Here's what Re-nest readers were clicking on this week:
• 37 Reasons to Take Your Shoes Off
• 25 Simple Green Decorating Tips for Your Home
• 10 Tips for a Closet Cleanse
• Rob...
This image is from the Atelier 688 located in the heart of the Art and Design district of Queen West in Toronto. "With a focus on handcrafted unique design, quality workmanship, use of vintage and ...
Carré d’étoile is mini prefab getaway, like a vacation in a box. Each one comes equipped with a transparent dome and a telescope for star gazing. A compact and efficient desig...
Maybe you're trying to save money. Maybe your air conditioning unit is broken. Maybe you live in a part of the globe where air conditioning units are scarce because they're only necessary one or two m...
There’s been a lot of talk about whether new gadgets, such as the Kindle, will change the way we live. Our household has always been early adopters of the ‘latest’ technology: iPods, iPhones, ...
If you've read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, then you are no doubt familiar with Joel Salatin, the "high priest of the pasture," as The New York Times called him in their May 2005 profile...
For the urbinite who isn't feeling up for the DIY bee house but still wants to help the bees, they might consider following the advice of one UK conservation agency and pick up a plastic Omlet Beeha...
We tend to be a hoarder —particularly when it comes to our clothes— although it's something we've gotten much better at now that we've moved into a 350-square-foot apartment with our sig...
In some households, the summers are winding down and it's getting time to send kids back to school. So why throw all your green home solutions out the window when it comes to packing their backpacks f...
Q: Can guerilla gardening actually be bad for a local environment?
There's an empty plot over by my house that is not kept up by the city and I want to grow some veggies in a little area. The plot h...
Last year, over on Apartment Therapy Los Angeles, Gregory posted this arresting chandelier made out of plastic coffee stirrers and designed by Studio Verissimo. These guys are at it again, this tim...
Buy second hand and keep stuff alive longer! A few good things to highlight in today's Apartment Therapy City Scavengers: this CB2 Cadet wardrobe (brand new) and walnut dining table in San Francisc...
Yesterday, I got a tour of the new line Canvas from Ochre owner Andrew Corrie. As a board member of Aid to Artisans, Andrew's interest in sustainable, quality furnishings and handcraft has forme...
Sure, it's not much to look at, but it sure is a smart idea: the kitchen scrap bowl. Mom has hers on the counter at all times, so she can toss bits and pieces of vegetables, etc. in there as she coo...
This week, we were thrilled to visit a new farmers' market in our neighborhood. Located below an olive grove and Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House at Barnsdall Art Park, the market has about 20 pro...
Electricity can be scary. Didn’t anyone see Shocker? But it turns out rewiring a lamp is easier than you might think. Plus it’s a great way to repurpose something you have around the house...
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We are always on the lookout for ways to better utilize small urban balconies or patios, and so we love this folding greenhouse. Made of recyclable plastic, this mini-greenhouse can be folded flat ...
More container homes! Spanish architecture firm Infiniski is all about creating modern, fully-functional homes from recycled and non-polluting materials like shipping containers, pallets and bo...
Are we destroying the earth with our stomachs, as one commenter moaned on a new article from New York Magazine? Maybe, but we can help by applying wisdom to our food choices, says the article, which i...
Sometimes we looks around our space and want to change everything. We're starting off with beige wall to wall, beige walls and those awful vertical blinds so there's plenty of room for improvement. Bu...
Who doesn't love a nap in a hammock on a nice summer day? Growing up we found hammocks to be great magical escapes: day dreaming in a backyard, relaxing on a front porch or even playfully suspe...
Last week we met up with a retired Apartment Therapy editor while shooting a house tour down in Costa Mesa. He showed us some sights and we stopped in at The Camp, an outdoor mall, for a quick...
This truck is certainly more than meets the eye. Built completely by the hands of three high school buddies, this two-story camper complete with kitchen and bathroom started as a basic Toyota t...
The Otto Fan
It's August, and here in New York it's hot, hot, hot. From what we've read, fans are more energy-efficient than AC units.* The New York Times recently went shopping for portable fans wi...
Most of our green acts are done consciously: we recycle, we watch our power usage, we eat locally and organically... But all of a sudden, we're in a situation that's left us with no other choice but t...
Q: I have a 3 feet by 7 foot door I would like to make into a dining room table. Any ideas or pictures of this type of project?
- Posted by Toni...
We live in the front apartment in our small complex and the water heater's in the back. This means that getting the water hot enough for a shower in the morning means turning on the shower and waitin...
