Though the design was reportedly made for the office, I wouldn’t mind having this Fuselage Bench Seating from MotoArt in my room. The piece is made from an actual fuselage from an actual Boeing, Lockheed or Douglas which should be something unique and sturdy for people who want some new types of designed seating.

The Flap & Fuselage design set on the edge of the wing flap can be opted with a metal finish, cushioned or upholstered with a fabric of your choice that too painted, satin or mirror polished to finish. If you want this bench, prices start out at a hefty $9,200. Girl not included!

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Fuselage Bench Seating from MotoArt

Here is an ingenious design from Patrick de Glo de Besses. He has come up with a cool stackable candelabra idea called the Funambule which makes of a bottle as a base along with several branched arms.

The arms on the Funambule connect to form a custom candelabra that is as large or small as the user wants. The Funambule can hold between one and 25 candles in a variety of personalized forms.

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The Funambule Stackable Candelabras

They are eco-friendly and functional to have in your home. This refers to the Danny Giles 800g Library, where potential users can metaphorically assess the depth of its ecological footprint. They are made entirely of recycled cardboard scraps and was created with simple methods of construction.

The stackable shelf is something anyone can truly make do well within their home. It is eco-friendly and serves as an inspirational idea for people to get into recycling and turn them into something useful and neat for their home or even their office.

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The Danny Giles 800g Library

There are a lot of things you can find over at Etsy and here is one from an artisan called QualityCraftsmen. This is a handmade modern coffee table that measures 36 inches long and 18 inches wide.

The top moves thanks to some bearings and reveals a second shelf too. The spice holders can be moved and opened; they are held in place with a stainless steel magnet strip.

About 4 wine bottles can be stored and become a beautiful display and the kitchen cart can be moved anywhere smoothly and locked into place with the 2.5-inch wheels.

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Handmade Modern Coffee Table

Here are some unique pieces that can provide you an odd but unique looking seating alternative. Road Tested Chairs are made from familiar walk/don’t walk signs we normally see in the streets. The lights are fully functional and are controlled with a remote.

A cool chair to have indeed, there is no word if they can reach a certain level which would be too hot to sit on. Either that or you are just to fascinated seeing the lights display as you would in the busy streets of a metropolis.

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Road Tested Chairs

Conserve energy and save the planet by working towards your own DIY Solar Setup. Via this DIY project you can easily build a 12v Solar setup to run coolers or heaters.

Says the brains behind this project:

“For the past 2 years each of our electricity bills has been as much as 25% lower than the corresponding bill from the year before.We actually get a “Thank You” from our Supplier, Country Energy, and the bill details the Carbon Emission Savings etc”.

You can read the full instructions here.

DIY Solar Setup

Modular Paper Recycling Vase

Seeing a vase made out of recycled paper is nothing new and apparently that is what ShiKai Tseng had in mind. Rather than add to the growing waste problem and using up more trees, you can recycle wasted paper and turn them into something useful such as the vase. The philosophy behind the Moulding Paper Recycling Bin is to give meaning to discarded paper. And you may be surprised at how such a recycled effort can churn in and make your room ambiance change in an instant.

(Source) Yanko

Modular Paper Recycling Vase

This christmas save money on decorations and use your old toys to make Christmas ornaments! You don’t need to be picky and can choose anything that looks cute and has a special meaning to your kids.

Read the rest of the instructions here.

DIY: Christmas Ornaments

We always support recycling here at Bedzine so don’t go throwing out your wood scraps yet. Instead make a Scrap Table and all you would need is salvaged wood, : five threaded rods, about four bucks each; nuts, washers, and screws; a gallon or so of wood glue; sandpaper; and polyurethane.

Read the rest of the instructions here.

DIY: Scrap Table

Every-time we come across a product that takes into account the green factor, we want to feature it on Bedzine. The Eco – Twinkle Light by Kenan Wang provides subtle illumination by making use of its energy saving design. Just rotate the lamp’s handle to charge it up and voila you get light!

Via Yanko Design

The Eco – Twinkle Light

We here at Bedzine support Green living wholeheartedly and hence absolutely love the Gaon Street Light Concept concept. The idea is to make use of the city garbage cans to light up streets! The lamppost has been designed by Haneum Lee in such a way that it composts trash  so that the methane byproduct can be used a fuel to juice up the lamps! Not a bad idea at all but unfortunately it may just remain a concept for a long long time.

