Living with Ed makeover

The bedroom makeover we did for the Living with Ed show can be found on Planet Green. They do a lot of reruns of the Living with Ed show.

I am very excited because I thought the bedroom came out great and it highlighted some great materials and local businesses. Unfortunately, most of the local businesses we tried so hard to promote did not get mentioned in the show. So here is all the info:

Reclaimed Wood Furniture:
The best part of the room for me was the furniture made of reclaimed wood. They were custom made by a company in Van Nuys called Urban Woods. They use wood from old buildings in LA that are being torn down. Not only is it a great way to recycle the wood but the wood is extra strong because it was harvested so long ago from old growth forests. Check out their collections on urbanwoods.net. Urban Woods also uses water based stain and organic fabric in their designs. Our headboard fabric came from this beautiful bolt of fabric I found at a garage sale for $4 (score!).
In our furniture we used Kirei for the faces of the drawers and the bed. It is a plywood that is made from the stalks of the sorghum stalks. The stalks would otherwise be thrown away so it is a great way to recycle and it is a neat looking wood.


Bamboo floors:
We did not know that the floors we picked were such a great product. We just thought they looked good. Later we learned they are bamboo strand which means the bamboo is woven, making it very strong (the company claims it is as strong as oak). It definately is stronger than the $1.99/per square foot bamboo we put in my daughter's room. It is also harvested from bamboo that is at least 5 years old when it is harvested, helping to make it stronger. So far we are very happy with it. The company the show got it from does not sell directly to the public but I have seen bamboo flooring that looks like it is the same at Lumber Liquidators.

Organic Cotton Sheets:
I was so happy to find a local store in South Pasadena that sells a wide variety of organic cotton sheets. Although bamboo and organic cotton are available at a lot of stores and online I wanted to find a local store and I wanted to see the bedding. Organic Rush in South Pasadena (on Mission just West of the Metro tracks, near the Farmer's market) has a bed set up with a variety of sheets and pillowcases to see and touch. They also have a lot of home accessories, kitchen and baby stuff and beauty products. You can see their products online at www.organicrush.com.



Tiled Mirror: I was very excited at how well my first tiling job went and that the entire mirror only cost me a few dollars. Dan helped me make the wooden base with wood we had leftover in the garage (a large piece of MDF would also work). Then we cut a piece of mirror we had leftover from a mirrored closet door and used liquid nails to glue it on the flat wooden base. The glass tile is from a box of samples that Shayna, the helpful interior designer, had around her house. Our friend Mark taught me how to tile and then I just spent hours sticking all the tiles on. The project was not hard at all, it just took a little time. A great place to get leftover tiles is the Habitat for Humanity Building Surplus Stores (there is one currently located on Fair Oaks Ave in Pasadena and the info is online).
Frames:
The square wooden frames shown at the left are made from recycled Redwood and I got them at Organic Rush (see info above). I got the silver frames shown below from the Habitat for Humanity Builder's Surplus store and just stuck some of the extra tile on using tile adhesive.

Palm Leaves and Kaisa Grass Baskets: These baskets are from Ten Thousand Villages www.pasadenavillages.com, a fair trade store in Pasadena (on South Lake across from Borders). It has beautiful handmade home accessories along with great unique gifts. I will write another post to highlight how Fair Trade products are environmentally friendly.


Porcelain Flower Candle Holders: I purchased those from Organic Rush.

Burlwood Tray and Soy Candles: These were purchased from Regeneration in Eagle Rock (shopregeneration.com). It is a great store which has recycled/eco-friendly/fair trade home goods, clothing, and lots of unique items. It is located next to Fatty's on Colorado Blvd. Go check it out.

Closet and Paint:
Dan and Mark used FSC certified plywood and formaldehyde free MDF to build the closet. The doors were made by Urban Woods. The paint is No VOC paint from Dunne Edwards.

Jute Rug: Purchased from Cost Plus.

Lights: We used low-voltage lights in the hallway, but deadlines for the show prevented us from finding eco-friendly sconces. The only redeeming value for the ones we got was that they are made of recycleable glass and metal and can hide a compact fluorescent.

It was a great experience to makeover the room and to get a chance to get to know all these great local eco-friendly retailers. Thanks to Shayna for all her help and all the Low Impact Living staff who recommended us and especially to the Living With Ed crew.