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  • Cork's long been associated with bottle stops and dull flooring. Not any more: it's the eco-friendly, design-friendly material designers can't get enough of for furniture, homewares and decorative accessories

  • mio culture

    How environmentally friendly is wallpaper? If 'not very' is the answer...which it is.. what products can be used to make our walls green and interesting company? Kay Hill investigates

  • Old tyres can be upcycled into planters

    Once you get your creative thinking cap on you'll be amazed at what you can upcycle

A survey finds we Brits are becoming increasingly concerned about the serious shortage of housing in the UK - and many of us have ideas on how to sort it out

Land of milk and honey..but at a price

The award-winning architect designed homes for a new co-housing project in Cambridge. These projects are great, he says - though the future for housing lies in far greater freeing up of land.

Matchbox cars have gone all sustainable

You probably had them when you were a kid and if you're now buying them for your children, well it's good to know Matchbox is making tiny E-vehicles from recycled and recyclable plastic or bio-based plastic as well as metal

Harry Villiers, of furniture making brothers Villiers Brothers, took some steel, wood and glass and built an enviable bolt-hole in his Essex garden

A light that creates interesting effects Fusion

You don't have to be a lighting designer to achieve mood and ambience with your lamps. The Fusion cut-out cube is a sculptural piece that gives a gentle wash of light

Big Husk chair by Patricia Urquiola for B+B Italia, from Chaplins

Finding something comfortable to sit on for more than a few moments is surprisingly dificult. Most sofas are too hard, most chairs have backs to high/low/rigid, beanbags to too hard to get in and out of and they make too much noise when you move around. So we've done a bit of legwork for you and have some suggestions for chairs you really can spend an evening on watching telly.

Putting up decorations is one of the joys of Christmas. But given that tinsel is made from PVC and so doesn't score highly on the eco points chart, how should we deck the halls? Kay Hill has some sustainable suggestions

Poinsettias are perfect for Christmas colour

..and not just for Christmas of course because poinsettias come in many other hues from cream to green to pink. But we tend to buy them as a yuletide tradition and rightly so because they are inject much needed colour at this time of year

 

Alice Hall - Holiday Time oil painting

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters' annual exhibition - pieces available to buy in-person and online

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