Today’s tip comes from Rachel Hulan of Path Design, an interior design firm specializing in sustainable design for residential and light commercial projects.

With your children’s room floored and painted, it’s time to turn our attention to the final element — furniture. A lot of children’s furniture is made from pressed wood, such as particleboard, and almost all pressed wood contains formaldehyde – not something you would necessarily want your child sleeping next to for 10-12 hours a night.

If you can, buy furniture made of solid wood — from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified lumber, or other sustainable wood.  Some lovely, simple, maple wood children’s furniture, finished with nothing more than tung oil and beeswax, can be had from Pacific Rim Woodworking.

For fun, versatile children’s furniture that can last from infancy to pre-teen, try www.muukids.com.

Rachel Hulan, CID, IIDA, CGBP, is principal of Path Design, an interior design firm specializing in sustainable design for residential and light commercial projects.  She also teaches green interior design classes for CSUF and CSULB.  She recently launched a new blog devoted to sustainable interior design.

Got a green tip? Have a green question? E-mail green guru Pat Brennan or William Diepenbrock at the Orange County Register. We’ll review your tip or get an answer to your question, and get the details published in our new Green Tip of the Day feature.

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Green your kids’ room: Finally, it’s the furniture, folks is a post from: Green OC

Today’s tip comes from Rachel Hulan of Path Design, an interior design firm specializing in sustainable design for residential and light commercial projects.

Now that you’ve conquered green flooring solutions, let’s turn our efforts at eliminating unwanted chemicals and other unwanted elements from our children’s rooms to the most changeable, adjustable and frequently updated element of any room — the paint job.

Many of you may have read the term “low-VOC” or even “zero-VOC” in paint articles recently, but what does that mean, and why would you care?

VOC stands for volatile organic compounds, and you should care because the most commonly used VOCs (and HAPs – hazardous air pollutants) in conventional paint are ammonia, benzene, pro-formaldehydes, ethanol and acetone!  Yuck – no wonder paint stinks!

And the chemicals haven’t really left once you stop noticing the smell –- they can “off-gas” from your walls for the next three years.  Happily, there are now much healthier “green” alternatives from even the major paint manufacturers — such as “Ecoshield” from Dunn-Edwards and “Eco Spec” from Benjamin-Moore, both with greatly reduced VOCs (although some HAPs may still be present).

Other terrific brands include Mythic Paint, AFM Safecoat, Green Planet Paint, and Farrow & Ball.

Next up: Furniture

Rachel Hulan, CID, IIDA, CGBP, is principal of Path Design, an interior design firm specializing in sustainable design for residential and light commercial projects.  She also teaches green interior design classes for CSUF and CSULB.  She recently launched a new blog devoted to sustainable interior design.

Got a green tip? Have a green question? E-mail green guru Pat Brennan or William Diepenbrock at the Orange County Register. We’ll review your tip or get an answer to your question, and get the details published in our new Green Tip of the Day feature.

Related posts:

Green your kid’s room: Paint is step two is a post from: Green OC

Today’s tip comes from Rachel Hulan of Path Design, an interior design firm specializing in sustainable design for residential and light commercial projects.

As parents, we face many decisions when it comes time to decorate our kid’s rooms.  Would a boy like a sports theme or a dinosaur theme better?  Is it too “girlie” to paint a daughter’s room bubblegum pink, even though it’s her FAVORITE color?  Is your new baby going to sleep better if you have the Beatrix Potter wallpaper or the Classic Pooh?

But the most important design decisions you make for you child involve things you probably didn’t even know were an issue, such as formaldehyde and petrochemical off-gassing.

Unfortunately, so many of the materials we use in the design of our homes are embedded with chemicals that aren’t healthy for anyone, especially children.  The good news is that the rise of the “Green Design” movement has paved the way for much healthier options – what’s good for the planet turns out to be much better for us too!

Let’s start our tour of improvements at the foundation — your floor.

One of my favorite floors for children’s rooms is Marmoleum Click, by Forbo.  It’s as though they designed it just for kids.  Not only do these easy-to-install, click-in-place panels come in two sizes and 24 different fun colors, they are ecologically produced from natural materials such as linseed oil and jute.

Anti-static, easy to clean, quiet (due to their cork backing), and durable, they have the added benefit of requiring no adhesive, as they will simply “float” above the existing floor.

Next up: Paint

Rachel Hulan, CID, IIDA, CGBP, is principal of Path Design, an interior design firm specializing in sustainable design for residential and light commercial projects.  She also teaches green interior design classes for CSUF and CSULB.  She recently launched a new blog devoted to sustainable interior design.

Got a green tip? Have a green question? E-mail green guru Pat Brennan or William Diepenbrock at the Orange County Register. We’ll review your tip or get an answer to your question, and get the details published in our new Green Tip of the Day feature.

Related posts:

Green your kid’s room: Start with the floor is a post from: Green OC

The Road Less Traveled Store and Morning Song Farm are jointly hosting a brunch and tour at the organic farm in Temecula on Nov. 21.

Morning Star Farm, a certified organic farm in Temecula.

The $90 event will feature a look at growing processes and farming activities, and provide visitors with ”farm to table” dining via the three-course brunch. A food preservation workshop will also be held.

The presenters:

• Orange County’s Delilah Snell, one of our Green Tip regular contributors and owner of The Road Less Traveled Store. Snell is a certified Master Food Preserver and is licensed to teach the public basic food preservation and canning techniques.  She teaches canning, freezing and food dehydration and lectures at farmers’ markets throughout Southern California.
• Morning Song Farm’s Donna Buono, who specializes in a number of specialty goods such as fresh macadamia nuts, passion fruit, avocados and a number of citrus fruits.

Morning Song also has a community supported agriculture program with dropoffs throughout San Diego, Orange County and Riverside.  Several restaurants also buy direct from the farm, including Old Vine Café in Costa Mesa.

RSVP: To Delilah Snell at delilahsnell@yahoo.com or call The Road Less Traveled at 714-836-8727.

Got a green tip? Have a green question? E-mail green guru Pat Brennan or William Diepenbrock at the Orange County Register. We’ll review your tip or get an answer to your question, and get the details published in our new Green Tip of the Day feature.

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Green tip: organic farm tour, brunch and food preservation is a post from: Green OC

Today’s tip comes from The Road Less Traveled owner Delilah Snell.

People always ask me about what to wash their clothes with. Nowadays, there are a number of great products that are not only eco-sensitive, but which can save you $ and time.

• Ecover: I LOVE this company, use everything they make, but their laundry detergent is super popular.
• Baking soda: Add baking soda — a ½ cup at the most – to your laundry. It softens the water, making your soap more effective. It’s also cheap and non toxic.
• Vinegar: It makes the smell go away. Add a ½ cup at the most.
• Soap Nuts: Great and uber-natural laundry soap, this Chinese berry is perfect for baby diapers, sensitive skin and people who do not like to deal with detergents … just drop the bag in!

Delilah Snell lectures on green living and food preservation throughout Southern California. To learn more about green products, you can visit Delilah at the The Road Less Traveled in Santa Ana or check out her blog, Project Small.

Click here for more green tips.

Got a green tip? Have a green question? E-mail green guru Pat Brennan or William Diepenbrock at the Orange County Register. We’ll review your tip or get an answer to your question, and get the details published in our new Green Tip of the Day feature.

Green tip: Eco-sensitive washing (and money saving, too) is a post from: Green OC

We all have them: leftover jars from spaghetti sauce, mustard, jams. Sure, you can recycle them, but can’t you use them for something?

Here’s a list of ways you can use your leftover jars beyond the recycling bin:

• Tea lights: Place a small tea candle into a jar for a quick mood light
•  Spices: Fill a jar with your favorite seasoning or make your own.
• Arrangements: Pick flowers and have a cute arrangement near your bed.
• Keep herbs fresh: Fill halfway with water, put herbs in like you would a flower arrangement and put in fridge … herbs will keep longer — I promise!
• Make dressing: Place the ingredients into a jar with a lid and shake, ready to go!
• Storage: Do a Martha Stewart and use jars to store buttons, nails, and any small bit. Just make sure you label things!

