Features

Affordable luxuries: eco-friendly candles

scented candles are big business. Choose candles that contain no paraffin wax and if they have palm wax choose brands that guarantee sustainable palm

Heat pumps do bring down energy costs

Researchers at the Energy House 2.0 research facility at the University of Salford, working with housebuilders Bellway and Barratt Redrow and construction solutions manufacturer Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland, have spent the past year testing 14 different heating systems to see which ones will heat homes the best at the lowest cost.
 

Rugs and runners: an easy way to enhance your home

Find lovely rugs for your home, at all prices. Choose wool/jute/linen rugs as these are sustainable material. And depending on the backing used for of these rugs will be biodegradable. Find great rugs at Roger Oates, Jennifer Manners, Ptolomy Mann, Nani Marquina and Gandia Blasco, as well as British designer Anna V

Beds for blissful nights - organic, natural, eco-friendly

Unless you have small children for decades on end, the odds are that you will spend around a third of your life in bed. Which means it is well worth thinking about the healthiness and eco-friendliness of something you'll be spending so much time on and in.

When around eight hours of your day is spent in bodily contact with a surface, you want to know that surface isn't awash with chemicals that may well off-gas for some considerable period and cause skin irritations.

Eco warriors as well as workhorse worktops

Eco worktops and environmentally friendly worktop materials include Eco by Cosentino, Resilica recycled glass, and Richlite. All are hard wearing and intended to last for at least 30 years. Environmentally friendly choices. good for kitchens and bathrooms. Swiss CDF by Kronospan is another good eco option being made from FSC-certified wood fibre.

Changing your floors: eco friendly materials to consider

Laminate

Roomba - life with a robot vacuum cleaner

Thank heavens Christmas is over. Because the tree is gone, so are the guests, and Mr Robot has been able to roam across the floors of our maisonette giving them a good vacuum and making the place look clean and tidy again.

The importance of renovating wood in the home

Exposed oak wooden beams are a feature of architecture over the centuries

How to achieve an eco-friendly kitchen

Eco-friendly kitchens use recycled and recyclable materials. Wood products should be FSC-certified, while ease of dis-assemby is important in the design of kitchen units and cabinets. Kuche built the ktchen for the first certified Passivhaus in the UK and they used Durat for countertops, a solid surface material from Finland that is 100 per cent recyclable. Puustelli Miinus is an eco Finnish brand to consider.

Kuche built the kitchen for Underhill, the UK's first accredited Passivhaus, designed by architect Seymour Smith and featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs Live. The kitchen has a 10m run of units with a recyclable Durat worktop. Core design criteria were for all materials to be recyclable, for all wood products to be FSC-certified and for the kitchen cabinets to be designed for easy dis-assembly.

Upcycled, recycled: Madeleine Boulesteix chandeliers

Madeleine Boulesteix teacup chandeliers are made from old and secondhand kitchenware..glasses, teacups. She's been upcycling all her life and applies her artistic talent to making beautiful lighting from waste material.

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