Living green in the city

Aesthetically, we longed for a gorgeous and sophisticated house with rich textures, beautiful shapes, and glorious color that would work for our lively family. Our only worry was whether we could find eco fabrics and furniture that would reflect our style; we had boldly committed to going completely green before we knew for sure what we would find in the design world. It was, in fact, a much bigger challenge than we anticipated to find suppliers and products that met our green and design standards. For example, we thought it would be simple to find kitchen cabinets that didn’t contain formaldehyde and were made from wood certified as being from a sustainable forest. We were able to source them, but we were unable to "find" them locally. So we had to make a concession to our original goal of only buying within a 500-mile radius -- and ordered the clean-lined pearwood-veneer cabinets from a supplier in Oregon. We did, however, find one of our favorite eco products, IceStone, just over the bridge in Brooklyn. Our IceStone countertops are just as strong as granite but made from concrete and recycled glass. We selected a luminescent color that features glistening green glasschips embedded in a polished gray concrete background and paired it with a dazzling mosaic of moss green, blue, and white recycled glass tiles for the backsplash.

We used the leftover IceStone we had for our fireplace surround, as well as for our bathroom counters. In the spirit of family togetherness, we chose to nix a formal dining room in lieu of having our rectangular dining table and chairs (made from sustainably harvested wood) on one side of the kitchen, with a more casual eat-in semicircular banquette on the other. The kitchen is the center of our household -- it's where the kids do homework and hang out with friends, and more often than not, we somehow all make it to the table for dinner, so it made sense to have as many places to lounge, eat, study, and connect as possible. But all that seating, plus the three tall stools that saddle up to the island, required upholstery,which led us to our first round of eco fabric samples. Unfortunately, they all looked and felt like variations on burlap -- blah, stiff, and scratchy. Not knowing where else to turn, we hit the trade shows and were lucky to find Angela Adams, a textile designer who specializes in mod, graphic patterns in luscious colors. Angela let us see the very first sample of her new green line made from 100 percent recycled fabric. We loved what we saw and ordered a green and pink fabric for our dining chairs and a green trellis pattern for the counter stools. They add a bit of kick to the room we live in most and, because they're made of recycled postindustrial polyester, they are incredibly durable -- perfect for chairs that are used 24/7.

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Reprinted from Dreaming Green by Lisa Sharkey and Paul Gleicher.  Copyright © 2008 Lisa Sharkey and Paul Gleicher. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc.