Seven years.
That’s how long we’ve been living in our dream home. I designed every inch of it (with input from my significant other, of course) and we’re still madly and deeply in love with our home – from every angle and down to the smallest details. At 930 square feet, it’s no palace but it fits us to a T.
I’ve grown a lot as an interior designer since I first put pencil to drafting paper for this home. I’m a life-long learner – always advancing my knowledge, honing my skills, and staying up on the latest in home design and human-friendly technologies. If you ask me, today, what I would change about our home, it wouldn’t be the aesthetics or the way every space feels exactly as intended. It would be some of the materials I chose.
Fortunately, us humans, overall, are getting better at understanding the harm done by chemicals we live with. Consumers and manufacturers are spending money on safe alternatives and that, in-turn is propelling us towards toxic-free homes. Thanks to the Parsons School’s Healthier Materials and Sustainable Building program, I now know how to better recognize manufacturers’ green-washing and I now have the right tools in hand to research truly safe materials. This new training has been a real eye-opener for me and now with my eyes wide open, materials just don’t look the same anymore.
Going forward, I commit to every one of my clients to recommend only products that pose no harm to human health or our planet. Perhaps some materials may cost a bit more at the moment, but the tide is changing – the more we all insist on homes that do no harm, the faster safe alternatives come to market at viable prices.
So, seven years on and knowing what I know now, what would I change in our dream home? I would choose cork flooring with no VOCs, mineral-based paint, cabinetry made of formaldehyde-free plywood, and a GOLs/GOTS certified mattress.
I invite you to learn how you can make healthier choices for you and your loved ones by watching these brief and easy to understand videos at Six Classes Approach to Reducing Chemical Harm.