Apartment Therapy also demonstrates creative ways to reuse!

Delilah Snell lectures on green living and food preservation throughout Southern California. To learn more about green products, you can visit Delilah at the The Road Less Traveled in Santa Ana or check out her blog, Project Small.

Click here for more green tips.

Got a green tip? Have a green question? E-mail green guru Pat Brennan or William Diepenbrock at the Orange County Register. We’ll review your tip or get an answer to your question, and get the details published in our new Green Tip of the Day feature.

Green tip: New uses for old jars is a post from: Green OC

In the early 80s, while in graduate school and on a very tight budget, I read a book about living more simply.  One of the things it suggested was to use cloth napkins instead of paper. 

I tried it, I liked it, and I have been using cloth napkins ever since. Over the years, when I’ve had friends for dinner, I’ve often heard, “You don’t have to break out the cloth napkins for me.”  … implying that it’s a bit too fancy, too … elegant for anything other than a four star restaurant. 

But I rather like the feeling that every day, and every meal is special enough for cloth napkins.  I didn’t initially make the decision to use cloth napkins out of a sense of eco-consciousness, but now that I have had my own eco-awakening, I’m glad to lesson the impact on the earth by not participating in the consumption of the average 2,200 napkins per person used in the U.S. every year. 

if you haven’t done this already, I invite you to dig out those cloth napkins buried in the linen cabinet and reserved only for special occasions, and treat yourself to a little eco-elegance at every meal.

Another habit I started initially in an effort to live more simply is the use of cloth rags instead of paper towels whenever possible to clean up spills and messes, keep the counters clean, clean mirrors and windows … basically anything you would use a paper towel for. 

Cotton bar rags that you can purchase at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Home Depot, or Costco are perfect for this.  My mom has even converted to bar towels and loves them.  Incredibly, in the United States, we generate 3,000 tons of paper towel waste every day.  That’s staggering to think about.  To put it in perspective, a Volkswagen Beetle weighs about a ton.  So that is like throwing 3,000 VWs into the landfill every single day. 

 So here’s the challenge … gather up some rags around the house and/or pick up some bar rags at Home Depot.  Then the next time you run out of paper towels, do something radical  … don’t replace them.  Befriend a bar towel instead and I think you’ll find, as I have, that you’ll prefer a bar rag over Bounty any day.

Sometimes the route of simplicity is also the route of sustainability, and that makes good “cents” all the way around.
Today’s Green Living tip comes from Pamela Sterling, owner of Laguna Green, Southern California’s first exclusively green kitchen and bath showroom, located in Laguna Beach, California.  Pam is a passionate educator, a talented designer, and an inspirational speaker on all things green.  

Click here for more green tips.

Got a green tip? Have a green question? E-mail green guru Pat Brennan or William Diepenbrock at the Orange County Register. We’ll review your tip or get an answer to your question, and get the details published in our new Green Tip of the Day feature.

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Green tip: Simplicity + Elegance = EcoCents is a post from: Green OC

How does one decorate “green” while celebrating the holidays?  The easiest thing to think of is: whatever you are using should be used in more than one way — everything needs more than one purpose.

• Pumpkins: Buy pumpkins that you can eat after you display them. You don’t have to carve them — many of the great edible ones are beautiful alone and then you can eat them!
• Don’t forget to compost: If you are using edible decorations, chop them up for nutritive compost for your spring garden.
• Use what you have: Rearrange your living room for holiday time. Moving things around makes things “look” special without having to add more to your trash.

The latest issue of Sunset Magazine has some great tips for color schemes and display using nature and pumpkins.

Delilah Snell lectures on green living and food preservation throughout Southern California. To learn more about green products, you can visit Delilah at the The Road Less Traveled in Santa Ana or check out her blog, Project Small.

Click here for more green tips.

