By now you’ve heard about the “green design” movement – the idea that interior designers and architects can design and build in a way that is more in tune with nature; healthier, and more sustainable. While it still is not possible to completely avoid industrially-produced products that are made with chemicals, it is possible to make smarter choices, both as a designer and as a consumer. Here’s how to work with your designer to achieve a healthier, greener interior for your home or office.
First, if you haven’t read my earlier post about working with a designer, you should. It will help you make an informed decision for what will be a long and involved relationship. When you are seeking a sustainable designer, in addition to all those things that I already covered, you also want to inquire about your potential designer’s credentials and education in green design.
Ask these questions: Where did he or she study? Is their degree from an accredited program or school? When did they pass the exam or graduate? How many projects have they worked on? Did their projects achieve a certified status? Can they provide references?
Once you are satisfied with your designer’s qualifications, you can begin to explore the specifics of green design for your project with them. Keep these things in mind:
Sustainable design is not a pass/fail result; rather, there are a range of choices from ‘less bad’ to ‘extremely beneficial’. It’s important to make the choices that feel authentic for you, and meet your criteria based on a personal value scale.
Cost is one factor that will affect your choices. While there are many more green choices in the marketplace now than ever before, it is still true that you will have to pay more for more sustainable options. Your designer can evaluate how to present these options to you when you tell them what your price range is.
Graphic courtesy GreenSavingsCo.com
Light green versus dark green is another consideration: Some materials and products will be better than others, even within the sustainable product marketplace. Some will be manufactured using a more sustainable process, perhaps mitigating the fact that it is man-made instead of a natural product. A great place to find out information on green design products is the Cradle-to-Cradle Certified Products Registry. This site evaluates not only building and construction products and furniture, but also home cleaning and care products, so you can maintain your healthy interiors throughout their lifecycle.
Another important factor to consider when designing is location. Because of the amount of resources required to move something from one place to another, the closer that material or product is to your project site, the more sustainable that choice is. So if you can choose something made at a local factory or by a local craftsperson, instead of having it shipped from another country or even another state, you’re already making a more sustainable choice, as well as supporting your local economy!
Of course, you should choose natural products whenever possible, they provide great benefits. For example, a wool rug is naturally fire-retardant, which means you can avoid using chemicals to meet fire code standards. Wool is also anti-bacterial, helping to ward off infections. It’s produced in a low-impact method, by shearing a living animal and then spinning it into strands instead of using chemicals in a plant or killing an animal to take its hide. Wool is soft and warm to the touch, creating a sensual environment that’s enjoyable. And it’s hard-wearing and easy to maintain without additional chemicals.
If you can’t use a natural product, re-use something that already exists. Buy moulding taken from a home that was torn down; find kitchen cabinets that someone else has removed; score a metal railing from a scrapyard. If you can’t re-use something directly, then choose an item that is repurposed. Wood from a former barn used as flooring; a door turned into a table; create a seat from an old wine barrel – let your creativity loose and it can be really fun! And if you can’t re-use or repurpose, then choose products that are made from recycled materials. This contributes to a more sustainable environment overall as well as a healthier indoor environment.
Graphic courtesy CreativeOverflow.net
What are some other sustainable design factors that contribute to healthy interior environments? I’m glad you asked!
One of the most important factors in a healthy interior is air quality. To create or maintain healthy indoor air quality, your designer should include plenty of fresh air by providing working windows that can be opened and closed at the comfort of residents, or they can ensure that your heating and cooling system includes regular ventilation with fresh air. A closed system that recirculates interior air without allowing fresh air in and used air out will quickly become unhealthy and leads to problems such as sick building syndrome.
The biggest factor besides ventilation that affects air quality, and is the main reason you need ventilation in the first place, is off-gassing. Off-gassing is the release of gasses from inside a material that were trapped when frozen or absorbed into the material. This happens to both man-made and organic materials, and off-gassing is constantly occurring. You may have noticed that if you place an item into a box or closed container, when you open it later, you detect a distinctive smell. That smell is off-gassing. It’s the reason for new-car smell, the reason that furniture smells when it’s new, and all other materials including flooring, wallpaper, paint, fabrics and textiles, wood, everything around you is constantly off-gassing, though the rate slows as the item ages, and materials such as stone have a much slower rate to begin with. For this reason, you may wish to choose antiques or pre-owned furniture or materials, to reduce the effects of off-gassing. If you do choose newly-manufactured items, you can mitigate the off-gassing by regularly flushing the interior air for a period of days to weeks after your materials and furniture is installed. Your sustainable designer will be able to give you advice on how to achieve this.
