STYLE WITH SUBSTANCE

Serious about style

WHEN IT COMES TO INTERIOR DESIGN, HOMEOWNERS ARE CHOOSING TO BUY LESS BUT BUY WELL, WRITES ALEXANDRA GOSS

RESPONSIBLE PARTIES Previous page: This Retrouvius Design bathroom layout is an example of how the interiors company strives to turn quality salvaged materials into stylish, resourceful home features. This page: Accouter Design Group has found that clients are now more inclined to seek out more environmentally-conscious suppliers than ever before

When it comes to interior design, green is the new black. The interiors industry, which has long had a problem with the amount of waste it generates, is finally getting serious about its eco credentials. Today, sustainability equals luxury.

“Deciding to make sustainable choices is the first step on a long journey – as an industry we’re still defining what ‘sustainable’ really means,” says Matthew Freeman, president of the British Institute of Interior Design (biid. org.uk). “A good starting point is longevity: choosing highquality, well-designed pieces that use natural materials. It’s also about supporting craftspeople, providing opportunities for smaller businesses to flourish and retaining traditional processes.”

We need to think like our grandparents did and view homewares as investments, rather than disposable trend-based items. Across the UK, nearly 22m items of furniture are thrown away every year, according to the North London Waste Authority, while almost 400,000 tonnes of homeware textiles are disposed of annually, says the Haines Collection (hainescollection.co.uk), which sells unused fabrics that would otherwise end up in landfill.

There are plenty of brands focusing on quality over quantity. Carpe Diem Beds (carpediembeds.co.uk) uses slow-growth Nordic pine and organic cotton to handmake its beds and offers a 25-year warranty on springs and bedframes, while Jensen Beds (jensenbeds.com) also offers a 25-year guarantee and tries to repair beds whenever possible. West One Bathrooms (westonebathrooms.com) says shoppers are increasingly opting for durable items, such as the recyclable steel baths by Bette (my-bette.com).

Indeed, much of the drive towards sustainable interiors is being led by shoppers’ desire to make

RAW MATERIALS Clockwise from top left: A Sebastian Cox lounge chair and magazine rack, both made using British-sourced leather and timber; Durable bathroom fixtures, like this copper bath tub by BC Designs, are proving popular with savvy shoppers; Tom Raffield uses the traditional steambending method to create pieces like this Amble hanging seat

more environmentally-conscious choices, says Stella Gittins, co-founder of design collective the Accouter Group of Companies (accouterdesign.com). “Customers increasingly want a product sourced from ‘responsible’ suppliers,” she explains. The interior designer Simone Suss (studiosuss.com), a sustainability expert who helped draw up a sustainable-specifying guide for BIID members, agrees: “Knowing a product is beautiful, functional and doing good for the planet adds to the overall feel-good factor.”

Monmouthshire-based tile company Mandarin Stone (mandarinstone.com) is working to ensure overseas suppliers have adequate environmental and safety standards, while the luxury textiles firm de Le Cuona (delecuona.com) knows the origins of all its raw materials. Around 80 of the wood used in this country is imported, making local sourcing difficult, but the furniture designer Sebastian Cox (sebastiancox.co.uk) harvests and mills his own British timber; his pioneering zero-waste business aims to store 100 tonnes of CO2 in the wooden objects it makes each year.

The focus on sustainability has re-energised British craftsmanship and given a boost to companies using traditional manufacturing methods. Brands leading the charge include Delcor (delcor.co.uk), which has been handcrafting sofas, chairs and beds at its factory in Northumberland since 1967, and The Cornish Bed Company (cornishbeds.co.uk), the last traditional Victorian handcast metal bed-making foundry in the UK.

Lighting and furniture designer Tom Raffield (tomraffield.com) uses the age-old technique of steambending wood in his work. “This low-energy and ecological method reaps beautiful results that don’t cost the earth,” Raffield says. “Sustainability should be synonymous with good design.”

Wood and other natural materials are key, from responsibly-sourced cotton to wool and even the waste eggshell and feathers from the farming industry, which are reused by the ethical furniture and design brand Nature Squared (naturesquared.com). Many consumers are now opting for the plant-based, natural colours from Edward Bulmer (edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk), which have the lowest volatile organic compound (VOC) level of any emulsion paint and are made using “gentle

ALL NATURAL Clockwise from above: Edward Bulmer's natural paints are plant based and made using 'gentle chemistry' ; Naturalmat uses locally-sourced wool for its pieces and every mattress is fully biodegradeable or recyclable; Bert & May sources beautiful reclaimed and antique tiles chemistry”, rather than energy- and carbon-intensive manufacturing processes. “Sustainability is in our DNA,” Bulmer says. “We’re striving for the best for both people and planet in every step of our process from our factory to the customer’s door.”

Mattress company Naturalmat (naturalmat.co.uk), which handmakes mattresses in Devon, has received a Queen’s Award for sustainability in recognition of its solar-powered workshop and the fact it buys all its wool from farms within a 50-mile radius. It is also the first UK manufacturer to offer a closed loop manufacturing system for its mattresses – as all the materials are biodegradable or recyclable, Naturalmat can upcycle them into new products. In fact, many of today’s most luxurious – and innovative – homewares have been recycled or upcycled. Dirk van der Kooij (dirkvanderkooij. com) crafts furniture and lighting from discarded CDs, leather sofas and kitchen appliances, while the /re/PURPOSE PERFORMANCE collection from the rug company Jennifer Manners (jennifermanners.co.uk) is made entirely from recycled water bottles.

Bert & May (bertandmay.com) reclaims antique tiles; Romo Group (romo.com) makes some of its fabrics from reconstituted yarns from the fashion industry; and furniture company Molteni (molteni.it) offers a new eco-friendly upholstery made from 100 per cent recycled and biodegradable polyester. In April,

CARBON NEUTRAL

Clockwise from top right: An elegant Retrouvius Design living space; an Albion Nord-designed home offi ce, complete with curated antique furnishings; Aldro reclaimed wood stool, £130, Hoyland & Hughes; Haiku linen cushion, £175, LuxDeco; Normandy Grey Absolute Matt paint, £26 a litre, Little Greene; Verso pendant light in Oak, £195, Tom Raffi eld

paint fi rm Little Greene (littlegreene.com) launched Re:mix, a collection of leftover paints reformulated into a matt fi nish. “Upcycling these paints prevents as much as 60,000 litres of mineral and organic raw materials from going to waste each year,” says Ruth Mottershead, creative director at Little Greene.

While interior designers such as Max Rollitt (maxrollitt.com) have long used antiques to create beautiful homes (Rollitt is also an antique dealer), brown furniture has gone mainstream: Google Trends search terms reveal that interest in antique collecting rose by 50 per cent in July this year, compared to the same month in 2021. “Antiques are relics of the past: they carry the weight of bygone conversations and obsolete customs,” says Camilla Clarke, creative director at interior design studio Albion Nord (albion-nord.com). “Antiquing is also the ultimate in eco-friendly shopping.”

And there’s salvage, of course. The salvage fi rm and design studio Retrouvius (retrouvius.com) was founded in 1993 and has championed the tenets of reuse and sustainability ever since.

“Green design has become fashionable, but fashions come and go. I hope from an ecological point of view that it’s not a fashion but a cultural change,” says Adam Hills, Retrouvius’s co-founder. “Everyone should go out there and save more stu . Don’t just throw things away – see what you can sell or pass on. Buy well, but buy less.” L

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