Coocoo for Coconuts

With so many green products coming about, it's amazing to see what product they will use next to continue the trend. Omarno continues to astonish by creating beautiful tile panels made from one of the oldest and rawest materials- coconuts! These panels are produced during the many stages of the coconuts growth and comes in many different colors and patterns. The panels can be installed on funiture, fixtures, screens, ceilings, doors and and many other surfaces. For more information and samples visit Omarno.

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K Marsh

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Blog #3: So colorful yet so green

It is amazing how green everyone is becoming. From eco-friendly homes, resteraunts and now eco-friendly nightclubs. Greenhouse is the first LEED certified club in America. Located in SoHo New York, the club uses recycle materials on both levels and has a magnificent ceiling treatment made of 5,000 crystals.

Greenhouse
150 Varick Street
NY, NY

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Operation: Furnish House with Craigslist- NY

With the economy being so tough, it is difficult to try to purchase new furniture for your apartment or home, especially if you just moved. Fortunately we have Craigslist! Not only can you purchase furniture but you can find a huge assortment of free goodies.

Here we start Operation: Furnish Home For Free With Craigslist...or FHFFWC for short...alright, maybe just Operation: Furnish House. We will randomly choose a city and to see what free goodies are posted that can be used to furnish a room. If you are in the area and have a vehicle and an extra hand you might be in luck.

City- New York Room: Living Room
Here we found a light fixture, sofa, coffee table, bookshelf, TV and stand.

Modern black light fixture

32" Sony television- No picture but I'm sure we have an idea of what a tv looks like.


TV stand- Can be really nice with a can of primer, expresso paint and caster wheels


Sofa- Ok, so it's not attractive but it can be dressed with a slipcover and some throw pillows...and it's free

Black metal bookshelf- Can be cleaned or spray painted silver for a more modern look.

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K Marsh

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Design Exhibit: Smart Home

Chicago
Smart Home: Green & Wired '09


The Smart Home is back! The home is a modular space built and furnished with tons of eco-friendly goodness such as recycled tiles, solar panels, to reclaimed wood for alot of the furniture. The exhibit starts March 19th and continues thru January 3rd of 2010 so if you don't live in Chicago but plan on visiting in the next year it is definitely a site worth checking out.

Check out the Museum of Science and Industry site for more ticket prices and additional information.

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K Marsh

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Terrifying Tea House

The Takasugi-an teahouse not only caught my eye because of it's uniqueness, but also because of it's downright scariness. This quaint tea house, built by Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori, is not only extremely compact but it is also perched on replanted chestnut trees that have been cut from a local mountain. The only way to get in is by using free-standing ladders, which further add to its unstableness. The Tea house has an amazing view from the inside and when looking at it from the outside it almost appears to float in air as the thin trees that hold the house blend into the wooded background.

Although cool, things like this remind me why I drink coffee.

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K Marsh

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Green Design Event - Chicago (Updated!)

Please join Pallandrome and GreenWerks at Enclave March 27th form 6:30 to 9:30 pm for Blank Canvas: A Design Showcase. This is a networking event for eco-friendly interior designers, architects, landscapers and contractors. A portion of the proceeds will benefit TreeCago, a program that plants trees throughout the city

There will also be complimentary cocktails and hors d'oeuvres served. RSVP at blankcanvaschicago.com.

The cost is $10 at the door

Enclave
222 Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL

We hope to see you at Blank Canvas on the 27th! Please email info@pallandrome.com or call 888-326-7895 with questions.

*Remember to bring your business cards if you have any*

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K Marsh

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Burling with fun

Although it's not an easy task, here is a way to create the burl effect on wood.

Tear cheesecloth into 6-foot-long pieces, and set them aside. Keep a supply of clean cloths handy so that when a cloth becomes loaded with glaze, you can discard it for a new one. Don't use any cloth that has frayed edges; small threads can get into the glaze and mar the finish.

Lay the door on a large table, preferably with enough room around it so that you can move from one area to another while working on it. Base-coat the entire surface with an eggshell or satin paint, custom-mixed to a warm, golden wood tone. Let this base coat dry thoroughly.

