Eco-Friendly Living Room Makeover

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Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

When Jon and I got married, I wasn’t a blogger; I refinished furniture, painted houses, and lifeguarded on the side. As it was, all of our furniture came from family members or thrift shops, including our sofas which was awesome. After setting aside my paintbrush and creating Raepublic, years have passed, and Jon and I have now been married for eight years.

I recently finished graduate school and received a Masters of Science in Nutrition. A small portion of what I learned about was toxins, toxins in our environment, home, and food. The more I learned about this topic, the more I wanted to make our home as eco-friendly and non-toxic as possible. So, over the last year or so, I have been able to partner with some beautiful, environmentally conscious furniture and home brands.

Eco-Friendly Furniture

When searching for brands and furniture to bless our home with, there were several factors I was taking into consideration and questions I was asking. This included: Is the furniture sustainably made? Is it made using natural, eco-friendly materials? Is it vegan? Is it made in America? For me personally, since I live in the United States, it just makes the most sense to buy American-made (or at least North American-made) furniture to cut down on my carbon footprint.

I looked for quite some time for eco-friendly, American-made, non-toxic furniture and paint, and let me tell you, they are few and far between. For our eco-friendly living room makeover, I partnered with Maiden Home, Room & Board, Bertu Home, and Clare Paint. Streamline Seattle helped with our environmentally friendly living room redo by assisting with the design, furniture choices, organization, and ensuring that every element worked well together.

Eco-Friendly Sofa

Our gorgeous sofas are from Maiden Home. They are matching 90” Irving Sofas upholstered in Performance Washed Linen, color Fog. They are made to order by local craftsmen in North Carolina. Maiden Home utilizes hardwoods, steel springs, soy-based foam, and their fabrics are made without flame retardants. Woohoo!

Eco-Friendly Coffee Table + Side Tables

Our coffee table, console table, metal benches, and natural baskets are from Room & Board. Our coffee table is their Classic Coffee Table with a marbled white quartz composite. The metal is recycled natural steel and sustainably sourced. The marbled white quartz composite is GREENGUARD Gold Certified and formaldehyde-free making it as eco-friendly as possible. It fits the space perfectly, is modern but classic, and made in Minnesota, minimizing our environmental impact.

The large natural cedar stump side tables are locally made in Kentucky by the Knaughty Log Company. Our whitewashed stump side tables are from Bertu Home. They make for perfect stools or side tables when we need a few extra. They are made in Ohio from locally sourced cedar. They sit under our TV with a roll-up topographical map of Mount Rainier over it (from Mondo Mappa). I am in love with this map because when we don’t want to stare at the TV, we just pull the map down.

Eco-Friendly Storage Solutions

I’m in love with our Etting Reclaimed Wood Console Bookcase from Room & Board. It’s made in Pennsylvania, using reclaimed materials from vacant Baltimore rowhomes. It has a clean industrial feel with reclaimed Douglas fir shelves and a recycled natural steel frame.

The Slim Cubby Benches we got are also made from recycled steel that is sustainably sourced in the U.S. from 99% recycled raw materials. How cool is that? I love that they are as durable as can be and multifunctional. Right now, they are in between the big window in our living room and one of our sofas. We have a couple of handmade baskets on the ends for easy access, while the middle cubbies hold things that we don’t use as often (like my old textbooks or least favorite board games).

For the baskets, we have one of their Unity Baskets in smoke, handmade by local artisans in Ghana. Two Bangla Round Storage Baskets made using traditional hand-weaving and dyeing techniques from Bangladesh. I love that these baskets are handmade and that the artisans making them receive the Prosperity Wage, which is a minimum of 2.5x the Fair Trade Wage.

When looking for non-toxic, eco-friendly furniture, think about finding furniture made from natural materials that you can actually pronounce the names of. Avoid flame retardants at all costs, and try to buy as locally as possible (especially the big items), even if that just means purchasing from your country or even continent.

Non-Toxic Paint

Don’t forget about non-toxic paint choices. Most “Zero-VOC” paints sold in big box stores are not 100% zero VOC because the tint they use to get the paint just the right color usually isn’t. It’s filled with toxic chemicals just like regular paint is. This is why Clare paint and ECOS Paints are the best choices. You buy online, direct to consumer, and it is genuinely Zero-VOC as well as GREENGUARD Gold certified. This is the highest standard, guaranteeing fewer pollutants and low to no chemical emissions.

(The Irving received a makeover and was renamed “The Crosby.” It has the same wonderful cushions, comfort, and support, making for a wonderfully comfy sofa. The only difference is The Crosby has taller arms making for a slightly different look.)

*Companies that gifted products or services to me free of charge include Streamline Seattle, Maiden Home, Room & Board, Bertu Home, and Clare. All information and opinions shared are my own.

*Thank you Kayleigh from Wild Kind Photography for capturing some of these photos.

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