RoomRecipes » Green Design

Life Size Lego House…Well, Kind Of

Krista Watterworth — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:15:54 +0000

Imagine putting together your own house much like you put together a Lego train station when you were little? Crazy as it sounds, it’s real and eco-friendly!

The HIB-System is modular blocks made from naturally cut Black Forest trees and insulated with shells, gravel and wood chips.

What? It’s a German product and it’s gaining a lot of interesting media attention.

I’m not really sure how it works, but it’s supposedly earthquake proof and you can get a pre-designed home. So I need to know: Is this WOW! or What the Heck?

Eco Training For… Pro Architects?

Krista Watterworth — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:14:46 +0000

Before construction begins on any new building these days, much more thought goes into the process from beginning to end. With the trend toward green design, the use of sustainable materials and the impact that building any structure can have on our environment puts an architect’s moral character on red alert. ROBIN POGREBIN of The New York Times discusses Architects Return to Class as Green Design Advances and the requirement for building professionals and planners to maintain a certain level of knowledge in green design. The American Institute of Architects doesn’t give professionals in the field much choice.

I was just about to sign up for a green design course at Parsons School of Interior Design when my personal design business began picking up. A girl can never know enough about saving our planet!

I especially love 3Form’s Ecoresin products. Amazing stuff!

Red Hot and Green

Krista Watterworth — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:34:08 +0000

The new show on HGTV called RED, HOT and GREEN is hip, fun and informative. It sounds like it could be a show about Mexican vegetarian cuisine… but it’s an eco-friendly renovation show. Carter Oosterhouse is the big star of the network and he’s not only a hotty but he knows his stuff. I’ve only seen the show once, but I have seen Carter’s other show, Carter Can, and his furniture building skills are amazingly impressive! Nicole Facciuto is a great sidekick and designer… her stuff is top notch. What makes this show a recipe for success? The talents of the carpenter and designer, and it’s slick, well produced quality.

Environmentally friendly… burritos??!!

Krista Watterworth — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:40:50 +0000

Ok… so Chipotle has gone green! I’m so excited… Their store in Gurnee, Illinois is LEED Silver-certified. LEED certified means “energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.” Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? To find out more go to the United States Green Building Council website.

They’ll have a wind turbine on site to generate electricity, use recycled drywall and barn metal for the building itself, and lots of other goodies for conserving water and energy. A round of applause! And I love their burritos to boot!

Put the roof in your pipe and smoke it!

Krista Watterworth — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:51:50 +0000

Did the grass hut go out of style? The Flinstones certainly don’t think so. Fred is about as eco-friendly as you can get, but I do wonder if he wears leather (not in the bedroom… where’s your head?)

I think Elton John was onto something when he “sat on the roof and picked off the moss”… Five percent of everything that goes into a landfill comes from roofing industry, so we really need to give this industry a second glance in durability and sustainability.

This waterproofing membrane is usually what causes pesky leaks – it’s exposed to extreme temps and can breakdown over time. Dow’s inverted roof (or PMR) uses Styrofoam insulation above the waterproofing membrane, and can be used with any roof type.

It’s a sustainable product because it “reduces the total energy consumption of the building.” It’s said to reduce monthly electric bills which in turn lowers pollution from burning fossil fuels (ie. less carbon monoxide in the air.) Also it’s said to be a recycled product.

Let’s talk about the veggie roof. The most common of the veggie roofs is an intensive garden roof – which is like another lawn. It needs to be mowed regularly and a wider variety of plants can be used. The biggest benefit of a veggie roof is that it is cooler and absorbs heat so it reduces energy costs.

Green Glass Kicks A$&

Krista Watterworth — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:04:53 +0000

GreenGlass is a pretty cool product. It’s made by a company called Temple-Inland and they make lots of building products. GreenGlass is their answer to insulation that’s good for the environment – sort of. It is a “moisture- and mold-resistant fiberglass-faced gypsum product that is suitable for commercial and residential use.” It’s gypsum sheathing – what is that exactly? Well gypsum is a mineral used in plaster products and fertilizer. This mineral – which is 90% recycled in Temple Inland’s product – is sandwiched between two thin glass plates, that’s how I understand it and it’s used beneath brick, stone, and vinyl siding. So if you’re thinking of building your own green home, this is a good place to start – with the walls!!

