Creating and Building Living Homes

A Guide to Sustainable Interior Design and Architecture

Dec 6, 2008

Learn how to use recycled building materials inside, and products from the natural earth outside to design and build a living home.

At first, environmentally and socially conscious building methods were the only focus for creating a green home. The design of the house, both interior and exterior, was based strictly upon appearance. But that has begun to change so that builders and designers are working together to create a home whose interior design is as environmentally conscious as the materials used for its structure.

What is Sustainable Interior Design?

In order to keep the inside of a home as environmentally friendly as the outside, good effort must be put into the process of choosing from many available options. Carpet can fill a house with toxic fumes, and so can the paint on the walls. Wood floors and low-VOC paint will improve the interior environment. Placement and height of windows can use sunlight to full advantage in keeping the interior temperate. These are just a few examples of the many options a homeowner can choose in keeping with a sustainable interior design.

Used Building Materials

As awareness rises among builders, designers and homeowners, innovative options become readily available for choosing environmentally-friendly products. Used building materials can be found in low-tech ways by checking out nearby remodeling projects; and higher-tech searches, such as the B2B site, Build.Recycle.Net, which offers online resources for used brick, reclaimed lumber, architectural salvage and secondhand plumbing. Choosing used building materials means less contribution to landfills, and less economical waste.

Living Homes

The title of this book, Living Homes, is a good one. Thinking about houses as living inspires material choices that make human life healthier, and when those materials eventually return to the earth in the form of waste, they avoid contributing toxins to our environment, thereby continuing the healthy life cycle. A homeowner in the process of building, remodeling or designing a new house will not only be inspired by Living Homes, but educated in making thoughtful choices. Living off the grid becomes a real possibility.

A Source of Inspiration

There are pictures and descriptions of real living houses in this book that show how possible it is to live in a green home that is beautiful and user friendly. Examples include houses made from adobe, rammed earth and straw bale. There is a chapter showing the clever use of reinvented, recycled and high-tech materials. A resources section in the back includes contact information for the builders, cabinetry, architects, interior and landscape designers and other craftspeople used in the creation of the featured homes. Whether remodeling, building new or simply redecorating, Living Homes will provide inspiration for more natural, sustainable choices.

The copyright of the article Creating and Building Living Homes in Home Decor Books is owned by Trevy Thomas. Permission to republish Creating and Building Living Homes in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.