Add a Touch of Wine Country to your Home

Love the feeling of warmth and sunshine that emanates from the Napa Valley and other wine-producing regions?  One way to bring that sensation home is to incorporate furniture made from reclaimed wine barrels.  The barrels are typically made from the finest oak trees and are free from knots and defects.  During the course of many [...]

Straw Building Products are Really Strong!

Straw, a waste by-product of, most notably, the wheat industry has been gaining in popularity for use in the green building industry, and for good reason.   It’s long been an environmental issue to dispose of straw, the remaining by-product of wheat grain after it is harvested.  Typically, it has been burned which causes serious air [...]

Eco-friendly Interior Doors, Part I

Whether you’re building new, or simply replacing common, cheap and, likely, damaged hollow-core doors in your existing home, there are green options to consider.  Whether your home’s style is contemporary or traditional, you can add instant character by adding solid-wood interior doors made from reclaimed wood, FSC-certified wood, recycled content or rapidly renewable resources.   A [...]

Surplus, Salvaged and Green Building Materials

Planning a weekend home improvement or remodeling project?  It’s a perfect opportunity to use salvaged and surplus building materials.  Green building warehouses and architectural salvage yards are popping up across the country and are full of interesting, new and used items.  These building elements have been donated by local businesses and residents, as well as [...]

Furniture Artfully Created from Junk Cars

It may sound hard to believe, but artist Joel Hester and his crew at Dallas-based company, The Weld House, salvage steel panels from junk automobiles to create marvelous pieces of functional furniture.  The rough and ravaged pieces of weathered steel are transformed into cool coffee tables, beds, armoires, and artwork.  Some of these modern masterpieces [...]

Add Character with Reclaimed Wood Flooring

One way to reduce demand on our timber resources, is to look for flooring and other products made from reclaimed wood.  This wood is salvaged from old factories, barns and other buildings where local resources were typically utilized to build and furnish them (a green trait).  It may even be sourced from the bottom of [...]

Green Cabinets, Part III

Green cabinets are those made from sustainable materials such as bamboo, FSC-certified wood, or reclaimed wood.  Antique reclaimed wood is sourced from old buildings and barns that are condemned, abandoned or beyond repair, and is re-milled to reveal the beautiful, high-quality wood hiding beneath decades of dust, dirt and grime.  By re-using materials already in [...]

Green Your Real Estate Purchases with Historic Properties

Breaking ground and building new may be exciting, but it is rarely environmentally-friendly.  Not only is pristine land and wildlife habitat being destroyed at alarming rates, but the construction process generates a massive amount of waste, much of it not being recycled, even though 95% is typically recyclable.  Two to seven tons of waste, including [...]

The Green Side of Drywall

A common element in today’s homes and buildings is the use of drywall as the finish construction of interior walls and ceilings.  Drywall is typically comprised of a common mineral called gypsum which is mixed with fiber, sandwiched between two thick sheets of paper, and then kiln-dried.  It provides a thermal resistance R-value of 0.32 [...]

Face it with Artificial Stone

Stonework on the exterior of a building adds a timeless architectural element to any home or building and makes a beautiful natural statement.  However, if you’re not fortunate enough to have the rocks originate right there at the site, then it can be quite expensive and labor intensive.  There are some innovative companies that manufacture [...]

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