6 ways to introduce sustainable style to your home

Temperatures around the globe are soaring. Summers are getting hotter. Winter is colder and wetter. Our planet is asking us questions and we have a collective responsibility to do our bit to help. Introducing sustainability to your home through making environmentally friendly choices is one way to play a small part in reducing waste and limit our impact on the planet.

Sustainability is one of The Odd Thing’s values. My purpose is to save items from landfill and reinvent pieces responsibly with minimal waste and impact on the environment. Where possible, I choose environmentally friendly mineral paints and buy materials from local suppliers to reduce transport miles.

I love helping clients to bring sustainability to their homes through ideas for furniture design and transformations. Here are some other ideas to inspire you...

1. Use second-hand fabrics

Search local charity shops for curtains, bedding and blankets to use in reupholstery projects such as cushions, foot stools and chair seat pads. You can source some amazing retro and vintage fabrics. How about creating a throwback padded headboard! Even old clothing can become something brand new if you love the fabric. It’s worth a look around to create something that’s truly unique to your home.

A word of warning - it’s unlikely second-hand fabrics will meet modern fire regulations. If they are for your own home and you’re comfortable with the risk, then they are perfectly okay to use. You can also have certain fabrics treated with a fire retardant coating - search online to find out how.

2. Furniture upcycling

Upcycling is the perfect option for when you don’t like the look of furniture or it no longer fits the style of your home. Perhaps you’ve redecorated and a piece that used to look great in there now stands out like a sore thumb. Maybe you’ve moved to a new house and certain furniture looks out of place.

There’s so much that you can achieve through upcycling furniture. It’s never just a simple coat of paint. I’ve transformed pieces by introducing fabric, gilding, wallpaper, and even a spot of graffiti!

3. Make new furniture from old

Another sustainable interiors idea is to transform items you want to keep. I’ve turned a family heirloom tool box into a side table, and a top quality child’s wardrobe into a cocktail cabinet. If you need ideas, you know where to come!

4. Build using reclaimed materials  

Anyone with a shed, garage or outbuilding has a stash of wood offcuts (we all do!). With some design inspiration and a few tools, you can easily turn them from bleak to something chic and useful for your home. Take a look at this bench seat I created from the frame of a pine bed.

You can use reclaimed materials for both furniture and accessories, for example a mirror or picture frame made from leftover architrave, shelving from wood offcuts, even the wonkiest piece of wood can become a Christmas decoration or a tea light holder.

5. Source paint that’s kinder to the environment

Painting a small piece of furniture like a side table can create an immediate transformation, but if you’re only paint a small item you don’t always want to buy a full can of paint. Local Facebook, Freegle and Freecycle groups are great places to pick up leftover paint from other people’s projects that would otherwise end up in the skip. Search and see what you can find.    

At The Odd Thing workshop I always choose water-based or mineral-based paint over oil-based. It’s much kinder to the environment - and easier to clean up afterwards too.

6. Repair and restore older pieces

Don’t throw away furniture that has seen better days. Sometimes all it needs is some tender loving care to bring it back to life again. Wobbly legs, broken strapping, scratches and missing parts can all be fixed or sourced. Layers of paint and varnish can be removed to reveal the beauty that lies underneath.

I do a lot of repair and restoration on much-loved furniture that has been passed through generations, returning pieces to their former glory with brilliant results.    

Bring unique sustainable style to your home

Making sustainable interior choices is a brilliant way to introduce unique and quirky design to your home and limit your personal impact on the planet.

If you’re interested in learning more about sustainable furniture design, build or upcycling, please get in touch for a chat.