Here's what you, our wonderful readers, were interested in this week:
• Roundup: Our Favorite Creative Reuse Ideas
• Inspiration: Upcycled DIY Headboards
• How To: Fix a Slow Drainin...
We loved Maria's colorful, whimsical, mix-and-match House Tour when we first saw it on AT:LA in March 2008. It's wonderfully fresh and fun, and most of the furniture and decor was completely DIY. ...
It's a busy time for Colin Beavan and his family as the No Impact Man book officially arrived in stores on Wednesday, and the documentary opens in theaters today. We took a few hours and sat d...
These beautiful tables (that seem like they'd also work as low stools) are made from all sorts of reclaimed and salvaged wood. We love the contrasting dark and light shades......
Thankfully, it's been a very, very long time since I shared a dorm room. But I still remember my heart dropping when I saw the absurdly tiny room I had to share my freshman year (we were stuck with th...
If you were asked to eat only locally for two weeks, could you do it? At first thought it seems pretty manageable, but what about everyday staples such as coffee, chocolate, spices and olive oil?...
When you find a very reasonably priced studio apartment in Manhattan, two things come to mind: it’s either rent-controlled and you’ve struck gold or there’s something wrong with it. While...
Discovered in a three floor Victorian house in Shoreditch, London, the exterior of these kitchen cabinets are actually lids of vintage tea packing chests......
Our recycling is full of junk mail and election flyers. Hating to see all that colorful and heavy card stock paper just go to waste, we decided to create something from them. Here are the results of...
As we sat munching on lunch over the keyboard yesterday, we were captivated by a piece in The New York Times about bento boxes. We've been eyeing the colorful and efficiently-packed lunches for a wh...
Q: I was wondering if you had any online or offline recommendations for learning the ins and outs of knowing which products to use from both a hypoallergenic and green perspective. My daughter is 3 ye...
Lukas Petrash was only 23 years old when he built this 484 square foot house for $24,500 in response to a challenge given by the president of the Sustainable Builder's Guild in Huntsville, Texa...
Buy second hand and keep stuff alive longer! Lots of great furniture finds New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in today's PM Scavenger......
These dining chairs had short backs ("Low Back") and were my favorite. Look how they fit under the table in this main dining room - Hancock Shaker Village
After over a week of being away, there is so...
Buy second hand and keep stuff alive longer! Lots of great furniture finds Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C in today's AM Scavenger......
Artist Kenny Scharf's home in the hills of Culver City is a fascinating collection of flea market finds and self-designed/customized pieces of furniture and appliances. But his yard is all xeriscaping...
When frequenting salvage stores, one of the ever present items is cabinet doors. They always sit in a pile, off in a corner, just wishing they could have a home like yours. Need some inspiration? ...
You know that tape collection you have? Think about it...do you still even own a cassette player for them? Yet throwing them all away just doesn't seem right; especially those mix tapes that yo...
If you're already harboring guilt over the volume of plastic baggies your kids will be toting off to school in the year to come, harbor no more. Instead, whip up a set of re-usable fabric bags in four...
This home sits about 100 meters above sea level north of São Paulo, Brazil. The doors, windows, staircase, shelves and furniture were all made with leftover materials from the scaffolding and...
Ants. They're a problem we have almost every year. This summer we had a very minor infestation, that we easily solved with some water and paper towels and a few squirts of Seventh Generation Surface C...
Artist Jen French, whose incredible gothic bungalow we toured a few weeks ago, came up with this super simple, yet fantastic-looking idea for an entryway coat rack by screwing some vintage hooks into ...
Many big cities share the same characteristic of tight lots and side yards with little room to grow plants and unsightly views of neighboring homes as close as a few feet away. In the Lincoln Park n...
Renegade Handmade is a completely unique one-stop shop for DIY goods, featuring the work of over 300 artists! The mortar-and-brick store in Chicago was created as an extension of the über-popul...
A study recently released by the San Francisco-based Cleantech group sought to determine the environmental impact of replacing your books with the Amazon Kindle. See their findings after the jump .....
This is way beyond dried flowers. For Artwork, Crafts & Collections Month, we've been thinking of creative, budget-friendly, and do-it-yourself ways to spruce up our walls. Here's one optio...
Before summer began, we shared our energy saving success with you. Little did we know then, during a verdant spring, that we were in store for the record-breaking hottest Texas summer on record. But t...
Q: Does anyone know where I can turn in plastic bags for recycling, particularly in the NYC and Brooklyn area, but also any national organizations? There used to be a bin in the Food Emporium at Union...
Our house is pretty casual. People help themselves to glasses, butter's plopped on a plate, the milk's served in the carton, we think there's extra ice in the freezer. It'd be nice to have tho...
Buy second hand and keep stuff alive longer! Lots of great furniture finds New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in today's PM Scavenger......
You might not expect a Catholic high school founded by Benedictine Monks to be at the forefront of green technology, but in 2006 Portsmouth Abbey School built a 164-foot-tall wind turbine on it...
Cute or frightening? We're going with cute. Really cute. We know a lot of little kids who will be getting one of these guys this coming holiday season......
Buy second hand and keep stuff alive longer! Lots of great furniture finds Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C. in today's AM Scavenger......
There are a bunch of ways of getting the skinny on what your energy consumption is. The trouble is that most of the time, these figures are displayed in numbers, or if you're lucky graphs. We think th...
We're smitten with these locally produced ottomans from Iron Thread Design. Fun shapes, adorable fabrics and fresh designs abound in these multi-use furniture pieces...
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We swoon at the thought of heated floors. Efficient, green, and oh-so-toasty, a floor heated from beneath with a radiant hot water system is perfect for San Francisco, where it's often colder inside t...
