Durable and distinct, the beauty of a sisal area rug can create a real statement in your décor, and naturally beautify your home. These area rugs are especially popular in Southern California- admired for their natural appearance, which echoes the laid-back style of coastal living.
The well-crafted construction of sisal area rugs makes them extremely stain-resistant, and their fiber content makes them more resistant to flame, as well. The quality of their construction also helps to absorb sounds, making them a great option for placement above wood floors. All these traits considered, it’s easy to see the appeal of sisal rugs as a great investment piece in your home.
Sisal rugs date back many centuries, and are common in places such as Egypt, Florence, Mozambique, and South & Central America. The hard vegetable fibers characteristic of sisal make it a strong material for weaving ropes and mats- stronger than other plant materials like jute, hemp, and flax fibers. This sturdiness and longevity has helped sisal area rugs remain successful and popular throughout the ages.
Coles now carries Teragren flooring- a bamboo manufacturer known for its strict adherence to environmental standards & guidelines.
A powerful force in the development of eco-friendly building products, Teragren offers products with the highest quality of environmental & health standards, including LEED® certification, FloorScore® certification, and responsible harvesting & manufacturing processes.
We are proud to offer homeowners such an environmentally conscious, high-quality brand for their flooring needs. To learn more about bamboo flooring, click here.
Everyone’s joining the green movement, whether it’s purchasing a hybrid vehicle, reducing our water and energy use, or simply recycling, we should all be doing our part. When starting your next home design project, consider environmentally friendly alternatives to reduce your affect on the environment. Recycled materials typically cost less, and add the same charming decor to warm the spirits of your house.
Bamboo hard wood floors
When it comes to hardwood flooring, bamboo has become a popular option. A renewable resource that grows at exponential levels and has minimal affect on the environment. It’s a very popular hardwood flooring option because it can be stained or painted any color. You can make it look like traditional hardwood floors, or use the bamboo to highlight a unique appearance. Bamboo adds an innovative style to the possibilities of hardwood flooring.
Bamboo furniture or Wall Covers
Bamboo also makes for an affordable furniture material, perfect for kitchen tables, chairs, and bar stools. In addition, it can be used as a wall covering to compliment your furniture. Since it grows so prolifically, it’s cheap to use, and has the great qualities of hard wood. Bamboo is functionally strong, so you know your investment will be around for a long time to come.
Recycled Wall Paper
This is a hot trend in interior design, although you might want to avoid recycling the bright 70s yellow Brady Bunch wallpapers you remember from your childhood. Many companies take existing pieces of wallpaper and recycle them to make fresh new designs. Scraps of existing paper or broken paper are then added to make material that’s completely new. This saves wallpaper from ending up in a landfill and polluting the environment further.
Make Use of Distressed Wood
Distressed wood can come from broken furniture, torn down houses and even old sail boats. It’s much cheaper than new wood, but can still be reused to make quality products. The pieces are left as is, but can be sanded and stained to look new. It’s great for making wooden tables, pieces of decoration, or even a cheaper option for installing hardwood flooring.
Windshield Carpet Backing
Although you wouldn’t expect that you could make carpet from used windshields, they make excellent carpet backing. Tandus recently released Ethos, a modular carpet backing that uses waste from the manufacturers of windshields and safety glass to create a thermoplastic polymer. The non-chlorinated thermoplastic can be recycled repeatedly to divert it from landfills forever. How’s that for carpet excitement?
Redesign old drawers into furniture
Take a chest of drawers and build them into a new frame to create a charming but eco friendly new piece of furniture. This approach is retro and modern at the same time. Professional touches can range in the thousands of dollars, but find an innovative carpenter and you can probably work out a deal.
Wine Glass Furniture and Other Decorations
Some recycling companies refuse to recycle the green glass from which wine bottles are made of, leaving you with a nice collection if you save them from the landfill. These wine bottles can be cut and sanded into charming drinking glasses, lampshades, and candlestick holders. For a simpler approach, plant your wine bottles in the ground spout side down to create charming flower garden borders.
Cork flooring is rapidly becoming more popular, mostly because of an increasing demand for eco-friendly flooring options. Cork is truly a green material; since cork itself is a derivative of the bark of the tree, the success of cork harvesting lies in keeping the trees alive and promoting forest health, rather than cutting them down. A healthy tree means a profitable tree, so these forests are sustained and observed, encouraging growth for decades. These are just some of the reasons you should consider switching to cork flooring in your home.
Did you know…
A law was passed in the 30’s called “The 9-Year Law”, which dictates that cork cannot be harvested any more frequently than every 9 years. The tree must meet other qualifications as well, such as having a circumference of at least 60cm, and being at least 25 years of age.
The average cork tree lives to be between 150-200 years old.
As a tree ages, the better its quality of cork becomes.
Dom Perignon was one of the first to use cork for stoppers in his sparkling wines, making it a significant discovery that would lead to many other uses of cork.
Cork flooring is a recycled product- cork floors are made from the “waste” cork that is left from the production of wine stoppers.
Cork floors are a popular choice to be used in libraries, churches, and nurseries because of its sound absorption qualities.
Because of cork’s structure (millions of tiny, encapsulated air cells), it greatly reduces heat loss in rooms. Unlike other flooring materials, it maintains an even temperature through these tiny prisms- a temperature that feels comfortable underfoot, and is neither too warm, nor too cold.
Coles Fine Flooring is now an authorized dealer for EcoTimber, a company devoted to providing only environmentally friendly options to homeowners concerned about environmental issues. EcoTimber’s product line includes standard domestic wood such as Maple and Hickory, as well as hand-scraped and exotic wood such as Brazilian Cherry
Durable and distinct, the beauty of a sisal area rug can create a real statement in your décor, and naturally beautify your home. These area rugs are especially popular in Southern California- admired for their natural appearance, which echoes the laid-back style of coastal living.
Coles now carries Teragren flooring- a bamboo manufacturer known for its strict adherence to environmental standards & guidelines.
Everyone’s joining the green movement, whether it’s purchasing a hybrid vehicle, reducing our water and energy use, or simply recycling, we should all be doing our part. When starting your next home design project, consider environmentally friendly alternatives to reduce your affect on the environment. Recycled materials typically cost less, and add the same charming decor to warm the spirits of your house.