Via Yanko Design

The Gaon Street Light Concept

Enjoy outdoor lunches with a lot of panache by  eating on a rustic outdoor table. You don’t need to purchase something like this as you can make it at your own backyard.

The materials required for a table were conveniently the same as the materials available from the broken gates, namely

4×4 posts approx 6ft long (4)
4×2 rails approx 3ft (2)
Palings (enough to cover a 6ft x 3ft surface)
Hinges (4)

Read the rest of the instructions here.

DIY: Rustic Outdoor Table

Here is something neat for the home. As you know, after reading the daily newspaper, we often stack them and then tie them and prepare them for pickup by the recyclers. But with this newspaper bundle bin, don’t go to the trouble of re-organizing old paper. It simply stacks them and all you have to is tie them up and you are good to go.

When full, the spaces underneath make it simple to tie the bundle without lifting. The four handles make this container easy to lift and perfect for curbside collection of newspapers.

Price: $19.99

(Source) Go Green Items

Newspaper Bundle Bin

We here at Bedzine are big fans of designers who think green. Hence we love the Some Shine Solar Energy Storage System developed by Ming-Ching Hsueh. The idea behind the concept is simple and therefore quite brilliant. Just hang the curtain near the window and hook up your battery-pack to the base. The curtain then stores the solar energy from the sun and can hence charge all your gadgets. Told you its great!

Via Yanko Design

Shine Solar Energy Storage System

Via Yanko Design

Braun Envi Urban Dustbin

The HomArt Nile 22-Inch Reed and Bamboo Lantern is suitable for both indoors and outdoors thanks to its pretty design. Retailing on Amazon for $70.00, the lantern made of spun bamboo and reed, two renewable plant resources that grow quickly without pesticides or fertilizers. The simple design features a barrel shape with an open, vertical fiber layout and a simple loop top handle for hanging or carrying.

HomArt Nile 22-Inch Reed and Bamboo Lantern

This DIY shows you how to make Cardboard Lumber which can be used in various building projects like tables, chairs, etc.

By laminating sheets of cardboard together into a large block and cutting this up with a table, or circular saw, you can create cardboard lumber of any dimensions you want: 2x4s, 2x8s, 4x4s. If you alternate the grain of the corrugations you can create plywood. If you glue your lumber together end-to-end you can create strong honeycomb-like boards.

You will only need three things to create cardboard lumber:
1) A Saw
2) Lots of cardboard
3) Glue… lots of glue

For the rest of the post go here.

DIY: Cardboard Lumber

Now here is something that eco-friendly people will find interesting. Seemingly you have to wonder how many pieces of paper (used or recycled I hope) were used to mold this Crumbled Rumped Paper Sofa. From a glance, it looks like disorganized cloth but walk a bit closer and you will find that it is all made of paper.

Actually if you are patient enough, you may even get to do it yourself. All you need is paper and some imagination to make it all stick out.

(Source) Yanko

Crumple Rumped Paper Sofa

Muji of Japan is adopting a new campaign which they call Recycled, Redesigned which is something that will make any home the target for eco-friendly designs in the modern age. Throughout the rest of March, the retailer will be setting up a series of window displays, made from recycled cardboard, to show-off its new range.

Some of the products include hand-blown vases made from recycled glass; bedlinen, slippers and t-shirts crafted from reused yarn and paper files made from recycled Japanese milk cartons and paper cups. The spring season bedlinens are made from 100 per cent certified Fairtrade or organic cotton, woven from the excess yarn that is usually disposed of.

(Source) My Deco

Muji Unveils Eco-friendly Home Furnishings

Now this is what I call recycled furniture! University of Wisconsin art student Hongtao Zhou’s “Ice & Snow Furniture Raised From Lake Mendota” not only shows the designer’s intelligence but also his predilection towards the environment

“They connect the lake, the land, the air and the people and complete a life cycle with minimum environmental impact,” explains Zhou.

Via Core77

Ice & Snow Furniture

Drew University students are due to come back soon and much of them are stocked up at the McLendon Hall Dormitory. While many would simply go through the motions of fixing their rooms, a “green treat” awaits them as the building has been environmentally redesigned.

What they may not notice is the building’s environmentally friendly touches:

• sensors that switch off the lights in common areas when no one is around
• water-saving showers and sinks
• carpeting and floor tiles made from recycled materials

The $14 million dorm was designed and built so that it can earn a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sustainable building design. Another constituency Drew considered when building the dorm, its first in 35 years, was students.

