green it yourself: LED twig chandelier
If you have any trees in your garden, chances are there is the occasional pruning, trimming and clean up. Typically the debris then goes to landscape waste or compost. However, you might consider giving it another life, allowing those twigs to provide beauty and function in something like this LED twig chandelier. The ones shown [...]
diy coat rack
I am not a fan of visual clutter, which is why I love this super simple, yet elegant idea for a coat rack. Designed by Vytautas Gecas, it uses just two materials: a concrete base vessel and a series of wood rods with rounded edge tops. You could vary the height of the rods, [...]
celebrate the water
One of my favorite parts of working with people on their homes is seeing their innovative ideas come to life. This rainchain on a home we designed (and built with modular construction) is a perfect example. These homeowners have a lovely sensibility combining beautiful simplicity with a zen-like connection to the landscape, intertwining architecture and [...]
green it yourself: cork mud mat
Cork can do a lot more than just keep wine safely in its bottle. In fact, there is an unbelievable number of creative and practical uses for this great, eco-friendly material. This is one of our favorite: a mud room mat. Besides being a rapidly renewable resource, cork is super durable and water resistant, so [...]
Better Fire
I love fire. I hate to admit it, but I do. When Kevin and I were designing and building our house, it was the one decision we really struggled with. While we knew that having a wood-burning fire place was not good for the environment by emitting ashes, soot and carbon toxins, we didn’t want [...]
youtube shows us how to live green
In anticipation of Earth Day on April 22, YouTube has teamed up with Sun Chips to launch an entire channel devoted to all things green. The new Live Green YouTube channel is a one-stop-shop for videos devoted to helping you live a more eco-friendly life. In addition to videos from Live Green partners like Discovery [...]
green it yourself: recycling center
Only about half of all paper gets recycled here in the US and only a third of plastic bottles. That means a huge amount of usable resources are simply going to waste in our already overflowing landfills. So we have to step up our efforts! One solution is to make recycling easier on yourself with [...]
green it yourself: living wall garden
We’re not all lucky enough to have a big yard in which to grow a garden. Sometimes all you have to work with is a tiny apartment balcony or a teeny walled-in yard. If that sounds familiar, then a living wall garden could be just what you need. A living wall garden mounts vertically on [...]
green it yourself: eco outdoor fire
Who doesn’t love a big roaring fire, especially one you can enjoy outdoors? Unfortunately, all the smoke produced by backyard fire pits is yet another source of air pollution. The majority of our beloved wood-burning devices emit particulates at the very eco-unfriendly rate of 20 to 60 grams per hour of operation. This smoke contributes [...]
