Furniture and home decor can be a big expense. It is also not sustainable to buy new all the time, especially since so much of modern furniture is cheap and made with not-so eco friendly materials. Instead of buying new we can always reuse and recycle what is already out there. The best thing about going that route is that you end up with really unique and personalized furniture and decor…. stuff that no one else has.
So how do you spruce it up?
#1 Paint it. Dingy, dull, or just plain UGLY furniture can get a whole new life with a fresh coat of paint. If the furniture is already painted, you’ll most likely want to strip it first. Old paint can contain lead and other harmful chemicals so where a mask, be careful of paint chips, and do this away from kids if in doubt. Next, head to your local paint store and find your favorite color in low VOC or zero VOC paint.
VOCs, or Volatile Organic Compounds, are chemicals released from the paint. They can cause illness as they are released into the air for years after application so get it right the first time. You can also strip and stain the furniture with natural and VOC free stains.
#2 Reupholster it. Have a piece of furniture that you like but that doesn’t quite match your current décor? Did you find an awesome chair or couch at a flea market that has tears and stains? Reupholster it with environmentally-friendly fabric like organic cotton or wool. Get creative too… you can shop for fabric remnants that cost only a couple bucks and do a patchwork upholstery job.
#3 Add bits of finery. Cabinets, drawers, and armoires can be greatly improved with a little bit of hardware. You can purchase the hardware from a flea market, antique store, or a salvage store. They’re great places to find hardware with personality.
Tabletops can be given a makover with mosaic tiles made from hammered porcelain or glass tiles. You can find tiles at your local flea market or salvage yard and the project of hammering them into bits and then reassembling them on your tabletop into a beautiful pattern can be both cathartic and fun.
A few years back I took a foyer table that my parents had bought shortly before I was born, and refinished it. I took out the wood tiles that were in the center of it since many were missing, and I put in fruit themed tiles. It now sits in my kitchen… and it has sentimental value because it was one of the first pieces of furniture my parents bought.
You can also use sheets of scrap metal or recycled metal to create flash on tabletops or cupboard fronts. The metal can be used as tiles or as an entire front to add an urban or contemporary touch. And old door can even become a kitchen or patio table.
People have used everything from chicken wire to astro turf to add flair and personality to old furniture. I actually LOVE chicken wire on kitchen cabinets.. it looks so country! There are a million green ways to make old furniture new again. Take a look at what you have around or shop used and see how you can make good use of it in an eco-friendly way.
So color me outraged when I read an article from the Washingtom Examiner about how two major toy companies.. Mattel and Hasbro actually lobbied for this legislation. Why? Well, they would no doubt tell us it is to save our children from the dangers of lead and other unsafe things in toys. But my guess is that they want to put small, ethical toy makers out of business and limit our toy buying options. They know full well that most small toy makers, the same toy makers whose products were already safe, will not be able to absorb the costs associated with legislation like this. The real kicker is that Mattel is the company who kicked off the lead toys scare. THEY were the reckless and irresponsible company that reminded us we need to be careful of what our kids play with when THEY put thousands of lead laced toys on the market.
Another slap in the face for consumers is this piece from the Los Angeles Times. Check this out:
Toy makers, clothing manufacturers and other companies selling products for young children are submitting samples to independent laboratories for safety tests. But the nation’s largest toy maker, Mattel, isn’t being required to do the same.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently, and quietly, granted Mattel’s request to use its own labs for testing that is required under a law Congress passed last summer after a rash of recalls of toys contaminated by lead. Six of those toys were produced by Mattel Inc. and its Fisher-Price subsidiary.
The whole basis of this legislation was to take the control of toy safety testing out of the hands of the toy makers, since profits could be placed before toy safety. Now we find out that that the company who started all this is getting a free pass? They are immune to this law?!!
According to Mattel they should be treated special because:
It has demonstrated to the product safety agency that its products go through rigorous safety tests. Company spokeswoman Lisa Marie Bongiovanni also said that Mattel has an appropriate “fire wall” in place to ensure test results are protected from corporate influence.
“We have extremely qualified people who work feet away from our production lines,” Bongiovanni said. “It allows us to do more testing than any other toy company out there.”
So says the company that just agreed to pay a $2.3-million civil penalty for violating the lead paint ban. Sounds reasonable… NOT!
I don’t know about you folks but Mattel and Hasbro are now on on my list of toy companies to never, ever support with my toy dollars again.
There are numerous reasons why we don’t need the over marketed, hyped up, low quality, plastic junk that they sell anyway but this is yet another reason. As consumers we need to send our money to ethical toy companies that REALLY care about the safety of our kids. They need our support now more than ever.
Are you committed to buying quality natural toys from ethical companies? Comment below and tell me what and where you are buying… inquiring minds would like to know.
I have been wanting to add some kids books about vegetarianism and veganism to our family library for awhile now. Every month it seems we get closer to that way of eating since our “raw” journey began. Having some books to help reinforce other reasons to stop eating animals was on my to-do list. At the very least I wanted to open up a dialogue about the issue and see what my kids felt about it.
I opted to get a new book called That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals, written and illustrated by the talented Ruby Roth. The gorgeous illustrations appealed to me and I loved this video when I saw it:
The books opens by showing the double standard of some animals being loved and cared for as pets and others be mistreated and viewed only as food sources. It then draws upon the concept of family and instinct to show how farmed animals are not living the life they are designed to live and why it is a form of cruelty to support factory farming and animal consumption. My 5 year old and 9 year old kids understood the concepts perfectly and the reaction (especially in my daughter) was swift. With every other page she would gasp and exclaim “That’s horrible!”
BUT the book was not grotesque or militant in any way… just straightforward about the reality of eating animals and what that means for the animals and the planet. It was not a doom and gloom book, despite the heavy subject matter and that is important to me. If you recall I railed against another kids book awhile back for being so militant and depressing. Unlike that other book this one does not paint humans as evil either. It really had no condemnation that I recall… only a look into the lives of factory farmed animals. Overall I would say it appeals to a child’s ideas about love and family to help them see why other sentient beings also deserve those things. Whatever reasons we may have to eat animals, those reasons are the ones we can’t explain away.
The book also talks about what it means to be a vegetarian and a vegan and it ends on a very pleasant and hopeful note. It shows how our food choices can have a very large impact for good.
In short, I really adore this book. It is beautifully illustrated and beautifully written. The last two pages could move you to happy tears and some big bear hugs. My two older kids were also VERY interested in what it had to say and it opened up a long dialogue about food choices. I can see this becoming a book we read before major food “events” like Thanksgiving and other holiday dinners. If you are a vegan, vegetarian or leaning in that direction, this is an awesome book to have. Even if you swear you will never give up your meat it is still a good book to have so you can expose your children to those options. Education is all about giving them the information and letting them process it and choose for themselves right?
Haba Games like Stew in a Can for rock bottom prices… these are the BEST games for travel IMO. They always keep kids occupied in a hotel, car, or plane.
And lots of play food.. somebody stop me before I order all these for my daughter including the Haba Chocolates in Tin Can. How cute are they?!
As I mentioned KangarooBoo is one of my faves and they have awesome sales… early Christmas shopping always comes to mind when I get their sales flyers in my email inbox. I also love supporting a small family business. Enjoy!
Welcome! Here you will find the random thoughts and experiences of a mom trying to live a more natural and green family life since 2004. Enjoy! Feel free to e-mail me.
Welcome! Here you will find the random thoughts and experiences of a mom trying to live a more natural and green family life since 2004. Enjoy! Feel free to 