(Source) NJ.com

McLendon Hall Dormitory Preparing Green Welcome

Cardboard has taken its use to another level. By expanding the vivid imagination towards how these corrugated cartons can be conceptualized into attractive home furniture solutions, Diseno Cartonero has created functional and elegant pieces of furniture from cast-off cardboards often collected by garbage collectors.

Besides being nice to look at, Morahan’s pieces exemplify a certain humanitarian spirit through his own version of fair trade. The artist collects his recycled cardboard materials by purchasing it from garbage collectors (or cartoneros) at a higher price than they would receive at a recycling facility. Morahan then makes all his pieces by hand, so that each becomes a unique creative expression.

(Source) Inhabitat

Recycled Eco-Cardboard Furniture from Diseno Cartonero

What happens to your old mattress when they have already used up their reliable product life? Throw them away and wait for the garbage collectors to collect? Give them to charity or the needy? If you have an old mattress, hold on for a moment and see what things you can do with it. Something like re-use or recycling perhaps?

As mattresses have become more and more of a disposal issue, improved recycling and reuse options are coming into play. Where they are recycled, mattresses are often deconstructed: the foam, fiber, steel and wood from beds separated, bailed and recycled separately into new goods, such as other mattresses and carpet padding. Generally, reusing the unit as a whole is not a popular choice for safety reasons. But don’t shudder just yet at the idea of mattress reuse – there are more options out there than you think.

(Source) Earth 911

Old Mattresses Turned into New Furniture

I know its not exactly  BBQ season however its always a good thing to be prepared! Make your own BBQ PC by using parts from an old PC.

Step 1 – Find a Doner PC

I find dual 350 mhz SCSI enabled tower to be an ideal candidate. This PC has been sat under my desk for years and had already had its disks salvaged. In it’s day it operated on 128MB of super slow ram (though I think even 32MB would suffice). Be sure to ask the owner of the PC if you can “borrow it” or make sure nobody is looking.

For further instructions go here.

DIY: PC BBQ Grill

However, while this does address the conservative method of addressing your home furniture needs be sure you make a careful check and evaluate the stature of these furnishings. The last thing you would want is to purchase a defective piece of home furnishing so avoid being impulsive and check them out as careful as you can. Besides, they are not going anywhere so make sure you get the real value for your money when you buy them to comprise a manageable home to live in.

Buying used, from a thrift store, antique shop, or flea market is one great way to keep it green. You’re giving old products a new life, avoiding production of new products, and getting some cool unique finds to boot.

(Source) RiverWired

Color it Green with Used Furniture

Make unique lamps and vases from leftover bottles by following the instructions posted here.

Method 1: Dip a piece of common string in alcohol and squeeze dry, or as dry as it will get without dripping. This string should then be placed on the already marked glass and tied tight. Light the string and let it burn off. Immediately, while the glass is still hot, plunge it into cold water. Be sure the container of water is large enough to let the glass to completely submerge, as well your arm up to the elbow, so as to deaden the vibration when you strike the glass.

Strike the glass with your other hand above the line using a wooden stick and hitting a sharp stroke. This quick, sharp stroke will break the glass where the burning string has weakened it, as if done by a regular glass cutter. This method may be used to cut bottles in any shape, and to make vases. You can perform many such cuttings on glass.

For more methods head over here.

DIY: lamps and vases from Bottles

If you liked these textiles cups then head over here for instructions on how to make them at home. Personally I found the cups quirky and fun but wonder if they are a tad impractical since they can be used only once.

DIY: Textile Cups

Owe it to the creative minds of specialists like Nathan Christopher who seems to be putting his degree in natural resource management to good news. By transforming discarded wood and turning them into furniture that anyone would certainly be interested in, it is a form of business recycling from trashed wood which many home owners would want to check out.

According to Christopher, most wood from old buildings is either thrown away or burned, even though much of it is hard-to-find, old-growth wood up to 200 years old. He scours eastern Washington, Oregon and Idaho for old buildings that contain Douglas fir, maple, and other hardwoods and then brings them to his Seattle or rural Oregon studio to begin their transformation into his rustic-modern pieces.

(Source) NWSource

Old Wood Molded into New Furnishings

Atari Coat Hangers

Among the people leading the pack are Santiago Morahan, who has come up with a Garbage Collector Design (Diseno Cartonero) that will surely make your eyes pop.

