I don’t know about your lifestyle, cialis but mine is pretty casual. From the clothes I wear to the informal home I live in, stuffiness is not an option. There’s no need to stand on ceremony when you enter my home. Just toss your shoes at the door, curl up your feet on the couch and relax. So, when Taunton Press sent me a book called, The Barefoot Home by Marc Vassallo, I was excited to find a book that shows us how to make barefoot living synonymous with a healthy home. The Barefoot Home celebrates dressed-down informal living in its best form. The photographs present the reader with examples of how to bring nature into your nest with a casual and comfortable breeziness. It begins with this manifesto: CLICK HERE FOR MORE
Credit: The Barefoot Home
DIY Solar Shower: Al Fresco Bathing
After some serious sea-dreaming about a home near the ocean, drug I realized one of the highlights of time spent at a beach house is basking in the afterglow in an outdoor shower. This important element of the beach experience gets a beachcomber in the mood to chill out and clean off.
Now, ampoule there are outdoor showers, link and then there are outdoor showers. The beach house we stay at has the most alluring outdoor shower — no cobwebs, no dried leaves in the corners, no mold, no flotsam and jetsam, no splinters and no Peeping Tom holes. By day, the vista from above the shower opens up to the sky with a vibrancy that only a home by the sea can reflect. With the windswept foliage and the smell of beach roses wafting in, showering outdoors is pure bliss.
Staying connected to the beach doesn’t have to end when you get home or when beach season ends. You can bring the outdoor shower to your landlocked home. Here’s an inspirational and refreshing array of alfresco showers from Sunset Magazine.
While those images are dreamy, I tend to look for building products that are not just aesthetically delicious (like the ones above). The products must also be thoughtfully designed with minimal damage to the environment. This eco-tip reminds us that taking showers can save double the amount of water than used for a bath. But, did you know that outdoor showers can be heated by the sun, making them one of the most eco-sensitive choices for bathing? Even if you don’t have access to a hot water line, solar showers are an available option.
If you’ve got the DIY ethos, here are green outdoor shower projects of varying degrees of time and difficulty. For ambitious DIYers, who want to design an outdoor shower room, here are some things to consider: ??
Determine Your Needs: Will your shower be used by kids, adults and guests for clean-up after the beach? Or, is this a private refuge? If all you require is a quick rinse after a day at the beach or gardening, your needs will be simple. Creating a blissful bathing retreat will involve some décor planning.
Water Drainage:?The type of ground below your flooring will determine the type of drain you’ll need. Sand drains quickly, but heavy soil requires a more complex drainage system that carries the water underground. For a shower that will need a drain, Zurn makes outdoor fixtures.
Design For The Environment:?If you live near the ocean, use fixtures that will stand up to wear from sand and salt. The floor and walls should be constructed from mildew, splinter-free and rot-resistant woods or eco-friendly materials. Low-flow shower heads save water.
Outdoor Shower Décor:?Determining what shower décor you’ll use is the fun part! You’ll need a place for towels, a bench and places to hold eco-friendly soaps and shampoos, and anything else that will connect your showering experience with its natural environs.
DIY Outdoor Solar Shower:?Check out these DIY plans for creating your own outdoor solar shower from Mother Earth News. This simple kit from Hammacher Schlemmer harnesses the sun’s energy to warm water from a garden hose.
Image NY-based Murdock Young via Remodelista
A Tipsy Idea: DIY Lamp from Wine Bottles
You've had a lot of fun emptying those wine bottles and now they are just ripe for an upcycled illuminating reuse. No doubt you've seen candlesticks made from wine bottles with overflowing candle drippings. That's one simple retro way to repurpose those wine bottles. Here's a more fashionable DIY lighting solution...CLICK HERE FOR MORE
No More Plastic Hangers: An Eco-Friendly Project
Have you ever noticed that no matter how many hangers you have, there's never enough? Since hangers are the essential element for closet organizing, the choices are just a few – plastic, wire and cardboard (from the dry cleaner), wood, and fuzzy coated wire. I've mostly waved good-bye to the eco-unfriendly dry cleaner, and stopped buying plastic hangers. The dry cleaner was the major source for acquiring free wire and cardboard hangers. The cardboard on those last few hangers are either bent or disintegrated. I have a few plastic ones from years ago and wood hangers for the coats, but it's time for a hanger makeover.
Did you know that an estimated 8 billion polystyrene and polycarbonate hangers clog our landfills every year? It is enough to fill the Empire State Building 4.6 times! Read more about this in this Daily Green article titled, “How Many Clothes Hangers Does it Take to Fill a Landfill?”
Want to bring nature into your closet and keep hangers out of the landfills? Revamp your closet or make some beautiful handmade gifts with these quick, eco-friendly hangers projects. CLICK HERE FOR 3 DIY HANGER PROJECTS
Credit: Swissmiss
Eco-Wallcoverings: Not Your Parents’ Wallpaper
It’s common knowledge among remodelers and interior designers that the easiest way to transform the look of a home is by changing the wall color. Often the design element used is paint. Not so in my childhood home.
See, pills I had a wallpaper designer parent (Dad), and my other parent was over the moon over wallpaper. My father’s flocks and my mom’s modern metallics were in full bloom all over the walls of the house. Along with the rolls of wallpaper samples and those thick, stumpy wallpaper books, there were tiny flecks of film that caught on all the textured surfaces of the house. My Dad’s handprinted silk-screening pieces from his graphic design process landed on more than just the walls. It gave new meaning to “wallpaper world” and let’s just say they had their share of wallpaper wonders and woes.
Now we know the lowdown on wallpaper is low. Traditional vinyl wallpaper leaks VOCs. The adhesives used in pre-pasted wallpaper emit vapors. The chemicals used in vinyl wallpaper have the potential to harbor mold. Mold growth behind wallpaper aggravates a plethora of health problems. No wonder wallpaper wallowed away from the home design scene. But lately, wallpaper has been popping up all over the blogosphere. Here’s an article from the Dwell magazine blog about the resurgence of wallpaper in homes.
There’s one basic credo about green home design: If it is eco-friendly, eco-chic and makes the homeowner happy, then bring it home. Wallpaper hasn’t seemed to fit this model … until now...CLICK HERE FOR MORE
Photo Credit: Echo Designs