Achieving an eco-friendly home interior — top 5 sustainable interior design ideas
(3 min read) Sustainability is truly a prevalent topic these days and for a good reason. Trying to fix the earth has never been more important than now when it is seemingly dying. Deforestation, pollution, climate change, and the catastrophic loss of biodiversity are all our faults. We’ve managed to almost completely wipe out the ecosystems which are the very fabric of life on earth. On that note, many of us are starting to do our best on all fronts to remedy at least some of the damage we’ve done.
When it comes to interior design, being eco-friendly is easier than you may think. Creating a home that will help the planet ultimately comes down to avoiding things that can harm it. Sustainability in interior design basically aims to stop the negative impact overconsumption has on our planet.
If you’ve opted to start living a more environmentally conscious life and create a healthy eco-system in your own home but you’re not sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place. Here is a couple of major tips and tricks that will get you started on your road to an eco-friendly living space.
1. Energy-efficient basics
This one is for those among you that are starting from scratch, or, to put it in better terms — sketch. Just like any other home, an eco-friendly home starts from its construction. Designing your home to reduce the need for additional lighting, heating and electric energy for appliances is a step in the environmentally friendly direction. Minimizing energy consumption is one of the ways to live sustainably, but there are plenty of other approaches to consider. From the usage of renewable, non-carbon energy sources, to design innovation, there are plenty of things you can do from the very get-go to help the planet.
2. Go for local and fair-trade products
Supporting local creators and small businesses is at the forefront of sustainable living. By choosing local you are reducing the requirements of long-distance shipping, not to mention that local products are often original and unique. By opting for fair trade products, you are opting for all of the values it fair trade stands for, including transparency, ethics, and equity.
3. Retrofit, reclaim and recycle
Retrofitting basically means using or updating the existing structures in your living space. By doing so you will significantly cut waste and the overall process will result in both innovative and green solutions. The same goes for reclaiming and recycling old furnishings. Whether you decide to reupholster your old sofa or visit a garage sale and buy a bench to refinish, is of no importance. Renovating and reusing is the key component of sustainable living practice.
Retrofitting and reusing some refinished old furniture. Credit: Norse Interiors.
4. Low-impact materials
Avoiding non-renewable and harmful materials in your household is a must of sustainable day-to-day life. This sounds easy, but it’s actually a pretty tricky business. Anyone can tell you that you should steer clear of fossil fuels, nylon, plastic, polyester, etc. On the other hand, there are some materials that are allegedly all good and sustainable according to their deceiving marketing tactics. For example, rayon has a coveted natural tag and it truly is a biodegradable plant fiber. However, the process of manufacturing rayon involves energy, water, and chemical-intensive. In conclusion, educate yourself and be mindful of the things in your household.
5. Decorate sustainably — choose mosaic art
Sustainable interior decor products are low-impact, timeless, and durable. Making this choice means that some decorative items you choose maybe more expensive, but they will also last much longer than their cheap counterparts. Cheap, lower quality products will create waste because they wear quicker and they are often created from unsustainable practices. However, you don’t have to spend bundles of hard-earned cash to have sustainable décor. The best décor option to fit and fulfill the narrative of sustainability is most definitely — mosaic art. Mosaic art in itself is made of natural materials, its maintenance doesn’t require any chemical compound and it will last for at least a couple of lifetimes.
Sustainability is slowly becoming an integral part of our everyday lives and manufacturers from various fields from all over the world are currently busy underlining and highlighting their environmental credentials. Our credentials have been underlined a long time ago. Join us on a quest of saving the planet and start living sustainably today!
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55 Comments
I love how more sustainable materials and ideas are making their way into home design…about time too!
I love all the plants indoors! I would love to have that crescent shaped section in my house with plants in it.
I love this post for a million reasons. I am all about recycling, reusing, and up until recently repurposing. We were doing some mild upgrades to our home, and I wanted to toss our dining table. My husband quickly reminded me that it’s wood and can be sanded, and it will look new when it’s done. We can all do our part in fighting for our Earth’s future. I love the mosaics, and I love the topic you chose to bring your work to life.
You made a critical point when you referred to “Cheap, lower quality products…” When you buy cheap, you buy twice, and as you went on to say, it “will create waste because they wear quicker and they are often created from unsustainable practices.”
Excellent post, my favourite to date.
My husband and I were just talking about making changes like these. Thank you for giving me the info I was looking for!
I love all your pieces, the spaces and the concept. Thank you for helping to save the earth!
Some superb ideas on making home and office space more sustainable. I wish more places would implement this
I really like the idea of integrating organic materials into home decor. That’s why there is a lot of wood or wooden accents in my house.
I’ll have to admit that when it comes to interior design for us, being eco-friendly has not yet been a consideration.