Ha! We had a little chuckle when we found this photo. The concept is actually pretty brilliant: a simple wooden structure upon which you "hang" your artwork... with hangers! Love it....
San Francisco's composting/recycling law is still a full six weeks away from taking effect, but it's already working like a charm......
While exploring a few shops this weekend in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland, we came across some wonderful and unusual creations by Primitive Twig at Scout Hardware. These whimsical metal sculptu...
We got our first Dolan Geiman piece a few years ago, and still every year since, his booth is the one we most look forward to at all the local art fairs. Using recycled paints and salvaged wood...
We don't usually talk about buying clothes, although we do talk about washing and drying your clothes, clearing out your closet, and donating or recycling your clothes. But here's what's been on o...
The FSC-certified Plywerk panel is akin to a picture frame but a bit more simple. Simply peel back the contact paper and adhere your own artwork (a PH-neutral adhesive can be pre-applied). Alternati...
We don't have a headboard at present, but we have flirted with the idea of going the DIY route — and these upcycled headboards have given us plenty of ideas to ponder...
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While stuck in traffic yesterday, we noticed one car of the fleet for a locally-owned pest control service. The car touted chemical-free, organic pest control and had one other special detail: it was ...
Q: I am looking at buying my first condo and, though I like older buildings, I am concerned about the risk of lead paint that is likely present. Has anyone ever gotten a condo/house tested for lead be...
We were first introduced to Duckpond, an Australian website, about a year and half ago via one of our daily "go to" stops, Desire to Inspire, and we've been following John and Cecilia's progress...
Today in San Francisco we're on the lookout for cool second-hand furniture. Here are a few we found:
• A secretary desk
• A mid-century clock
• A 19-globe starburst chandelier
• ...
Name: Joyce
Location: Stow, Massachusetts
"We live in an eco-home that we designed and built on the foundation of a 1959 ranch. It was designed to embrace the beauty of simple natural material...
We thought we'd seen chalkboard everything: chalkboard walls, chalkboard doors, etc. But we'd never seen a chalkboard lamp until we spotted it at Green Depot a few months ago......
When it comes to treehouse design, anything goes, which means endless creative opportunities, especially if you've made it a side project to collect nifty salvaged materials for years, like des...
This concept for a cantilevered house on water is from architects Jedrzej Lewandowski and Lukasz Skirzynski. After researching yacht architecture, the pair came up with the idea for a self-suff...
We're always really excited about new and innovative toy designs.. I mean, who isn't? Especially when they're made out of recycled materials - that usually helps us justify buying yet another toy!...
While in Virginia visiting friends this past weekend for Labor Day, we loved the wild floral arrangement our hostess, Bev, had set on her kitchen table. Upon closer inspection, we realized she ...
Remember this vintage-looking Drying Rack from Toronto-based company Hero? Well, they also have a beautiful and functional Rain Collector that holds up to 45 gallons of water — enough to wate...
I was at a friend's house last evening when the power went out. He didn't own a flashlight and it was already dark outside, so it was a bit of a challenge to find candles. After lighting a few votives...
Re-Nest is all about creative reuse, but sometimes reuse can get a little out of hand. Today we're giving you a roundup of some super crazy reuses, courtesy of always entertaining website, Ther...
Materials: Sandblasted Porcelain
Price Point: $30 to $40
"This plate is made by dripping melted wax onto the surface of a porcelain plate and sandblasting away the exposed areas. The original ...
We've been dreaming of a patio for outdoor entertaining for quite some time, but the cost and materials have been a bit overwhelming. But then yesterday we stumbled upon a product at the hardwa...
Our sink has been draining very slowly for months; but, complete laziness has kept us from doing anything about it. Last night when we were brushing our teeth, we realized that we'd let it all go to...
We love, love, love the feel and eco-friendliness of bamboo countertops, but we haven't always imagined that the distinct bamboo color would work for our particular taste in kitchenware and we also dr...
Do you or your readers know of a good use for coffee grounds and tea leaves once they have been brewed? It seems a shame to be disposing of them. Also, is there a difference between the uses for eith...
Apple or orange? Coffee or tea? Wine or beer? Although we like to think so, it's not the sweeping changes you make that have the biggest impact. Often, it's the small choices that you make every d...
We've extended the deadline until midnight tonight due to overwhelming demand.
Are you a LEED-accredited architect looking to share your knowledge and love of green design and building materials t...
Today in Washington, D.C. we're looking for green building materials, household items, and secondhand furniture. Here are a few things we found:
• Locker bookshelves
• Reclaimed windows
&bu...
Having remodeled about a dozen homes and produced/styled close to 100 home stories for magazines, I may have met my match recently with a tiny studio apartment in Hell's Kitchen. In the past, ...
It's rare for us to report on green projects that aren't working (we like to focus on the positive). But we couldn't pass up this interesting story on a failed living wall at Paradise Park Chil...
Materials: Reclaimed native Maine cherry
Price Point: $5000
"The Brix console is made out of lumber normally destined for the scrap bin, called shorts. Shorts might be leftover wood from other...
We don't know about you, but whenever we have to wash dishes in the sink we have the hardest time getting our water temperature just right. Sure, it's not that complicated, but I like to make sure I'...
After years of thinking it would be a good idea, we finally got our act together and purchased some lightweight, easily packable utensil sets. We're carrying them around everywhere to use at lu...
Old salvaged windows have seen many re-uses over the years, but this is a personal favorite. Indoors or out, in a retro loft or a coastal cottage, it adds an element of the unexpected to a space...
Happy Labor Day! We'll be back online tomorrow, but for now, we've got a list of some of our favorite Creative Reuse ideas. From the myriad ways you can reuse a jar, to uses for chipped tea cups, ...
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