New Life for Leftover Paint

What should you do with your leftover paint after you finish a project? We’ve seen it a thousand times. You want to save it for touch ups but soon enough those old paint cans clutter your basement. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 10 percent of all household paints get discarded, which is equivalent to 65-69 MILLION GALLONS!!

We could really paint the town, couldn’t we?

Paint has a tendency to be high in Volatile Organic Compounds. Fungicides are often found in very old paint, along with their friends lead and mercury.

If you do want to keep your paint for touch ups I recommend the following:

Remove the lids and tightly place two, if not three, secure pieces of saran wrap over the top of the can and then place the lid on TIGHTLY! Funny as this sounds, store your paint cans upside down, like you would with a wine bottle. This will keep a tight seal and the paint inside will stay fresher for longer.

Other thoughts on what to do with those half used cans:

• Consider donating the paint to a local charity for reuse. For example: The Park District in my city will accept SOME used paint, depending on it’s age, for art classes in the summer and the students paint murals under the viaducts.
• Recycle it! If you choose a water base or latex paint it can be recycled, but please check with your local environmental agency and/or visit earth911.com for other recycling options.

Remember that older paints are oil or lead based and are extremely flammable! These older paint cans are actually considered hazardous waste. Be careful and make sure that you know what you are doing with these. Be aware of your local laws for proper disposal of hazardous waste. I would advise taking the old cans into your local paint store for help if you are not sure how to dispose of them properly.

Best of Luck! Be good to the environment!

Green Cleaning For Your Interior: Is It As Effective?

The more eco-driven designs I work on, the more I have realized it is just as critical to address the upkeep along with the initial design work. What kind of interior designer would I be if I designed and ran? I think it is critical to talk about green cleaning with a client. I mean, after I have done all the research, put time and creativity into using new innovative materials, employed recycled content, why would I want that to be wasted and contaminated with harsh cleaners?

Sometimes, like for healthcare environments, you can never get them away from bleach…which I think a lot of people would be thankful for. But for other interiors for corporate, education and hospitality, green cleaning can be both beneficial to the integrity of the green design, and as I have research, economical as well. It’s a win-win!

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are one of the biggest no-nos in regards to green design. VOCs can be defined as any type of off gassing that occurs from the production or use of a product. I think the most common example of everyday VOCs is new car smell. Believe it or not, but any smell, including fresh money smell, is considered a VOC. Copy machines are a big culprit of VOCs in the corporate world, so it is suggested to keep copy and print machines in separate areas from employees and preferred with separate HVAC duct work. Cleaning products traditionally contain massive amount of VOCs.

So if VOCs are that dangerous, why would you want to choose cleaning products that make the situation worse? Harsh chemicals may get the job done, as you think, but there are many solutions that include simple household products, like vinegar and baking soda that can be just as effective. Baking soda is a smell reducer rather than a smell creator – think about how it helps the contents of your fridge. Why not take that house wide and break out of the ice chest with baking soda?!?

Before starting a green cleaning program in your home or business be sure to do some additional research on various green cleaning products and methods. Here is one article I think gave some good and basic- idea starting advice. Good luck and think green clean!

Sustainable Desk Chairs

Did you know that many Contract Furniture Companies have been leading the way in sustainability for many years? They are very innovative and forward thinking in the development on their products. The company may choose to have a Life Cycle Assessment done on each chair design before they even produce it.

A Life Cycle Assessment is evaluating the chair’s lifelong impact on the environment, from the chair’s production to the time we throw it away ten or fifteen years down the road. During Life Cycle Assessment, the following may be taken into consideration: the impact on global warming, acid rain, eutrophication (loss of plants and animals in aquatic ecosystems due to loss of oxygen after algae blooms ,which are caused by pollution), air pollution, resource depletion, land and water toxicity and waste. Can you believe that a simple desk chair can possibly affect us and the earth in all these ways?

As you can see, many things are taken into consideration on how sustainable a product really is. Here are just a few things that you may want to look for before purchasing your new desk chair.

Materials: What materials are put into the chair may be determined based upon their environmental impact. Many chairs today contain a percentage of post-consumer and pre-consumer recycled content, which can be found in the plastics or even the fabrics!

Toxic Emissions: Next, what toxic emissions may be released during production are taken into account, such as toxic mercury, PVCs, asbestos, solvents, CFCs, PBBs, methylene chloride, formaldehyde or HCFCs. The goal is to have as little or no VOCs emitted during the manufacturing process and the life of the product. So this means that many of these harmful chemicals may continue to be emitted into the air after it has been delivered to your house or office, even after it’s been sitting there for awhile!

Certifications: Some key ways to tell what sustainability measures a company has looked into would be by the certifications a product has received. Some common certifications to look for are: GreenGuard Certification (promotes healthy indoor air quality), Indoor Advantage certification for indoor air quality, Cradle to Cradle certification, and even if it may help contribute towards LEED!

Recycle: Finally, find out if the chair can be recycled when you are finished with it. Many furniture companies offer to recycle the chair for you, but this may require a cost. If you do not have a large quantity of chairs, you may want to consider donating it or selling it. This is just as environmentally friendly as recycling it!

Enjoy your new environmentally friendly desk chair!

