Eco-Friendly Interior Design Strategies

Many people think that changing their home to have an eco friendly interior will be expensive and complicated but there are many simple interior design strategies you can implement to make a big difference in how eco-friendly your home is. Start with a few small projects, they can make a big impact and they may also inspire you to move on to bigger projects as well.

Make Your Walls Green

Using green thinking when it comes to your walls is a great idea for everyone, it means thinking about the effect the paint  and wall coverings you choose will have on the air you breathe inside your home. Today there are so many options for eco-friendly paint to choose from. Look for paint that is marked to have low or no VOCs which means it will not be emitting as many chemicals into the air. These paints use water as the base instead of oil. You do not have to sacrifice on design to make your home eco-friendly. Eco-friendly wallpaper is available as well that uses less synthetic fibers in it and water based inks on the paper.

Natural Fabrics in the Home

The more you can use natural fabrics in the home, the more eco-friendly it will be. Avoid synthetic fibers as much as possible in everything from wallpaper to curtains to the furniture. Look for items made from organic cotton, hemp or bamboo. For carpet in the home check for wool or sisal or use organic cotton or jute area rugs. Wood flooring is great but wood flooring marked as FSC is even better, this means it came from a forest sustainably managed. For countertops and tile flooring consider materials that are already fairly green such as porcelain or ceramic. To add to the impact you can instead use recycled tile or recycled glass countertops.

Tread Lightly

Believe it or not lighting in the home is another great and easy way to add eco-friendly design strategies. Changing out all the light bulbs to compact florescent bulbs in the home is a great place to start but to add to the interior design element of the home you have to go to the next level. Using several smaller lamps throughout the room instead of one big overhead lighting fixture is a good strategy as well. This causes you to only use the light in the area of the room that is needed instead of unnecessarily lighting the entire room. There are some lighting fixtures now that are designed to be eco-friendly. Besides being more energy efficient they are made from recycled glass and other green products that make it better for the environment.

Overall Eco-Friendly Thinking

In the big picture of the design of your home, try to think of each new item you purchase and where it came from. Purchasing recycled items or items that use reclaimed materials is great. Buying things second hand will also help. Another thing to keep in mind is if you purchase from local designers and suppliers then the materials are not being shipped and you are helping the impact on the environment there.