Archive for the ‘News’ CategoryThe Kansas City Star ran an article a few days ago about 11 interior design trends for 2011. While everyone and their mother is blogging or reporting on trends and forecasts for the new year, there were a few points of interest that we wanted to address here. Will these apply to you? What do you think about these predictions?
1. First, a move toward intimate, more personal decor: “Ready for your home to look oh-so 2011? It shouldn’t be too hard because the on-the-horizon trends are all about making it more optimistic, functional and personal.” This bodes well for the green movement, which is all about functional, eco-friendly products and looking toward the future. 2. