Sustainable style Recycle

SUSTAINABLE style

Rec ycle, repurpose and rethink your purchases to give your home a new look that’s kinder to the planet

Wall painted in Napoleonic Blue wall paint, £55.95 per 2.5L; shelf painted in Napoleonic Blue chalk paint, £23.95 per 1L, both Annie Sloan

From buying loose vegetables to updating your wardrobe with charity shop finds, we’re all taking steps to reduce our impact on the environment. And you can apply these principles to your decorating efforts too, by seeking out recycled materials; looking for plastic-free products; and repurposing what you already own. Alysha Alli, Interior Designer at Redrow has this advice: ‘If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s to make the most of what we have. Create a scheme where the essential elements – kitchens, bathrooms, furniture and paint colours – will still look great in five or 10 years. The key is styling with accessories, which can be upgraded and recycled as your taste changes.’

Goblin Blue wood paint, £50 per 2.5L, Thorndown Paints

1MAKE DO AND MEND

Breathe new life and purpose into dated, discoloured or damaged furniture for a budgetfriendly update. Treat the item to some TLC: sand and revarnish time-worn wood; brighten dining chairs or units with paint; or refresh a set of drawers with glossy handles. Use up tester paint pots for a makeover that matches your walls and reduces paint waste.

Hand-painted ceramic knob, £8; Mimi knob in Turquoise, £6, both Anthropologie

DECOR ATING IDEAS

2DIVE INTO DYEING FABRIC

Instead of buying new, transform faded bed linen or cushion covers with fabric dye for a pocket- and planet-friendly update. Recolour your discoloured white towels a pretty blush pink to bring them back to life. ‘Cotton, linen and viscose provide the best results when dyed with a recyclable pod, which can dye up to 600g of fabric. Add vibrancy with Navy Blue and Tulip Red, or welcome warmth to a neutral scheme with Espresso Brown,’ advises Nasim Bagherian, Colour Expert at DYLON Dyes.

Machine dye pods in Tulip Red, Navy Blue and Peony Pink, £7.25 each, DYLON

3PAINT THE SL ATE CLEAN

If your kitchen splashback or bathroom wall tiles have seen better days, save yourself the bother of removing them, repairing the walls and choosing new tiles by painting them in a fresh new shade. Give the ceramic tiles a thorough clean and scrub with sugar soap to remove any grease then slightly roughen up the surface with sandpaper to provide a key for the paint to stick to. Frenchic’s Al Fresco range is well-suited to this as it doesn’t need priming and has minimal harmful VOCs, too. If you’ve got room in your budget to buy new tiles, opt for a more eco-friendly option, such as those in the Yuri range from Walls and Floors, which are made from 90-per-cent recycled materials.

Yuri Sand tiles, £41.95 per sq m, Walls and Floors

Al Fresco paint in Ol’ Blue Eyes, Steel Teal and Parma Violet, from £9.95 per 250ml, all Frenchic HB03 three-seater eco sofa in Velvet Pumpkin, £1,299, Habbio

4TAKE A SUSTAINABLE

SEAT

Seek out recycled or repurposed materials when buying new. Take it one step further by checking the product can be recycled once you’re finished with it for a truly cyclical purchase. Packed with eco-friendly credentials, including using 85-percent recycled materials and sustainably sourced wood, Habbio’s sofas come in range of fabric shades that are free from stain treatments and noxious adhesives. Plus, the brand will collect your nonHabbio sofa to prevent it going to landfill – win, win!

Sustainable plains fabric in Bodhi Marine and Bodhi Atlantic, £42 per metre, both ILIV

DECOR ATING IDEAS

5SELEC T SALVAGED METALS

Enhance your kitchen’s lighting or surfaces with recycled or sustainably sourced metal. Durable, long-lasting and easy to clean, metal is one of the easiest materials to repurpose and a very practical choice for this busy room. Crafted from bio-degradable, non-toxic raw materials and recycled aluminium, AluSplash’s panels come in a wide range of colours to complement your scheme. Industville’s lighting is handmade from natural and recycled materials and its versatile designs will suit a range of styles if you choose to redecorate the rest of the room at a later date.

Brooklyn Tinted Smoke Grey Glass wall light in Brass, £99, Industville

Tall glazed display cabinet, £649, Dunelm

Reclaimed wood small bedside unit, £124.99, Homescapes Online

7UNROLL AN ECO-FRIENDLY BACKDROP

Refresh your home with recycled carpets and blinds that will insulate you against chills and rising energy bills. Carpetright’s People and Planet range is crafted from recycled fishing nets, carpets and fabric scraps, and uses backing made from 100-per-cent recycled flooring to give it a soft plushness you can really sink your toes into. Dress your windows in sustainable style with 247 Blinds’ Eco range, which is crafted from 100-per-cent recycled plastic bottles and produced using much lower water and energy consumption, too. People and Planet Ardent Saxony carpet in Burnt Orange, £39.99 per sq m; Maestro Primary Ochre rug, from £23.99, Carpetright Essentials splashback in Bright Olive, from £109, AluSplash

6BACK TO THE ROOTS

Track your furniture’s journey from beginning to end when buying wood designs. Recycled or reclaimed pieces take top spot when it comes to shopping green, but if you’re on the hunt for a new item, invest in a hard-wearing piece that will stand the test of time. Dunelm’s collaboration with the Natural History Museum features items crafted from mango wood for a sustainable, timeless home addition.

Clean U recycled coconut bowls and spoons set, £19.95, Wearth London

Cornucopia wallpaper in Dusky Pink and Mustard, £40 per roll, Lust Home

Eco-friendly roller blind in Cookie Cream, from £31.90, 247 Blinds

8ADD NATUR AL PAT TERN

Botanicals, florals and linen textures will bring personality to your walls and connect your décor to the natural world you’re trying to protect. Graham & Brown is carbon neutral and for every tree used in the production process, three more are planted. Lust Home’s designs are printed on FSC-certified paper with food-safe ink that’s free from VOCs so no harmful gases will be emitted. Both brands’ wallpapers are manufactured in the UK for lower transport miles, too.

Botanical Powder wallpaper, £65 per roll, Graham & Brown

9COLOUR YOUR WORLD

Whether you’re after a classic cream or zesty orange for your walls, make sure your paint choice is a sustainable one. Emma Bestley, co-founder and creative director of YesColours, has this advice: ‘Look for water-based paint with low VOCs and zero microplastics – and is vegan. YesColours offers recyclable one-litre pouches that allow you to order accurately and stop you buying too much, which is one of the largest contributing factors of paint waste in the UK.’

Walls in Fresh Peach emulsion, £21 per 1L, YesColours

10BREAK FREE FROM PL ASTIC

Banish non-recyclable materials and buy plastic-free items or products with reduced and plant-based packaging. The weekly shop is a great place to start: choose recycled or bamboo options for toiletries; eco-friendly detergents and cleaners; and reusable and refillable containers for cleaning products.

Sweet Neroli and Basil reed diffuser, £18, Wearth London

Plastic-free dish soap, £4.99, Tabitha Eve