Top Ten Tips For Sustainable Interior Design
Incorporating sustainable interior design into your home can seem intimidating. With so many choices on the market and differing opinions it can be easy to become overwhelmed. In order to help, we’ve compiled our top ten tips on incorporating sustainable interior design, drawing on all the knowledge we’ve compiled over several years of business and working with numerous interior designers.
Keep reading to get all of our best tips!
One: Start Small
Our first tip is don’t rush to make large overhauls to your interiors, small changes can make a big difference, and they are then more sustainable interior design choices as this ensures less materials are used or waste created. Changing items such as soft furnishings, cushions curtains etc. can provide seasonal adaptations keeping the look of the room fresh and up to date without completely redecorating. Also, rearranging the existing layout of your furniture can really help to switch things up.
Two: Consider Reclaimed Wood
If you are looking for new furniture pieces to switch up your home, consider incorporating items made with reclaimed wood as an alternative sustainable interior design option. Choosing reclaimed wood for your interiors helps to reduce waste and allows these materials to have a second life. These items are useful if you’re looking for something very specific as they can often offer adjustments to suit your home. We offer a range of reclaimed wood furniture, using wood from churches and chapels in the local area.
Three: The Benefits of Plants
Adding plants can be a wonderful adaptation to your home for more sustainable interior design. They are useful both in terms of functionality and aesthetics, as they will help filter the air within your home while adding a lovely warmth into your colour scheme, and they work in both neutral and colourful interiors.
Four: Keeping Your Home Cosy
If you’re looking to warm your home while adding details to your interiors, including rugs and carpets in your home décor can make all the difference! The warmth of carpets and rugs can greatly improve heat retention within your home, insulating your spaces up to 10% more than without these additions.
There are a number of options to include rugs and carpets, with a variety of beautiful antique rugs available, while carpets are now being produced in a range of more environmentally friendly materials such as organic cotton, wool, seagrass and bamboo. There are also options produced using recycled materials such as plastic bottles. With so much variety on the market, there is bound to be the right material to help you make more sustainable interior design choices for flooring.
Five: Utilising Natural Light
A key component of achieving more sustainable interior design is really focusing on maximising the amount of natural light within your space. This will help reduce your electricity bills while also boosting mood and bringing warmth and cheer into your home. You can harness more natural lighting within your home in a variety of ways depending on your budget and the stage of your renovations.
For example, carefully considering the size of the doors and windows you are choosing at the beginning of your renovations can have a large impact on the amount of natural light you are able to harness. Smaller changes include picking a lighter colour scheme which will make the space feel both lighter and bigger or incorporating mirrors and other light reflecting objects to further enhance this effect.
Image Via Pinterest
Six: Adding a Splash of Colour
Colour schemes can add such depth and character to interiors, so sourcing ways to achieve this in sustainable interior design is of the utmost importance. Environmentally friendly paints are becoming increasingly easier to source and are available in a wide range of colours.
It is important that the paint has little or none VOCs (volatile organic compounds), solvents or heavy metals in order to be the healthiest for you and for the planet, water based paints are generally considered to be the most sustainable option on the market. Water based paints produce less harmful chemicals, are odour free and are more biodegradable than standard paints.
Seven: Looking Locally
When making styling changes, sourcing local homeware is key to making more sustainable interior design choices. Having a better understanding of how, where and who made your items enables you to be more environmentally friendly.
With the reduced environmental impact from shopping locally and the wide range available, there’s no need to look anywhere else! Why not check out our wonderful 100% British wool blankets made in Wales?
Eight: Focus On What You Love
While we love looking up the latest design trends and you can implement these sustainably. Ultimately we’d encourage you to prioritise buying what you love above trends, as this will help you create a space that transcends changes in style and truly suits you and your needs, making it the most sustainable option for you.
Nine: Repurposing
Another of our favourite tips for sustainable interior design is to repurpose items you already own, whether this is making small changes to the item such a changing handles or fixtures, or finding an alternative use within a different space in your home. Repurposing brings new life to a piece, saving you money and reducing waste.
Ten: Restored Antiques
Last but not least, our final tip is to buy antiques! While giving furniture a second life you are gaining a piece where the quality and craftsmanship is unmatched by modern equivalents, and the history and tradition can be continued on in your own home.
There are many possibilities when shopping for antiques, from antiques dealers to up-and-coming antiques retailers like Penderyn Antiques, there are so many great places to shop. We offer a wide range of antique furniture, delivered for free throughout England and Wales. So if you’re looking for rustic farmhouse furniture or carved and gothic, we’ll have the perfect piece for you on your sustainable interior design journey!
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