Going back to the idea of dark green versus light green, here’s how that value range might present itself, and how you might make choices using your new-found knowledge of sustainable design. If you really want the look of Goncalo Alves wood, also known as Tigerwood or South American Zebrawood, harvested from the jungles of Brazil, and desire to use more sustainable design practices, you may want to use an engineered wood instead. This will involve a series of additional choices that are more or less green. While engineered wood does use a combination of glues and high pressure to create layers, you can seek out a company that uses low-VOC (volotile organic compound) glues to mitigate the off-gassing. Even better if that company is locally-based. Better still if they use greywater in their factory processes instead of potable drinking water.
Graphic courtesy Entrpurdue.com
Another factor that contributes to a healthy interior environment is controllable lighting. The ability to turn lighting off and on for specific tasks, and to provide a basic standard of lighting that is not wasteful of electricity, is very important in interior design. Each state has specific minimum standards that your designer must achieve in order to meet code, but I suggest that they should do more than just the minimum. They should strive to maximize the benefits while minimizing the energy usage in all instances, which means throughout the home or office, not just in the kitchen or bathroom. This is where you will want to work closely with your designer, helping them understand what your needs and desires are, and how you will use the spaces. Energy use reduction is one of the biggest contributors in more sustainable design.
So now that you are armed with an understanding of what your options are, how to make the best choices for you, and how to work with a sustainable designer, I hope you will consider making your next renovation or home improvement project a sustainable one. We spend 90% or more of our time indoors, so the indoor environment needs to be valued equally as the outdoors. Your health is just too precious to ignore!
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JENNIFER DAVIDSON is a LEED Accredited Professional and holds an M.F.A. in Interior Architecture and Design from the Academy of Art University. She is the Social Media Chair for ASID California North Chapter and consults with interior design professionals on their small business needs. Contact her viamakesocialmediaeasy.squarespace.com
Kimball Starr Interior Design is featured in this week’s Houzz Tour! The feature spotlights our Tiny House project that maximizes every square inch in a diminutive contemporary San Francisco townhouse.
How about an adjustable height table for the dining area, which then lowers to cocktail table height when entertaining? Or an AV media center and work desk placed in a previously unused wall niche that are concealed and revealed by sliding shoji doors?
Do you have a tiny house? No worries, we’ve got you covered with clever custom small space solutions!
Kimball Starr Interior Design is a San Francisco award winning design firm that provides contemporary interior design for residential and commercial interiors throughout the SF Bay Area and California.
Following up the first part of this segment, Kimball continues to share tips on how to choose paint colors for your home. If you missed the first half, here’s How to Choose Paint Colors: Video 1 of 2.
San Francisco interior designer, Kimball Starr, is featured as the paint color expert for home interiors in a guest appearance on the nationally televised series of PBS “Creative Living with Sheryl Borden”. In this 2-part segment, the award winning San Francisco interior design expert, known for her playful and fearless use of color, shares tips on how to pick paint colors for your home interior.
In this second video, Kimball shows examples from her San Francisco decorated interiors demonstrating how to use subtle paint colors in a brightly lit living room, and how to use moody or vibrant colors in bedrooms.
Below is a transcript of the video:
♪[music]♪
– [announcer] With your host, Sheryl Borden.
– [Kimball] I’ll show you the adjoining bedroom, that’s down the hall, and how…
it all flows together.
– [Sheryl] Again, it’s going to flow together.
– That’s right. And it’s just the one bedroom, so it’s not a huge home. And, we
use colors of…
– Oh, yeah.
– … Butterscotch and Dark Chocolate. My client joked, if I keep using
those words, Butterscotch and Dark Chocolate, he’s gonna wanna sit in bed and eat
all day. [laughter] So… and then we have this lighter color that I like to use
for the ceiling. And, you don’t have to use a lighter color for the ceiling. There
are instances where you can actually use a darker color than the walls.
– That would bring, bring it down a little bit…
– Yeah, it dep-
– … not seem so high.