Keep Me Iced…

Krista Watterworth — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:21:14 +0000

We all know those famous words from J. Lo herself “think you gotta keep me iced? You don’t….If I wanna floss, I got my own.” It’s true, “my love don’t cost a thing”. BUT… for some girls – you know the type – really expensive furniture, home accessories and art are as important as Carrie Bradshaw’s engagement “closet” (which you can now download to your IPOD or IPHONE).

Inspirational things in the more traditional style come from LA’s finest Suzanne Rheinstein in her Holly Hock shop. I’m not sure what the big deal is except that she brought a touch of the Northeast to LA LA Land. For less than five grand (yes, $5,000) you can have the most amazing shell encrusted candlestick holder. I love interiors, but I think I’d prefer a Chanel bag because I think I could make this:

Chandeliers are my downfall. It’s okay to be honest about your weak spot. It makes you more likable! Now this makes me swoon, so do all Marjorie Skouras’ chandeliers for that matter.

Why Filter the Love?

Krista Watterworth — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:45:56 +0000

My ever-so-thrifty and ingenious father-in-law passed on this great list of uses for coffee filters. It reminded me of the various articles in Domino Magazine and Martha Stewart Living that provide lists for Aha! uses of everyday household items. It’s ECO! Join in the fun and share some of your Aha! uses with only ONE essential ingredient.

1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.
2. Clean windows and mirrors. Coffee filters are lint-free so they’ll leave windows sparkling.
3. Protect China. Separate your good dishes by putting a coffee filter between each dish.
4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.
5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.
7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.
8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.
9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make con venient wrappers for messy foods.
10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.
11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.
12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters.
13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. Soaks out all the grease.
14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great “razor nick fixers.”

None other than Martha herself (or her genius, ever crafty staff) makes a Fairy Godmother costume out of 100 coffee filters! Too cool for school…

Rock n’ Roll… stone in the home

Krista Watterworth — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:19:49 +0000

My design from HGTV's "Save My Bath"

I don’t know about you, but I love the look of the Italian white Carrera or Statuario marble. I’ve used it in many of my kitchen and bath designs and it works with modern and traditional spaces. I like it’s clean, sleek look and also it’s history. Plus there’s nothing like picking stone from a huge slab that’s been cut from the earth. You can’t get more green than that!

Fashion sometimes takes it’s cues from home design or history – the lines often cross over. Case in point, Jeremy Scott’s silk dress resembling a Greek marble column. Strange, interesting and definitely artistic!

Jeremy Scott Silk Dress

And you don’t have to “go antique” if you want a cool table with marble table top. Eero Saarinen’s pedestal collection includes a dining, side and coffee table. It’s been over 50 years since Saarinen designed the Tulip Collection. And, it rocks! (pun intended) Available at Knoll.

Welcome To Room Recipes!

Krista Watterworth — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:18:12 +0000

Room Recipes is a blogging community about practical home design. It’s also a place for those who simply love design and can’t get enough design television, especially HGTV!

Why recipes? While Room Recipes will most certainly discuss every aspect of kitchen design, our coverage of food won’t go too much further than fruit centerpieces. Nevertheless, the concept of “recipe” offers an essential metaphor for the way our website approaches home design. It’s all about capturing the collective experience of many designers, both professional and amateur, and making their insights available to anyone interested in transforming their living space into something special. What are great recipes if not the recorded memories, the history, of our best creations?

Like any great family dish passed from generation to generation, a great room recipe begins with a list of ingredients. Some are necessary, others are optional, and, of course, there’s always room for substitution and improvisation.

Room Recipes will examine our “best of” (and “worst of”) experiences with room design with an eye toward distilling the combinations of ingredients and techniques that work well together. We’ll also attempt to describe why certain recipes are successful and why others are not, even when the answer is more instinct and heart than logic and rules. Most importantly, we’ll attempt to teach each other how to repeat design successes. After all, isn’t a great recipe a guideline to help us repeat what works?

Room Recipes is also a community. Sign up, create a profile, submit your own blogs, videos and photos, participate on our message boards. Do you have a great room recipe you’d like to share with the community? What design shows do you love? What are your favorite episodes? Who is your favorite host? Are you into green design? Recipes are for sharing, so let’s share what’s working and not working in our homes and our lives.

Thanks for joining us! Krista