hoe décor in environmental terms by offering furniture made from materials that are organic, sustainable or recycled.

So John Byfield and Kate Heber created Zola. They know that some conventional furniture can contain high levels of toxic chemicals. So Zola’s materials have no harsh dyes and don’t emit toxic gases, called off-gassing. The products are aimed at the growing number of Central Oregonians moving toward green living and environmentally sustainable practices.

Zolas products aren’t cheap because organic and natural goods cost more. Items range frtom $1,595 for a chair to upward of $70,000 for a full living room set. But, hopefully sales volumes will drop the pricing in the future.

(Source: Some information pulled from the Democrat Herald)

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Join Mission Organic 2010 with the Organic Center and start living a more environmentally, sustainable and natural lifestyle today!