My favorite Apartment Therapy City Scavengers today include this beautiful Lane Chest in Boston and a brand new Offi Scando coffee table (a favorite of ours) for $125 off the retail price in San Fra...
We hadn't really thought of IKEA's Trofast system as something to use outside of a kid's room until a reader mentioned repurposing it as a recycling station. Since then, we've noticed lots of d...
We usually love furniture that serves two purposes. This stool by Can Onart can also be a bookshelf and a table. We found it over at Yanko Designs. What do you think?
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Finally! We've often wondered if the extravagant "outdoor living room" concept could be done on a non-extravagant budget, or at least look nice but not as fussy as the slick magazine spreads on the ...
We almost couldn't believe our eyes when we saw this kitchen renovation from Jeremy Levine Design. Levine took an old, small kitchen in Eagle Rock, a suburb of Los Angeles, and opened it up to ...
We still regret getting rid of our university-era milk crate bookshelves in a delusional fit of thinking we had outgrown them. This upcycled take on milk crate cabinetry is calling our name. Available...
Light, plants, open air. Here's a place we could spend an afternoon. ...
We like to keep good green materials resources tucked away for that eventual day when we own a home and are working on a design/renovation. So, here's a list of some of the best eco-friendly and su...
Barn doors have been steadily gaining popularity, and not just among those tilling the fields. Their stylishly exposed hardware, simple design, and versatility make them ideal candidates for small con...
Joining the plethora of social networking sites, is a new eco-networking site called HowYouEco. HowYouEco aims to be green directory, social network, media outlet and marketplace where people, compa...
If you have the resources to go all out and make your home as green as possible, what might it look like? We always like to catch a glimpse inside LEED-certified homes and be inspired by what'...
For those of you who love the idea of having a drink dispenser for entertaining but don't want to store it between parties, this DIY's for you! Great for summer parties, this drink dispenser and bev...
We started practicing this years ago not so much as a green move, but because we lived in a ski town. We didn't want our boots to track dirt and mud inside, or get the carpet wet. Now that we live in ...
The average American family of four produces 28 pounds of garbage a week. Amy and Adam Korst, a Oregon couple, have vowed to produce no garbage that winds up in a landfill for a year......
Q: I lived in a dorm at my university for the past two years, but this year I have my own apartment. I had purchased a lot of things for my dorm that seem to be useful only in the dorm environment: tw...
Love the look of reclaimed wood, but can't find the space to fill an entire wall with the stuff? Here's a creative and beautiful solution from one Etsy shop... ...
Buy second hand and keep stuff alive longer! Lots of good finds today in Apartment Therapy's City Scavengers, including this Blu Dot dresser in New York, this retro yellow kitchen table and chairs ...
The colors and designs of Alexander Girard inspired these bicycle designs from Electra Bicycle Company. Part of Electra's Amsterdam collection, the bicycles feature 3-speed internal gear system...
Went shopping with Dad yesterday for a new dog house (they've got a new puppy). We spent a good 30 minutes weighing all the options at Petco before deciding on the Dogloo Indigo Igloo Dog House. When ...
Sometimes we get weary of shiny things like chrome, craving a natural, grounding element instead. So for us, this bamboo veneer tension rod is a novel and refreshing departure from the typical showe...
Etsy seller boxlightbox couldn't bear tossing out the abundance of inkjet cartridges her workplace would go thru on a regular basis, so she began taking them with the motive of making something...
While perusing Canadian House and Home, we found a how-to for a very involved (for us) DIY headboard project. The instructions called for creating a frame out of two-by-fours and attaching plywood, ...
We thought this kitchen and dining area were simply beautiful. This home in Melbourne, Australia was designed by Rowan Opat Architects. The house has the shape of square with a courtyard inside, a...
New York City's Romero Studios designs, among other things, treehouses. Lots and lots of extraordinary treehouses from the Petra Cliff house in New Mexico to the Five Oaks house just north of N...
The botanical and natural history antique prints that we discovered at the DC Big Flea market last weekend were mouth-wateringly exquisite. Finding two 19th-century illustrations of an octopus and a s...
Every neighborhood has it: an ugly, abandoned vacant lot that’s sat unused for years. Now many cities are offering to help communities turn vacant lots into urban gardens…...
French Market Basket, $39
We love the bounty of summer. The stands at the farmer's market this past weekend were heavy with high summer produce. I had my reusable bags with me at the time, but I co...