Got a green tip? Have a green question? E-mail green guru Pat Brennan or William Diepenbrock at the Orange County Register. We’ll review your tip or get an answer to your question, and get the details published in our new Green Tip of the Day feature.

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Green tip: Holiday decorating — naturally! is a post from: Green OC

Today, Oct. 23, is National Canning Day.

Creating home preserves is not only an affordable and efficient method of making food last longer, but it also reclaims a piece of our food tradition almost lost amid our mass-produced food culture.

Fortunately, food preservation is making a huge comeback. Not only because of our current economic situation, but also because many people are realizing that preserving food eliminates waste, teaches proper and safe food preparation, and places a high value on seasonal, fresh goods. 

 Many preserved foods highlight peak-of-flavor produce, many of which are local. And that means fewer miles for food to travel, and, hence, a lower carbon footprint … in essence preserving a “green” food commodity.

Now, don’t just put something into a jar and call it a night.  Without proper education of the techniques of food preservation, you could be creating some dangerous outcomes.  It is important that you have proper training by someone who knows what they are doing. 

There are several books out on the market that are great aids in building a safe foundation in home canning.  Ball, which makes canning jars, has a great primer on basic food preservation. There are also a number of classes popping up around the area devoted to teaching safe canning methods.

And I am partial to Canning Day. Yours truly is a Certified Master Food Preserver. I teach and lecture around Southern California. You can check back here for classes or view our blog to see when events are happening.  The National Center for Home Food Preservation is also a good place to start.

(Image from Ball Web site. Click to see canning advice and product guide.)

Delilah Snell lectures on green living and food preservation throughout Southern California. To learn more about green products, you can visit Delilah at the The Road Less Traveled in Santa Ana or check out her blog, Project Small.

Click here for more green tips.

Got a green tip? Have a green question? E-mail green guru Pat Brennan or William Diepenbrock at the Orange County Register. We’ll review your tip or get an answer to your question, and get the details published in our new Green Tip of the Day feature.

Latest posts:

Green tip: Preserve your way to a green pantry is a post from: Green OC

There’s a dirty little secret hanging out with your clean clothes. Do you know what it is in many dryer sheets that makes your clothes soft?  Beef fat (aka tallow) … like from a dead cow. Yuck.  When I learned this, I thought there has to be a better way to get my clothes soft … and there is:

Veggie Dryer Sheets:  Some companies have come out with “tallow free” dryer sheets that use plant derived softeners instead. Method is one such company, and their Squeaky Green Dryer Clothes do the trick.  They come in unscented, and also cool scents like French lavender.  One thing I like about Method products is that they are readily available at stores like Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, and even Home Depot.  So there are no excuses.

Dryer Balls: You know those spiky blue balls you’ve seen advertized on TV that you can put in the dryer?  I’ve been using these for a couple years now, and I love them. Dryer balls lift and separate the laundry, increasing the airflow and cutting the drying time by as much as 25 percent — that saves energy. 

The balls also massage the fabric, which results in less lint and fewer wrinkles, softer clothes, and more absorbent towels.  However, I’ve recently learned that the blue balls contain PVC (Polyvinyl chloride –- really bad stuff for people and the planet).  So now there are some more eco-friendly versions of the same thing. 

Nellie’s now offers a PVC-free version of dryer balls – spiky green balls. These even have the option of inserting a fragrance stick if you want.  Another cool option is handmade wool dryer balls that you can get through at wooldryerballs.com.  And if you’re feeling crafty, you can even make your own wool dryer balls.  Check out this site for the DIY instructions on wool dryer balls. 

The bottom line is, dryer balls of any kind, last for several years – and that saves a heck of a lot of energy, dryer sheets, packaging… and of course, cows.

Today’s Green Living tip comes from Pamela Sterling, owner of Laguna Green, Southern California’s first exclusively green kitchen and bath showroom, located in Laguna Beach, California.  Pam is passionate educator, a talented designer, and an inspirational speaker on all things green.

(Image from Method Web site.)

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Green tip: Lose the beef-fat dryer sheets is a post from: Green OC