Working within the area defined by the painter's masking tape defining the border, coat the entire surface with a thin layer of satin oil varnish taken straight from the can. Ball a piece of cheesecloth in your hand, and moisten it by dipping it into the varnish can. Put just enough varnish on the cloth to make it slide easily on the surface and hold the color in place. Then dip the cloth into the burled wood color and work the color over the varnish-coated surface using squiggly circular strokes, as shown. (Fig. 1) Then go back and define the burls. Dip a pipe grainer into mineral spirits, and off-load the excess onto newspaper or paper towels until the grainer is damp, but not wet. Holding it at a 45-degree angle and as parallel to the surface as possible, make short radiating strokes through the burls. To add authenticity and emphasis to your pattern use a thin, pointed artist's brush to paint black rings around some of the shapes created by your strokes. Let the burled wood area dry thoroughly. From Creative Homeowner

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Burl beauties

Burl wood is one of the new, green trends for the new year. There are a variation of beautiful pieces that are handcrafted from the wood, here are a few highlights:

These Roost Burl Mirrors from Velocity are a great example of how beautiful the wood is by mixing the rugged edges with the organic shapes of the mirrors.


Here are some from the company Pieces Inc.Coffee Trunk Lamps


Round Mirror
Burl table from TRW Woodworks

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Beautifully crafted outdoor furniture

With spring slowly approaching, its time to start thinking about relaxing outdoors. One way to do so in style is in these chairs by B&B Italia. This collection, called Crinoline, has a light and airy weaved design that can be either arm chairs or high-back, including having the high-back chair ornated with a floral design.

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Modern LCD Cutting Board

Now that we are in the new millennium, its time to start cooking like it. With that, it's time to recycle the wooden cutting boards and to pull out the LCD cutting board. This concept board, by Nardo Design, has a sleek and smooth design housing a LCD screen inside the board that displays recipes and has a port that allows you to upload more.

The downside to this is that unless you cook with dull knives, the screen will eventually become pretty difficult to read and no matter how good of a chef you are, I think we all know about the little rule about mixing electronics and water.

Read more here.

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Live like Batman!

Ever wonder what it'd be like to be Bruce Wayne and to live like one with your bat compadres? The closest you might come is by living in a huge home...in a cave. If you are looking in the Festus, Missouri area then this house should be perfect.

In 2003 a family found this cave ON Ebay and in a matter of 4 years built a cozy home in the cavern hole. The house is a whooping 15,000 sq/ft consisting of three chambers which containing the three bedrooms, a large kitchen, laundry room, party room, an indoor pond, a performance stage which has seen the likes of Tina Turner to Ted Nugent. The house maintains energy efficiency by staying cool naturally because of it's location but also by incorporating geothermal panels to the plan.

Considering that two bedroom condos can sell on average of $250,000, this house is practically a steal costing a cool $300,000!


For more info and photos click here.

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K Marsh

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Beauiful Vintage Steel Furniture

Sonrisa is a furniture company that is based out of California that reclaims steel furniture from hospitals, schools, and factories and restore the pieces to their original finishes.

Sonrisa has a large selection of vintage chairs, desks, credenza and bookshelves but also have a nice selection of retro accessories such as clocks, reclaimed letters and signs.

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Staying warm while being green

Winter is almost over but it doesn't hurt to stay warm for the last few months of cold weather ahead. If you have a home with radiator heating, there is a simple and green way to conserve your heat. As this article from Planet Green details, it is as simple as applying tinfoil sheets behind the radiator to reflect the heat off of. Read more here.


Speaking of radiators, here are some really modern and beautiful radiators from Deltacalor.

This radiator called Daisy is a design by an Italian company Hellos. They created Daisy, a modular radiator, to represent a flower motif which can be ordered in different colors and finishes to customize your design. Not only can be be arranged to your liking, they have LED lights behind them to add to the decor. Check out more photos and specs here.


If you like playful pieces, here is a LEGO styled radiator designed by Marco Baxadonne for the Italian company Scirocco. The radiator, called Brick, helps keep those childhood memories warm at heart!

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Flintstones LEED to the future

Maybe Fred Flinstone had it right all along with his stony abode. How much more green can one get by having a rock house with concrete and wood furniture, and to tying it together with a Mammoth rug that was recycled from the days hunt??

























To bring the Flintstones to the future there is the Pasadena EcoHouse designed by architect Robert Mechielsen. The eco-friendly house ,which is currently under construction, is hoping to become the first LEED Platinum home. The building is primarily made of concrete and recycled materials such as the windows, countertops, wood and even rainwater systems. Robert Mechielsen is the founder of Studio-RMA which is a firm based on eco-friendly architecture and design. To see more of his designs click here.

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