– That’s right. It depends, though. If it’s a really big space, dark colors
are great for hiding open, exposed duct work. Like, if you’re in a restaurant…
– Oh, oh. Uh-huh.
– Or if you were in a really industrial loft that you live in.
– Uh-huh.
– But most of us don’t live in spaces like that, so…
– Mm-hm.[laughter]
– … we don’t have 20 foot high ceilings.
– Yeah.
– So, yes, it is good to keep them lighter, but you can bring in a pop of
color, and it’s very interesting when you do that.
– And it’s, it’s interesting to me to see how these all flow together. I would
have seen these and these, but the fact that ya added the blue…
– Mm-hm.
– … keeps it from being, sorta boring.
– Right, because if you take this out, it’s just a bunch a tan.
– They’re all the same. Uh-huh. [laughter] Yeah.
– Just a bunch a tans.
– Uh-huh.
– So ya need this, and this-, this orange is a pretty vibrant.
– This is pretty. Uh-huh.
– So it’s a nice balance of various shades of warm tones, and your cool tones.
– Mm-hm.
– And then the red that was in the last picture with the dining chair gives a
little pop that you can bring with your furnishings.
– Yeah, it does. Uh-huh.
– So that’s how color flows through space. And then, this feel that we wanted to
accomplish, was a very light and airy…
– Oh it is. Looks, looks huge. Looks- And very open.
– Yeah, and very calming.
– Uh-huh.
– And there’s a lot of sunlight, so the last… pictures that we showed, there’s
not a ton a sunlight, so you can afford to do darker colors.
– Mm-hm.
– But when you have a lotta sunlight, it really lights up the color, and so you
really wanna stay with the lighter colors to match the natural light.
– It’s more subtle. I see. Mm-hm.
– So it feels more intuitive that way. So just a really soft sea green, mixed
with a really pretty buttercream.
– Mm-hm.
– And… we have another picture here. Moving on into a bedroom. This is a
pop of color, with bright yellow, but using a mauve, kind of a purpley-grey as
your background.
– Oh, mm-hm.
– So the wall colors are this. The ceiling color is this. But then, they painted
the…
– Table, uh-huh.
– … lacquer nightstands in a really bright daffodil yellow.
– That pulls out the yellow from the pillows and the lamp shades.
– That’s right.
– Uh-huh.
– Now if your’e a little-
– Ties it together.
– Yeah, exactly. And if you’re afraid a color, you know, this would still be
beautiful in a room.
– Oh, yeah. Mm-hm.
– And you could do… soft corals, or peaches if you wanted to.
– Oh. Uh-huh. Coral would be pretty, too.
– But this, if you’re really…
– Wild.
– … like that dose of color. [laughter] Well, and speaking of wild, if you’re
faint of heart, this last picture might be a little tough for…
– No, I like it, but I probably could never use it.
– … for some people.
– Uh-huh.
– So it’s a very bright orange bedroom.
– Mm-hm.
– And this is great. This is a guest bedroom.
– Oh.
– So this is great for… people that are just gonna be there for a couple nights.
I wouldn’t recommend a color like this for long-term, because it’s not soothing.
– Day in and day out.
– That’s right. It’s not a soothing color.
– Mm-hm.
– So here’s the bright orange. But if you wanted to tone it down… and you could
paint part of the walls in this khaki tone, which pulls out the color from-
– And what’s the ceiling? Is it in this one?
– That’s right.
– That’s-, okay.
– Mm-hm.
– I can see how that would do.
– That’s right.
– Really interesting. Color is fun. It really is fun in clothing, and it’s
really fun in home furnishings.
– Yes. And I definitely recommend, when you’re choosing paint, that you paint a
sample on your wall.
– Uh-huh.
– Like, a two-foot by two-foot sample. And look at it in the morning, daytime and
nighttime, because it’s gonna-
– When there’s light changes.
– That’s right.
– That’s a great idea.
– Or you can put it on a movable poster board if you don’t wanna paint 50
samples…
– Paint your wall [laughter]
– Right
– … across your room.
– Right, yeah. And move it, and because the light will hit it differently.
– That’s right.
– Well, great. Thank you so much. I appreciate you sharing this information
with us.
– Thank you so much, Sheryl.
Kimball Starr is an expert paint color consultant who has been featured on television and published in several hardcover design books. The award-winning San Francisco designer showcases work highlighting both subtle and bold interior paint colors that capture natural light and desired mood.
It’s the new year, are you ready for a fresh start! Paint is the easiest and most economical way to dramatically transform the look and feel of your home interior.
San Francisco interior designer, Kimball Starr, is featured as the paint color expert for home interiors in a guest appearance on the nationally televised series of PBS “Creative Living with Sheryl Borden”. In this 2-part segment, the award winning San Francisco interior design expert, known for her playful and fearless use of color, shares tips on how to pick paint colors for your home interior.
In this first video, Kimball explains the difference between warm and cool colors, and uses a San Francisco residential interior she decorated as an example of how to create color flow and continuity throughout multiple rooms inside a home.
– [Sheryl] Thank you so much for being with us today, Kimball. We’re going to
talk about color, and, you know, a third grader usually learns about color,
the color wheel, and colors opposite, and what it all means. But when you’re
making an investment like we will in our homes, we wanna know what we’re going
to put together, and that we will really feel good about it when it’s done. So
how do you either caution people, or make them feel… sure about it. My
husband would always want white walls. That’s the only things he
would, you know, want to use.
– [Kimball] He’s a minimalist. [laughs]
– A minimalist, I guess that’s it. So, how do ya go about it?
– Well, I’m really excited to be talking about color, because it’s really my
favorite thing in interiors. It just… it’s just fantastic. Color can effect
you physically and psychologically. As you probably know, colors can make you
tired, they can make you happy, they can make you angry…
[laughs] … they can make you depressed, and they can make you feel joyous.
– Uh-huh.
– So, with picking colors, first it’s important to understand the difference
between warm and cool colors. So, we have warm colors on this side, and cool
colors on this.
– Mm-hm.
– So to understand warm colors, think of things such as… attached to the
Earth, or a sunset. So reds, and oranges, and yellows. And these colors make you
feel very energized, and they’re very happy colors.
– Mm-hm.
– And then cool colors are things associated with the sky and the ocean. So your
blues, your dark greens and your purples. And you’ll notice that I have two
greens here, and green can either be warm or cool. If it has more yellow in it,
it tends to be a warm color.
– Oh, or if it has more blue. I see. Yeah.
– That’s right. Whereas this would be a cool color.
– Mm-hm. So the basics, that’s where we need to start.
– That’s right, ‘cuz I didn’t-, I wasn’t as lucky. In third grade I didn’t learn
anything about color. I think it was, like, my 20’s.
– Uh-huh. [laughter]
– Well, that’s probably true.
– So, when you’re choosing color, the important things to think about are the
quality of the natural light in the room, and the artificial light because it
changes throughout the day.
– Mm-hm.
– Also, what mood do you wanna set? And, what are the existing furnishings, ‘cuz
you’re not gonna throw out the sofa just because you painted a color that
doesn’t match.
– Right. Mm-hm.
– You want to-, ideally, choose the paint last, because you’ve already purchased
all your furnishings, and that’s the harder thing to change. Paint-
– And the most expensive.
– That’s right.
– Uh-huh.
– Paint is the easiest thing to change.
– Yeah.
– And then, also think about what are the adjacent spaces that are next to the
room that you’re painting, ‘cuz you want there to be a flow throughout your
house.
– Oh, mm-hm.
– So — and here I have a dining area where I’ve chosen this color. And we’ll
just move these aside —
– Okay.
– … and show you this, kind of, burnt harvest color. And it’s mixed…
– It’s a very warm room.
– Yes, it’s very warm. It’s mixed with this color for the ceiling, and then to
really accent the trim, a bright white.
– Oh, uh-huh.
– And, oranges are great for a dining area. Oranges and reds. They elicit
appetite. As you notice, a lot of fast food places, they always use orange and
reds.
– Uh-huh. Yes, uh-huh.
– And they help with conversation. They can be passionate, so choose your dinner
guests wisely. [laughter] And… they create a feeling of warmth and intimacy.
– Mm-hm.
– So… moving on to- And this is all-
I’m gonna show you a couple rooms that are all within the same space.
– Mm-hm.
– So, actually, if we keep those colors here, we can see how they all flow
together. So we have…
– Oh.
– … the adjacent space
– Uh-huh, the blue.
– That’s right.
– Uh-huh.
– So it links.
– And the white.
– That’s right.
– Yeah.
– So we have oranges on one wall of the room, and then we have this color as the
ceiling and the trim.
– Mm-hm.
– And the linking color between, so there’s the living area, and then this far
wall. So the linking color is this.
– Sort of subtly goes. It goes from one, and blends it into the next.
– That’s right. It links. And then we have the bay window, which it’s accented
with this really dark-
– Um, down on the bottom, uh-huh.
– Now I wouldn’t do a whole wall. In this particular situation, I wouldn’t
do a whole wall on that. That would be very dark.
– Uh-huh.
– Although, that is very chic to do that now. But I don’t think it’s appropriate
for this space.
– Uh-huh.
– So it’s just used in a very small portion right down here.
– Mm-hm. It’s more of an accent.
– That’s right.
– Mm-hm.
– And then for the wall where the office is, we lighten it up and have this
blue.
– Mm-hm.
– And then, I’ll show you the adjoining bedroom, that’s down the hall, and
how… it all flows together.
– Again, it’s going to flow together.
Kimball Starr is an expert paint color consultant who has been featured on television and published in several hardcover design books. The award-winning San Francisco designer showcases work highlighting both bold and subtle paint colors to capture natural light and desired mood.
The new year brings with it new energy to refresh, enliven and redesign your life! An easy and fun way to inject your life with new energy is by using color – we recommend Pantone’s 2015 Color of the Year – Marsala.
“Much like the fortified wine that gives Marsala its name, this tasteful hue embodies the satisfying richness of a fulfilling meal while its grounding red-brown roots emanate a sophisticated, natural earthiness. This hearty yet stylish tone is universally appealing and translates easily to fashion, beauty, industrial design, home furnishings and interiors,” says Pantone’s website heralding their selection.
How would you use Marsala? Take a look at this bachelor’s living room designed by Kimball, featuring a lampshade and high pile rug in Marsala. They exude sumptuous luxury and make you want to pour a glass of wine and have a seat!
Pantone’s Color of 2015 “Marsala” rug, lampshade in living room by Kimball Starr Interior Design / Photo by Eric Rorer
Equally appealing to men and women, dramatic and at the same time grounding, the rich and full-bodied red-brown Marsala brings color warmth into home interiors. If you want to use this color but don’t know what it pairs with, or are not sure how to bring Marsala into an existing interior design scheme, Kimball Starr is an expert color consultant and can provide color consultations for your most challenging interiors.
For this series on Loft Design, we’ve been discussing how to get the best use of your space by creating zones. Let’s wrap up this series with this final discussion on how to create a guest bedroom that doubles as additional living space.
Many homes have dual-purpose guest bedrooms, and it can be difficult for guests to feel comfortable and maintain their privacy. This is a common problem in one bedroom lofts, where the same openness loft residents crave can leave overnight guests feeling exposed. The best way to approach this challenge is to define the space clearly, and to create a private temporary guest bedroom just for them.
Kimball Starr Interior Design / Photo by Joe Fletcher
In the photo above of Kimball Starr’s award winning San Francisco loft design, you can see two areas that intersect: a dining space and a living area. Plenty of room for circulation has been left between them, as well as access to the wall storage and display shelves. However, the real magic is behind those frosted glass panels as they slide in multiple directions to create either a partial wall, or completely enclose the area behind them.
Kimball Starr Interior Design / Photo by Joe Fletcher
Above you can see the slipper chairs have been moved, and the wall bed also known as a Murphy bed, is pulled down and dressed with silky luxurious linens. Artwork is hung on the wall behind to finish it off nicely, and an accent light operable from the guest bed doubles as a reading light. You probably didn’t even notice the closed Murphy bed in the first photo!
Kimball Starr Interior Design / Photo by Joe Fletcher
In this final view, you can see the translucent sliding glass doors, which were stacked previously. They slide effortlessly closed to create a temporary private guest room which allows light to pass through, so your guests gain privacy without losing light. It’s an elegant contemporary solution for maximizing living space while simultaneously providing guest bedroom space in an open floor plan.
JENNIFER DAVIDSON is a LEED Accredited Professional and holds an M.F.A. in Interior Architecture and Design from the Academy of Art University. She is the Social Media Chair for ASID California North Chapter and consults with interior design professionals on their small business needs. Contact her via makesocialmediaeasy.squarespace.com