If it floats, why not! This floating campground was spotted off the island of Almere Beach in Holland and believed to be the work of a group of students who enjoy floating things on water. While the...
You can put the "Don't Eat Me!" and "This Is Not Yours!" notes away for now. Stefan Buchberger, a design student at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (my childhood home!) has designed the Fl...
We'll admit to being enough of a nerd to follow NPR's various Twitter feeds, so last night when we saw one tweet about a series called "How Green Is It?" we were intrigued.
There has been so much...
Q: I was recently cleaning out my medicine cabinet, and I have a whole bunch of old makeup (as in, years old) that I know is way past its shelf life. Some of the products are not necessarily eco-frie...
Like any other item that has outlasted its usefulness, clothing is discarded. Sometimes it is donated and then sent overseas, sometimes it ends up in landfill. What about recycling? Last January,...
Buy second hand and keep stuff alive longer. My top Apartment Therapy City Scavenger picks today include this vintage Herman Miller Group Side Table and Chilewich Dogwood Floor Mat San Francisco, a...
If you follow Mark Bittman's NY Times blog, The Minimalist, and you've been paying attention this past year, you maybe have noticed that Mark Bittman has been paring down on the luxuries and focusing ...
This week, I'm spending some quality time with the fam in Southern California. When I'm home visiting my parents, I spend most of my day doing two things: cooking with my mom and watching the Food Net...
One of our favorite pastimes is losing ourselves in the fantasy of living in a modern little prefab on a hill. Often, reality comes crashing in when we realize how expensive prefabs can be. T...
A drying rack is simply a smart item - saving energy (or trips to the laundromat!) it's one of those "green ideas" that has been around forever but that had fallen a bit out of favor. They seem t...
Reclaimed wood is a sustainable, beautiful material. And it can be used in modern residential applications to add a feeling of warmth and age. Here, we share a few modern homes from the portfol...
We love Maxwell and Sara Kate's bedroom. It looks light and airy, yet warm and inviting. Definitely a favorite....
We have written about a few of these ideas before, like sweater chairs and glass food containers, but there are many more simple green ideas you can easily incorporate into your home for a little ec...
Hollow core doors are strong, readily available and — most importantly for a do-it-yourself-er on a strict budget— cheap. Here, we take a look at four nice desks made of doors...
>>Read t...
Chicago is well known for its green initiatives, but one sore spot has been its recycling system. In recent years the city rolled out a successful Blue Cart program, and now Chicago is aiming to inc...
The Omega Center for Sustainable Living is a $3.2 million "living building" in Rhinebeck, New York, the first of its kind to have no detrimental environmental effects. The main component of the des...
I was impressed to learn that these "barrel-style" roof tiles pictured above actually contain photovoltaic cells that generate electricity. They're constructed from a light-weight performance polyme...
Small is cool. Small is also green. A small bedroom can be cozy. A small kitchen can be efficient. A small home in general presents an opportunity to use space creatively, to tread more lightly on t...
If your style skews modern, green inspiration abounds. But what if your style veers towards the more traditional, the exotic even? Those examples are harder to find, non-existent even. Here's one...
Q: I'm using a linen shower curtain from Gaiam right now. It gets thoroughly wet, but doesn't leak and dries pretty quickly. Despite the "anti-mold" claims, mine did get mildew when I went too long (2...
Remember when we suggested cleaning your cast iron pan with kosher salt? Turns out, salt has plenty more uses in the kitchen and around the house. It’s not quite as versatile as baking soda, but it ...
Two of my favorite Apartment Therapy City Scavenger picks today include this sleek green Blu Dot Strut Table available in New York, and these vintage swivel bar stools in San Francisco. Interested?...
Right now we're eyeball-deep in studying for the LEED AP exam and have come across a ton of good sources for green living in the process.
One such resource is the Green Seal standard, which certif...
We're usually pretty skeptical of large, bling-y "green" houses. How green are they really? And isn't it greener to live in a small, simple, efficient house? We don't know, but Tom Schey's gorgeous Ve...
On our recent tour of the Finnish Embassy we saw the traditional log sauna in the Embassy basement, which is used by employees. In Finland, there are 2.5 million saunas for 5 million people and...
We've talked about how much we love our SIGG water bottles; they're non-plastic but still quite light, and sturdy too. We also have given a lot of these bottles as gifts, and we may return to that thi...
Do you use a silpat for your baking? These flexible, reusable sheets jumped from professional kitchens to home kitchens a few years back, and now we can't imagine baking without one. They're one of th...
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