Eco-friendly Furniture, Is This For Real?

Eco-friendly furniture is a subgroup of environmentally friendly products most people likely don’t even consider when pondering different ways to integrate more eco-friendly items in their life.

Just think about it for a moment.

Most of us only purchase furniture every decade or so. On that basis many folks wonder if it really matters whether or not there furniture is truly eco-friendly.

Reflecting back over the time you have been responsible for furnishing and maintaining our own domicile, how many times did you really think about the details of the materials used to manufacture your dining room set, living room set or bedroom furnishings?

I know in my case that didn’t happen at all until the very recent past. This means the decisions about all our previous purchases of home furnishings were made without even considering the concept of eco-friendly furniture.

How about you?

Where you environmentally aware when you bought your furnishings?

So does purchasing Eco-friendly furniture really matter?

Using our history of furniture purchases for our living room as an example let’s consider the last 30+ years of our home furnishings. It turns out most of the pieces were constructed using a combination of wood and metal frames, few natural fibers and many synthetic items used as padding and cover material.

Now I will admit we can debate whether or not the use of mined metals and synthetic material derived from petroleum (as opposed to using it as a fuel source) is actually a better use of those materials given the relatively long lifespan of furniture.  That, however, is a subject for another time and post.

For now let’s just consider what types of materials most people believe should be used in furniture to make it “environmentally friendly”.

Components Used in Eco-friendly Furniture

Here is a quick list of the different types of natural materials often considered appropriate for use in green furniture:

Framing components made from the more abundant, rapidly grown and easily attainable wood products;
Cover and padding materials derived from natural fibers were recycled materials;
Dyes and coloring solutions that are natural and non-toxic; and
use of recycled material such as recycled glass, stone or wood wherever possible.

Generally speaking materials derived from natural sources, either original use or recycled materials, should be used before many people would consider that furniture items to be green or earth friendly. By using natural materials produced via environmentally friendly and sustainable practices, we minimize the impact to the environment where these materials are originally sourced as well as the impact to the flora and fauna living in the area.

Additional benefits are also bestowed upon the user since Eco-friendly furniture should also be safe to use in the home and promote a healthier living environment.

Aesthetics of Environmentally Friendly Furniture

Beyond the environmental and health improvements gained by using green furniture, there is often times increased aesthetic value when considering your overall home decor. Modern styles of Earth-friendly furniture often use sophisticated themes in their design leading to enhancements as well as diversity in style throughout your living or office space.

No longer does your home or office have to look like a furniture showroom area of Sears Roebuck! Now you can have your own unique and stylish interior decor with a richness that only natural materials can provide.

Just imagine … you can actually leave the realm of mass production and boring furnishings and enter your own dream world just by using Eco-friendly furniture rather than the “run-of-the-mill” retail furniture styles.