The aesthetic of the project is a layered method that uses the corrugated texture of the cardboard and little reveals to show that the very common material can actually be quite elegant.

(Source) Inhabitat

Garbage Collector Designs for Home

Its great to live in a world of iPods, BlackBerrys however when it comes to keeping track of all the chargers it’s a whole different story. Hence I loved this Charger Box, which  s a centralized charging solution without burning your pocket.

Excerpt from post:

# 10 1/2″x8″x6″ cardboard Memory Dock box, purchased at Roberts

# Power Sentry Home Office Computer Surge Protector, bought at Target

# #1 X-Acto knife from Michael’s

# 2 packages of Jo-Ann ScrapEssentials brushed silver oval bookplates

# 1 package of Jo-Ann ScrapEssentials silver mini-brads

As with most craft projects, shopping for the supplies took far more time than the project itself. It seems like I used to see those cardboard photo boxes everywhere, but maybe they’ve fallen out of fashion. Once I got the stuff, all it took was cutting the holes in the box with the X-Acto knife, and attaching the bookplates around the openings with the brads. I was initially planning on using grommets or eyelets (like in the Martha Stewart version), but I couldn’t find any big enough for all the plug ends to fit through.

Via Two Loose Teeth

DIY: Charging Box

-holiday ornaments, various shapes, sizes and colors
-ribbon, twine, yarn, chain, wire, anything that is string like
-various holiday accouterments, example: jingle bell garland, pinecones, miniature nutcrackers

For further instructions go to Design Sponge Online

DIY: Christmas Garland

We see a lot of flooring renovations for most homes such as the usual tile flooring all the way to the laminated flooring. But here is something innovative and eco-friendly as well. For people who have worn out and unused leather belts, then perhaps transforming them into something useful like leather belt flooring would be a good way to make use of them rather than leaving them to rot or take up space.

Within the TING HOME collection, the vintage belt flooring is a must-see. Each floor tile is made up of a number of salvaged leather belts that are trimmed and glued side by side to create a sophisticated and chic design.

(Source) Greener Home Designs

Transform Old Leather Belts to Home Flooring

Looking for something to store and display those memorable pictures and photos? You can try out these recycled wood frames from Eco-Elements, making use of trees that have already harvested their fruits. The harvested wood in turn has been transformed into something classy in your home, making renewable resources go into good use.

This 4 x 6 frame is being sold at Kohl’s at $14.99.

(Source) STLtoday.com

Wood Frames from Eco-Elements

Not all of us have the privilege of having swimming pools but for those who have one, it goes way beyond simply filling it up with water. The maintenance of a pool is indeed tedious and for some, it may come to a point where remodeling is in order.

So while you are contemplating on remodeling your pool, add a touch of eco-friendliness while you are at it. Energy saving and the materials you may use to once again enhance that old pool will certainly work to your benefit and thanks to ideas offered by Aquavida Pool remodeling, you can upgrade and revamp your pool and make way for the next generation of “greener” pastures.

(Source) Express Press

Remodel Your Pool to Eco-friendly Considerations

We are all aware that some furniture designs normally originate from creativity and resourcefulness. Apparently, barrels which are familiar to us as containers for perhaps wine are overlooked once their contents are consumed. Where are they to go? For sure, dismantling them and perhaps making them firewood for some may be ideal but in both counts, you are hitting the garbage and the pollution problem if these are the actual things you have in mind.

But if you are like Jonathan Black, who has the knack for transforming barrels into something useful and unique, maybe you too can think of a good design and use for barrels often referred only as storage.

A bistro table or a hanging pot rack? A barrel head serving tray or a lazy Susan?

A carved clock or a wall cabinet?

“I’ve been doing this so long now I can take a barrel, look at that barrel, walk around it and look at all the different staves on the top and the bottom and determine exactly what product that barrel is going to make — how it is best served,” he claims.

(Source) Press Democrat

Making Furniture Designs out of Barrels

If you notice, a certain odor will fill the air if you don’t properly place and control your garbage. With this Compost Bucket, you can avoid such odors which are not only bad for the sense of smell but may attract disease bearing insects and rodents in your home.

Rather than make daily trips to the compost pile because of smelly, compost-bound scraps, this countertop or under-cabinet Compost Bucket has built-in, activated-carbon filters to absorb odors. Toss in vegetable scraps, tea bags, eggshells and other organic materials, then take to the compost pile later.

