Incorporating sustainability into every aspect of our lives can be challenging. The underlying philosophy is to reduce, reuse, and recycle, but this alliterative mantra is not as straightforward in practice as it is to chant. This can particularly be the case with interior design. Does anyone really want someone’s used couch in preference to a shiny new showroom model?
Assuming that our customers are discarding the second of the three R’s of waste management—irony aside—the question still remains: what is sustainable design? Quite simply, it’s interiors consisting of recycled or earth-friendly materials. And with a little careful curation, you can design your own sustainable living room that doesn’t cost the earth.
If you want to make your living room a little greener, you’ve come to the right place. Read on for 1825’s best green living room ideas.
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY MATERIALS FOR FURNITURE
When it comes to furniture, wood is arguably the best known for its sustainability. It’s 100 per cent biodegradable—and twice as earth-friendly if it’s recycled. That, of course, brings us to the inevitable spiel about 1825 Interiors’ environmentally-conscious wood-sourcing programme. If you’ve ever noticed a rustic or authentic feel to our timber furniture pieces, you can attribute that to their past lives as pine shipping pallets. Rather than tearing down trees, we locate these pallets from every corner of the globe and repurpose them into the 1825 pieces you know and love.
Clean and simple, our Oslo Display Cabinet—or any item from our Oslo collection, really—shows off our recycled timber well. Image: 1825 Interiors
Our Wood Design collection follows in a similar vein. We create timber furniture custom-made to your size preferences using reclaimed Australian hardwood. If ever you order items from our Wood Collection, you may notice their nail holes, knots, marks, or colour variations. These characteristics speak to their previous forms as either seasoned fence palings, roof trusses, wall frames, or horse rails. Because they’re hand-crafted, custom-made items, the pieces in our Wood Collection are particularly homely. No two pieces are exactly alike in size or appearance!
Just two iterations of some of the custom timber furniture from our Wood Design collection. Images: 1825 Interiors
Vegetable fibres are also a cornerstone of green interior design. It may sound like we’re talking about a food platter, but we’re actually talking about organic, plant-derived materials born from a chemical-free manufacturing process. Check 1825 Interiors’ catalogue for items containing or made solely from wicker, rattan, bamboo, cotton, or linen.
Our Bega Rattan Chair and Bega Rattan Side Table. Image: 1825 Interiors
GREEN LIVING ROOM COLOUR SCHEMES
Want to make your living room as green in colour as it is in practice? We have some great design ideas inspired by sage green home decor. Check out this arrangement starring our Coastal Hall Table:
Image: 1825 Interiors
What makes this slice of living room so green in hue? Predominantly, it’s the sage green paint job on the walls—which forms a serene, Hamptons-style backdrop for our Coastal Hall Table. To encapsulate the meeting of sage green and white, we’ve placed Sylvan Printed Acrylic Wall Art A and Sylvan Printed Acrylic Wall Art B in the top centre. This not only captures the coastal colour combination but speaks to the (artificial) peperomia we’ve placed atop the table. Whilst painting the walls green and placing sage green home decor (case in point: wall art) will achieve the colour scheme you’re going for, there’s no better way to unlock green interior design than with houseplants. If you’re not the gardening type, you can always cheat—as we have!—and use artificial plants.
Though the remainder of our decor is not green, their neutral tones fit perfectly with the theme. In particular, our Pear Metal Trinket Box and Apple Metal Trinket Box occupy an interesting middle ground. Whilst coloured silver, these silver boxes represent elements from nature that are usually green. We finally ground these tree fruits with one of our wonderful Idyllic Candles. Overall, this display somehow combines coastal and parkland vibes. The best part is our Coastal Hall Table is one of many pieces in our reclaimed timber furniture collection, making this display green all round!
Let’s move on to our second arrangement featuring our Bondi Storage Bench:
Image: 1825 Interiors
This somewhat simpler display is green as green can be. From the sage green paint job on the wooden walls to the dark, khaki green shawl slung over our Bondi Storage Box, this display is easy enough to replicate at home. All you really need to do is paint your walls, choose the right wall art, and ‘centre-align’ your storage box beneath the picture. So long as your shawl and handbag are the right colours, you could even leave them on the box as part of the display!
When selecting your wall art, choose something that simultaneously blends into and stands out against your sage green wall. In our example, we’ve chosen a rather abstract painting of a beachside village. There really is something about sage green and neutrals that combines the coastal and the leafy! This painting is the perfect pick because its villages match the beige storage box and carpet, and its nondescript flora is bold enough to bounce against the khaki green shawl. Remove the shawl and it still plays into the overall green interior design.
If you think our examples didn’t capture living rooms completely, you can certainly apply these principles to vaster spaces. For example, you could paint any walls of the house sage green. Choose furniture in beige or a similar neutral tone and you’ve unlocked that same coastal look! A particularly striking version of this is our stripey Palm Beach Armchair:
Image: 1825 Interiors
How great would this look against a green wall?! You may find the stripes alone provide sufficient detailing. Otherwise, if you’re using plainer chairs, you can add some green wall art—perhaps our Green Foilage Oil Painting—select your favourite thematically linked decor or accessories, and find it’s actually quite easy being green!
Image: 1825 Interiors
IT’S TIME TO GO GREEN!
At 1825 Interiors, we love Mother Earth—and the 32 per cent of her surface that’s green and leafy. For this reason, when we devote our (green) energy to green interior design, it has a double meaning. We love creating earth-friendly items, and items that are also literally green!
If you’re interested in quality furniture made from sustainably sourced timber—or if you want to find upholstered furniture to match your sage green home decor—be sure to check out our living room furniture collection. It may be the solid foundation you need for your next nature-inspired venture! Whether you want to bring the outdoors in or research some more sustainable furnishing options, you’ll find that the grass is always greener on the other side of your next interior design project. Now, make like a green traffic light and get going!