Here's what Re-nest readers were clicking on this week:
• Paper Countertops: Looks and Feels Like Stone
• How To: Repurpose Old Sweaters into Chair Covers
• How To: Get White Socks.....
We saw this new task light at ICFF and had to stop and take a pic. it's slim, it's elegant, it's bright and it's part of the leading edge in LED design. Winning the 2008 Lighting for Tomorrow ...
We don't have many issues with mosquitoes here in the Bay Area of California — at least not in Berkeley; however, if we did, we'd consider a bat house. (Although we've never seen a bat out here ...
We love the look and feel of linen. While we've ventured no further than a tablecloth and napkins, there are plenty of other ways to incorporate lovely linen into your home...
>>Read the full post he...
Memorial Day is a great holiday to honor the men and women who have served and protected our country. The weekend is also one of our favorite 3-Day weekends - the weather is warming up, and typicall...
Look past those Memorial Day furniture ads and commercials and opt for a different kind of bargain hunting this weekend. Go for vintage, rustic, or eclectic styles and spend part of your long weeken...
These handcrafted soaps from LifeTree Botanicals would be a great wedding favor for our green wedding, but I worry they might be out of our price range. Anyone have a great idea for something practi...
They call themselves "young talented Seattle dumpster-diving designers" and their Scrap lights were the most aesthetically impactful design we saw at the entire show that used low impact materi...
When it comes to planning a summer garden, we're all about bright colors and evoking lushness — even in the midst of the dry Texas heat. But the tropical plants and the golf-course lawns that ...
Using what you've got, making something from nothing, reducing, reusing, recycling — these are all reasons we here at Apartment Therapy love a good repurposing. Which brings us to London desig...
We took a swig from our Sigg the other other morning, and noticed the water didn't taste so fresh. It had been a couple of days since we last washed it. How often do you clean yours?...
We've always harbored a secret, and likely quite idealized, fantasy of one day working on a farm. Until that day comes, we can get a tiny taste for what it might be like at Drumlin Farm, a workin...
We spent some serious time volunteering in a local garden earlier this month — pulling weeds from 9am to 1pm. By the time we were done, our muscles were aching and we were feeling that first b...
Product: FS-20 Steam Cleaning Floor Sanitizer
Designer: Romi Haan
Price: $100
Rating: Recommend**
The Haan Steam Cleaning Floor Sanitizer promises to clean and disinfect hard surface floors wi...
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Automobiles aren't such a hot commodity right now, given the struggling economy and efforts turned toward living less car-dependent lifestyles. Seems even Car an...
Driving through downtown Oakland yesterday evening, we saw a big dumpster-hauling truck pulling out of a driveway.
The side of the truck said "EcoHaul." We were intrigued....
We love botanical illustration — the scientific precision of rendering a completely organic form has always held an intrigued contrast for us. And, for folks without a green thumb or the space / lig...
Of all the 'standard' cleaning agents, toilet bowl cleaners are the the ones to bother us the most - for some reason the smell is the most irritating, and the unnatural color, well just unnecessary....
When it's beyond repair, can't be refilled, and you've already replaced it... Recycle it! We all know that part.
But what happens when you aren't sure if it can be recycled? What about those fake cr...
This booth had something we'd never seen before: a full wood bathroom (sink, tub and all!). We stopped to chat with Laurie and Daniel, who run Gardenside and take pics.
More info and pics be...
Exploiting green people may sound a bit odd. According to this guide, "Choosing one’s friends is a very weighty endeavor that can yield significant benefits ... Recently, a new subset of desirable...
Last night, during a volunteer shift at the midweek farmers' market, I struck up a conversation with one of the other volunteers. She works as a dietician for a hospital, and I asked her what made her...
Daniel Michalik is an Industrial Design Professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He certainly practices what he preaches — as you can see from these amazing furniture des...
Taking a twist on the traditional curio cabinet, the Cubus is fully modernized with solid, sustainably harvested walnut, and non-toxic wax. No chintzy teacups found here!
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Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first. Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to: green@apartmenttherapy.com
This question comes from a friend, who ...
What kid doesn't love a bendy straw? But it would never even occur to us to bother buying plastic straws because it's not a necessity and just ends up in the trash. These, on the other hand, can e...
After checking in on yesterday's survey, Green or Not? Bamboo, we were reminded of an article on green flooring that we just recently came across ......
We confess, Austin normally has gorgeous weather — the kind of weather perfect for relaxing on porches and decks. We found ourselves on a friend's beautiful screened-in porch this weekend, on...
Fast is good...especially in Chicago when the glorious warm weather is short-lived and far too precious to waste. Today we found an amazingly do-able seeming project (with great step-by-step instructi...
Tyler Hays from BDDW has been experimenting more and more with analog audio systems combined with the style furniture he's known for: handmade, high quality ingredients and playful juxtapositions. ...
It is truly amazing to see how some people are able to fashion beautiful homes out of such ordinary, utilitarian objects. We were so impressed when Trent blogged the Monte-Silo House a few months ago...
Each spring I get the bug to really go overboard with my garden. I want to plant vegetables and flowers and vines and more succulents, etc. Sometimes, it's safe to say, I get a little ahead of myself....
Ornj Tote Swing, $40
These bright orange bags caught our eye from way across the room at this past weekend's Chicago Green Festival. The totes, Ornj Bags, are made of reused costruction fencing, salv...
This booth was a little confusing to source, but we met Florence Edmond from Martinique and loved her pillows as well as this amazing bedroom by Aboubakar Fofana of Mali. Both are part of Afri...
It took a year of 80-hour weeks before the prototype was ready. But now that it works, the Vegawatt generator can process about 80 gallons of used deep-fryer oil a week and produce five kilowatts of...
This was the brightest booth we saw! Another new entry this year, Cadee Wilder founded Kreme Life just last year and produces stunning wallpaper that is low VOC, eco-solvent, and designed & ma...
This gorgeous spring weather makes us resent having to be inside for any length of time — which is why we're dreaming up the perfect picnic. We're thinking blanket, homemade bread, local veggies...
click thumbnails for larger picsThis year, IKEA had a big, beautiful booth at ICFF filled with the upcoming PS Collection. It was full of interesting pieces with more than a few that we could se...
We drank a glass bottle of coke yesterday after we spotted it for sale at a local deli. A little bit more expensive, but we love it for both nostalgia and taste. Then we started thinking about how co...
We spied an article on a green gym in the Seattle area that uses pedal power to run the gym's music system and a portable DVD player. With plans to extend the system to power the lights, he's got e...
Bamboo has become the darling of the green movement because it's a plentiful resource. Bamboo's root systems typically aren't damaged by harvesting and it re-grows very quickly. But is it really g...
Not gonna lie, the almond smell of Earth Friendly Product's new hand dishwashing liquid really threw us off at first. We tend to go for the more citrusy varieties. But, because they sent us a sample, ...
We're long-time fans of Plan Toys and their extensive line of environmentally friendly, ethically manufactured toys. The new Eco Home, in addition to being an awesome little play house, also models ea...
It's hard to believe, but stone fruit season is already upon us. First there were the cherries, and now we're being treated to early apricots, plums, and apriums...
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One of the oldest fabrics and certainly one that has a place in our heart (hours of kindergarten fun making wallets and hearts and letters), felt was all over the place at ICFF. And for good reason. ...
Remember last week when we wrote about LEDs being the bulbs of the future? Well, it looks like we (and The New York Times) are the not the only ones that think that. If you have television, check ...
What happens to an ineffectually designed product when it meets a demanding consumer? It ends up in a landfill. What happens when an ineffectually designed product meets a demanding consumer who has s...
It's been a solid six months and we're still undecided about what color to paint our bathroom. For awhile, a rich sky blue with white trim was in the works, but now we're not so sure. Since the bathro...
Turns out a trick we learned working in retail (lots of windows!) is the best way to clean glass. The New York Times recently tested 20 different window cleaning methods and our retail trick came ou...