(Source) Gaiam

Kitchen Essentials: The Gaiam Compost Bucket

And the fact of the matter is, you don’t really have to spend a lot for it. We have been hearing the need for money but apparently, we can have good climate in our homes with the right resort.

Just look at this story of how a retired teacher, Jan Schneider, was able to do it without having to spend so much for it.

“I had very little money, but I wanted it to be environmentally friendly,” she said.

The Jacksonia Circuit home is long and thin, and orientated to catch any breezes.

It has a gap between the walls and roof to release hot air, skylights for extra light and trees were planted around the house to provide shade.

“The builder wasn’t keen, but he did it,” Ms Schneider said.

Most of her design aims to to keep the house cool while saving money on electricity.

(Source) Northern Territory News

Cooler Homes are Eco-Friendly Habitats

We will always have surplus books in our home and perhaps the issue here would be how to get rid of them. In fact, ask yourself again and wonder if you should!

Books are good for reading and perhaps donating them or selling them to people who may need them is a good recourse. But did you know you could also turn some books into vases that could be good furnishings for your home?

All it really takes is creativity and imagination and you can come up with the unique home furnishings that may be better than buying any in the market. So before you dispose those unwanted books, see first if you can make use of them in any other way.

My idea of using second hand books came around after doing research into common unwanted objects. One of the most common unwanted objects that can be found at either charity shops, car boot sales and sometimes on the streets are books. I discovered that the glue in old books make them extremely difficult to recycle. Aware of this I challenged myself to turn the second hand books that I had been collecting, into desirable objects such as furniture, lighting and ornaments.

(Source) Lifehacker

Vases Made from Old Books

Having a party near the beach, well you don’t have to worry anymore about finding ideal tables to place as far as food arrangements are concerned. Apparently, the lack of tables to use outside the standard buffet tables are an issue to be resolved and the proper accent on end tables have to be addressed. With that in mind, you may want to check out this Jeanine Naviaux’s Eco-Friendly beach end table.

With a concern for beauty and sustainability, Naviaux shares many of the values central to Spark. The Beach End Table, made from recycled wood and eco-sustainable raffia cloth, is representative of a shift that environmentally-conscious designers are making toward greener methods of design. By utilizing materials that are durable and renewable such as bamboo in many of her designs, Naviaux is saving the planet one room at a time.

(Source) OpenPR

Jeanine Naviaux’s Eco-Friendly Beach End Table

For most people who have wooden furniture at home, the maintenance issue is perhaps one of the stirring problems that people have to deal with. Making sure that their shine and overall appearance will not be compromised, people often turn to the various chemicals to ensure the quality wooden finished these days.

But that was before Cashew Corporation was able to come up with the Cashew Nut Shell Liquid, a less toxic wood preservative for wood crafts and furniture preservation.

One of the major problems with developing a totally organic wood preservative system was cost, but the new wood preservative described would provide a solution to the problem because it was relatively cost-effective, Surendra noted.

He said that wood preservative made by CNSL in its natural form was reported to protect wood crafts and furniture against termite attacks and possessed water repellency. Several studies had shown that activity of fungi and termite was less in CNSL +Cu treated blocks than in untreated blocks and blocks treated with CNSL alone.

(Source) The Island Online

Cashew Nut Shell Liquid Preservatives for your Wooden Furniture Care

Just where do recycled bottles go after they have been collected? Perhaps many of us think that these bottles would just be cleaned and then reused again but for others, using recycled bottles can go as far as creating new furniture enhancers such as perhaps your counter top.

Such was the idea and concept that BottleStones does in providing greater counter top finished to which recycled bottles are among the materials used for making one. For most homes, nothing beats topping off their home or kitchen designs with the classy counter tops that make our homes look better and with greater finish.

BottleStone sits in the “mid-high range” on price — cheaper than real marble or granite, and similar to other man-made stone like Corian, but pricier than that laminate-and-pressed-wood stuff that you scorched with your iron in your first apartment.

(Source) Dvice

BottleStones offer Eco-Friendly Counter Tops

Supposedly, it’s possible to compress newspaper to be as strong as wood as demonstrated in this foldable bench made out of newspapers.

Kaisin took regular newspapers, layered, glued and compressed them to create a building material that is as strong as wood.  He then took these sheets and mimicked one of natures strongest forms, the honeycomb, to create this amazing expandable bench.

via bedzine

Bench Made out of Compressed Recycled Newspapers!