Whether you’ve just moved into a new house or have lived somewhere for years, it’s sometimes nice to refresh the look and do a bit of redecorating. But what things should you be thinking about before starting on an eco-friendly home decor project?
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Eco-Friendly Home Decor Ideas
1. Eco-Friendly House Paint
The easiest way to freshen up a room and give it a new look is to repaint the walls. You might have noticed that when you paint a room you can feel a bit nauseous or dizzy. That’s because ordinary house paints can contain formaldehyde, heavy metals and other toxic chemicals known as VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). When looking for eco-friendly paint be aware that there are varying degrees of just how eco-friendly it is. Some claim to be low VOC, others use synthetic materials made from petro-chemicals, some contain animal ingredients. Read the labels carefully and go for a natural paint which doesn’t contain titanium dioxide.
Eco-friendly paint companies to check out
Frenchic Paint supply environmentally friendly chalk and mineral paint that is suitable for furniture, walls, and indoors and outdoors. There are no VOC’s and the paint has been EN 71-3 certified, meaning the paint is also perfectly safe for painting toys for babies or toddlers as well as their rooms.
2. Natural Flooring
Am I saying to get rid of your existing carpet? Not necessarily because a good carpet could help reduce heating bills, but I would think twice about having a new carpet fitted. You might recognise that distinctive new carpet smell, well that’s a result of “the evaporation of the chemicals (or off-gassing) that make up a conventional carpet of nylon fibres with a plastic backing. Add in the adhesive, which can contain benzene and toluene, bonding agents and stain-resistant finishers, and it’s a brew of VOCs”. (The Guardian) It is possible these days to buy carpets made from natural materials, they’re likely to be slightly more expensive but that’s usual when buying natural over synthetic materials.
You can buy 100% British wool carpets or cashmere goat-hair carpets if you want that soft feel underfoot. Alternatively you could buy a carpet made from reclaimed discarded fishing nets or plastic bottles. To be really eco-friendly go for jute, seagrass or sisal which are all 100% biodegradable and sustainably farmed. My preference, when possible, is to showcase the natural wood flooring and to buy a second hand rug (just so I can sit on the floor comfortably with my cat!).
If you do go for an eco-friendly flooring option it’s thought to be a better option for any asthma sufferers as well.
3. Vintage / Secondhand (Recycle)
If you visit thrift shops, charity shops, garage sales or even car boot sales you’ll know that you can sometimes find some really nice stuff. You might want to visit antique shops for bigger pieces of furniture but make sure you check out facebook marketplace and local auction houses as well. You can find all sorts of furniture, rugs, curtains, paintings, knick knacks and more that have all been pre-loved. There’s no point buying new when you can buy something of equal, or better, quality by buying secondhand (and getting it cheaper a lot of the time).
4. Repurpose
Using wooden packing crates as tables or pallets as bed bases are two classic ways of repurposing items which might otherwise have been thrown away. I’ve got an old wooden cable reel that I found in my Dad’s attic that is now used as footstool.
There are so many things you can do with wooden pallets with a little bit of imagination. Use the wood slats to make a bookcase, add some hinges to the pallets to make a futon base… Just sand down the wood and let your creative juices flow. There’s nothing quite like making something yourself!
5. Buy Sustainable
On the odd occasion that you’ve searched all the vintage shops and garage sales and not found what you’re looking for, try to make sure that any new furniture you buy meets certain standards of sustainability. Go for natural materials as much as possible and when buying wood make sure it has FSC certification.
This goes for any new linens you might be buying as well (I get it, second hand sheets and towels don’t really float my boat). Go for natural materials rather than synthetic. They tend to be slightly more expensive initially but they often last a lot longer and they will biodegrade at the end of their life unlike synthetic materials. Think cotton, wool, bamboo linen and hemp fibres.
6. Add House Plants
When hearing the term home decor I most often think about ornaments, paintings and other items purely used for decoration. But when you’re thinking about eco-friendly home decor, what’s more eco-friendly than a good old house plant? House plants not only look good and are known to help improve mental health, they’re good for your physical health as well. Plants convert carbon dioxide in the home into oxygen, and because they release water as well, this is beneficial for dry skin, sore throats and dry coughs. There are even some house plants that will help to remove formaldehyde and other toxins and even heavy metals from the room.
Can you buy eco-friendly artificial house plants?
7. Soy or Beeswax Candles
Most of us want our homes to smell nice, but air freshener sprays or plugins are probably not as good for the environment, or us, than a simple fragranced soy wax or beeswax candle. If you just want to buy tea-light candles so you can burn essential oils in an oil burner or light candles for a romantic dinner for tea, make sure you buy soy or beeswax candles. Most candles are actually made from paraffin wax which is from petroleum refining. Burning a paraffin wax candle emits harmful and potentially carcinogenic chemicals. If you’re not a fan of the oil industry, then you probably don’t want to support any products that exist because of it anyway.
There are lots of ways that eco-friendly home decor can improve how your home looks and also how healthy an environment it is for you and your family. Got any other tips I can add?
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Looking for suggestions on what to use as shelf and drawer liners that are eco-friendly.
Hi Kelly, if you happen to have any old wallpaper rolls you could cut pieces to fit your shelves and drawers. Alternatively if you have any material you aren’t using you could use that as a liner. Check out charity shops if you don’t currently have anything suitable, but a basic cotton material would work.