Key Features of Designing Health Care Environments

During my interior design experience I have been lucky enough to work on a large variety of commercial spaces. I have had exposure to corporate spaces, restaurants, retail, education facilities and campuses – but above all of these environments, the one that takes the cake for restrictions and design problem solving are health care environments.

Seeing these spaces through the eyes of the visitor and patience is of utmost importance – but believe it or not, the group that needs to be taken into account is the staff. The staff takes precedence over the patients because the activity, function and mood of the staff directly impacts the patient experience more than if a gift shop is painted green versus blue.

When designing a health care space, it is great to keep in mind the function first, upkeep and cleaning second and finally aesthetics third.

The reason for function first is because you need to make sure the space is going to meet the expectations of the staff in regards to capacity (will the waiting room fit the number of seats you need it to?), internal communication (does the space plan meet the adjacency requirements – can the staff communicate and get from point A to point B in the right amount of time?) and direct user relation to the space (is all the equipment mounted at the right height, is the room laid out with enough storage?).

Upkeep is the second most important thing to keep in mind because if a facility cannot be cleaned the way it needs to be, the facility owner will not be happy, the janitors will not be happy and neither will the health department. A dirty hospital is not a functioning one. Using products that can be bleached, such as fabrics with solution dyed nylon, are mandatory. Also Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) fall into this category. I cannot stress how important I think it is to use products will low to no VOCs (off gassing) for the patient and staff comfort. If a wall needs to be repainted, great, keep the facility looking good, but use a low smell paint so the hospital is not getting sick and cases of nausea due to facility upkeep!

Lastly, aesthetics come into play. So after you get through the criteria of making sure the space is going to function and be clean, then you have to add a whole other pile of restriction. I have been taught that you have to think of health care environments of having a 20 year life. Meaning, a space may only be redesigned once every 20 years – so whatever is selected has to look as timeless as possible. You want something to “wear out before it uglies out”!

So what do you think are the most impactful attributes of a health care environment?

Sustainable Paint Trend

Looking for a fun, inexpensive way to brighten up your room to this year’s latest trends? Have you considered taking one of the key walls in your room and painting it a bright trendy color? Such as the wall that’s immediately in front of you when you walk into the room. Do you have a small angled wall that your fireplace is on? Or what about the wall your beds headboard sits against?

I recommend staying away from walls with lots of windows because the wall becomes broken up and won’t have the full effect as a solid wall with a pop of color! Painting a wall is a great way to pop that standard beige sofa everyone seems to have. Try this year’s bright plum purple, fuchsia, lime green or light green/blue trends! Throw pillows that incorporate these colors will also add an additional pop of color to the room. If you are keeping the rest of your walls a neutral color, try finding some wall art prints or oil paintings that incorporate these bright colors. Why not add a rug to pull it all together?

While taking on this fun adventure, why not learn a little bit more about what the paint companies are doing to follow the environmental trend. A majority of the paint companies offer low VOC paints or no VOC paints. VOC’s are volatile organic compounds that may cause some types of cancer when released into the air. Another benefit of using this paint is that your house will smell very little if at all like paint! Some of the paint companies even offer paints that are a primer and paint color in one! My personal favorite would be Benjamin Moore’s AURA paint line.

I would recommend that you save the time and try out this new paint technology. To continue the environmental trend, remember to recycle those plastic paint tray liners. Cloth tarps and standard paint brushes are a great investment because you will be able to reuse them again next time. Now that’s what I call “green”!

Good Luck and I hope you enjoy your new trendy colored inspired room!

What is Sustainable Flooring?

Are you looking to replace flooring in your home or workplace? Do you find yourself wondering what the most sustainable option is? We all hear about bamboo flooring, but is that really the best choice for you?

Bamboo is definitely a rapidly renewable resource. Your location will determine just how far the product has to travel by boat, plane, truck or train. If the product has to far too travel, it may not be the most environmental product available to you. So is there a better option for you? Most flooring companies have come a very long way with making their products more sustainable.

Many vinyl products now contain recycled content. Vinyl floors are often recyclable at the end of their lives. Look for VOC free vinyl flooring to keep your air clean! Many contain harmful chemicals which could possibly outweigh the fact that the product has other sustainable elements. Read carefully before purchasing!

Carpeting has also come a long way. Much of the manufacturing process is run on renewable energy such as wind, solar or methane gas. Reusing water and dyes have also become popular. Did you know that you can even buy residential carpeting made out of recycled pop bottles? Check out Mohawk’s website. To look for a guarantee that your carpet is sustainable, make sure it is CRI (Carpet and Rug Institute) Green Label Plus, which identifies products with low VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) that may be harmful for us to breathe.

Hardwood can be extremely environmental! Look for an FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified product. This will guarantee that the wood came from a sustainably managed forest. Basically this means that for every tree that is cut down and made into products, it is properly replaced.

Tile has even found its way into the sustainable movement. Manufacturers have found ways to put recycled products back into the tile process. The products are often GreenGuard certified, which helps identity products that are good for our indoor air quality. For more information check out Crossville, Inc or Florida Tile.

Other sustainable floors may include rubber flooring, linoleum, and polished or stained concrete. Basically, there is a sustainable option in all types of flooring. With a little bit of research, you can definitely contribute to the sustainable movement with your flooring choice!