Spring cleaning is a great time to finally do all those household repairs that have accumulated over the last few months. So take a walk through your house and make a list of all the repairs that y...
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Consider what resides in your refrigerator: would it provide some insight into your household consumption? Mark Menjivar explores the issue of hunger and the eff...
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Shimna came to ICFF this year with their beautiful wood furniture, and we took notice — particularly of the Liffey bed (shown above) with its underbed stor...
Talk about a one-stop shop for all your green needs: Eco-Wise, Austin Chronicle's winner of "Best Green Business" two years running, runs the green gamut. They've got you covered when it comes to gr...
Buy second hand and keep stuff alive longer. Check out these great Scavenger finds in Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C. Click here for full listing below the jump......
We have a favorite old dad sweater that we love, but with a decades-old stain on the front, it doesn't get worn very much. Yet, we can't quite bring ourselves to throw it away. So we we were thrilled ...
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Spring cleaning is not only a good time to give your home a good top-to-bottom clean, but to evaluate how you clean and what you clean with. While we'll probabl...
Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first. Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to: green@apartmenttherapy.com
Dear Re-nest,
We bought a sofa a littl...
It's Spring Cleaning month here at Re-nest, so we've been thinking a lot about natural cleaners. We're pretty comfortable scouring the sink and tub with baking soda and deodorizing with lemons; howeve...
We just read this article by Marion Nestle on The Atlantic's food site, and it brings up the (hotly debated) question of how important it is to buy local. Should we avoid produce that's traveled thous...
Martha Stewart
While you're getting everything clean this spring, you can also get it green! If you haven't already initiated more environmentally friendly routines, now is a great time to do it, and we found some...
We saw this twisted wood screen at Koi's booth at ICFF on Saturday, and loved it. What an amazing natural wall sculpture/decoration. It would certainly turn heads if we had this in our apartment....
Spring cleaning is a chore. We all know that. But having the right tools will make you more willing to do it, and will make the job easier once you get going. We've rounded up some of our favorit...
Talk about small ... this concept home design by Nils Holger Moormann is almost nonexistent. The idea being that the "house" is a storage space for the few essentials you would need to live comforta...
We have a horrible dumpster diving habit... We found this over-sized cardboard divider used in packing large freight in the dumpster behind out building. We knew it was collapsible, could be used as p...
In Chicago’s Northwest side there is a stretch of train tracks that spans three miles, across several neighborhoods, adjacent to many parks. Over 15 years ago all train activity ceased on the 100+...
We've long been fans of Trine Anderson's colorful, retro designs for Ferm Living, and when we passed Ferm's booth at ICFF, there was certainly a lot to love. But our favorites were definitel...
Solid surface countertops, regardless of the material, are going to last longer since you can have them refinished. Recycled paper countertops are a solid surface material that we've featured before...
This was one of our favorite new booths. Andrew Moe showed off a super simple line of ash furniture, The Oslo Line, made of reclaimed lumber that had relatively low price points, compared to t...
What is it about socks? The little rascals can't seem to stay bright white for very long at all. And if you've outlawed the use of bleach in the house because of its harmful impact on our friend the...
Buy second hand and keep stuff alive longer. Check out these great Scavenger finds in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Boston. Click here for full listing below the jump......
The Clodagh Collection along with Tucker Robbins, the Sustainable Furnishings Council, and the Rainforest Alliance is holding a lecture tonight on sustainable design, so be sure to check it out if y...
Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first. Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to: green@apartmenttherapy.com
Ah, the stove. Not our favorite applia...
Sometimes the things that bring the most beauty and functional value to our homes are the ones that cost the least. The objects above can be found outdoors or for very little money, they add ch...
As much as we'd love to one day live in a home with solar panels, the process seems daunting — complicated and expensive. Luckily, there's a Berkeley startup that's trying to change that...
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Inspired by a green remodeling seminar, Nash Construction president Gary Nash put his employees to work on making his home green. Located in Delaplane, Virginia, the house was completely remode...
We have been thinking about a tankless water heater for a while. Taking two showers in a row is almost impossible with our traditional tank water heater. The government has added incentives to encoura...
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