I am glad you mentioned recycling. So many amazing things are being made from recycled materials.
Wow these are brilliant, I love neutral colors as you can mix and match with so many different things.
Having said that even as they are, so calming,would like to one day be able to arrange my living place like this.
Such awesome ideas. We have made some solid moves to living more sustainably so this speaks to me!
Those are some great tips. That designs are beautiful too!
These spaces look amazing. I am inspired to do some eco-friendly designs.
I did try to recycle and reuse things when we did our home renovations as much as possible. But I do think there are more things we could have done to be sustainable x
This is a very futuristic design for any large home. It may work for smaller space too but I believe a bigger space will work best.
I just came back to see the first bathroom mosaic. Go big or go home. That is gorgeous. Pinning it.
These are all such great ideas! Some are more attainable depending on where you live. For example I have a hard time finding locally sourced products and food since we live in a big city. But we still do what we can around the house and try to reuse things as much as possible before they are wasted.
Wow, and so many of these interior designs look amazing. I love the idea of being able to recycle things to decorate your home.
I love your interior design ideas. I was looking for some ideas for our newly renovated house. Thanks for sharing.
I think the most difficult part of home sustainability is energy conservation when the home wasn’t designed for it from the beginning. The interior design can help alleviate this issue.
I love and appreciate all these eco-friendly ideas. Reusing and recycling is such a great way to help the planet and can also be more affordable. Lovely post!
This article is extremely helpful! I’ve been slowly incorporating more eco-friendly and reusable options into my life, plus im in the process of moving! Great tips!
I love the eco-friendly designs. It looks pretty natural.
I love these ideas! Interior designers have a tremendous impact on the sustainability of an environment because they are the ones deciding which materials and products will be used and how ecologically people will be able to interact with their surrounding spaces.
The photos show some incredibly stunning homes and offices. So inspiring. And I appreciate all the tips for designing with sustainability in mind!
I just love all these ideas for eco-friendly designs. The mosaics are absolutely beautiful and brilliant.
Designs that look good and feel good! Love that! Thank you for sharing these great ideas!
everything looks so beautiful! I absolutely love it! I love eco trends lately, it adds so much to the living places
All of these styles are so me. I just need my whole decorated like all of it
I love the recycle because I also do that! Also, I agree with supporting locals.
I love this post. I repurpose old furniture whenever possible and I love to upcycle things. I would also love to look into renewable energy.
I would love to add some mosaics art to my apartment. After two years, it still looks kind of plain with only the basic necessities.
Fair trade is a good movement to help local produce. I agree your point on using fair trade product in home decor. Well done.
My grandparents always used recycled lots of furniture, reupholstering and finding trash furniture that otherwise would have gone to waste. It’s a great way to spend money too.
I love all these recommendations. It’s important to find an aesthetic that will last beyond a lifetime.
Sustainability is something we all need to consider in our home design. Avoiding harmful substances is very important.
These are some great tips and things for me to think about. I plan on renovation my place later this year.
Love all your tips. I have been recycling for home design. We do not have to buy expensive things to make our house beautiful.
I am a huge fan of sustainable living. I know I definitely plan on making my home more energy efficient.
I am always looking for ways to be more sustainable with my lifestyle. Up until now I’ve only thought of recycling and using biodegradable items. However, this article was so interesting to read since it was about decorating your home sustainably.
I love the idea of the mosaic art! Especially in the bathroom, it looks stunning. I would love to try that in my home with maybe some greek mythology image
Loving all the designs here, I wish more companies, organisations and home designers would do the same
I am so inspired. I truly love these spaces. this will help me a lot, thanks.
I love the design of all these spaces…it’s a design you can feel good about too which is wonderful! Great tips here!
Eco friendly steps is the need of the hour. So glad I could add these tips to my collection for good interior design.
Unique designs and those concepts. I am gathering designs for our home. Thanks for the ideas.
Sustainability is very important to us as a family and we tend to lend toward sustainable materials in our decor.
This thing are already essential, and I love interiors you picked.
Yes to recycling and upcycling as well as buying locally and support small local businesses – all eco friendly things to do
Laura x
Wow, what great ways to be sustainable with mosaics I learn something new with energy-saving resources.
Unique design and all furniture is awesome.
Once again we are facing an imminent moving. This post contains such great ideas for the new place we will be leaving at! Both my husband and I are into natural rustic looking materials but I am saving this for our future purchases. Thanks for sharing!
I agree that shopping locally is very important for your furniture etc. You can pick up so many second hand items that can be revamped.
I love these eco-friendly interior design ideas. I love recycling for home designs too. It makes your home design very unique. Thank you for always sharing your inspiring and amazing ideas with us.
These are such great tips! I am always trying to make more sustainable choices when it comes to my home and lifestyle – yes to support local makers and upcycling materials
Laura x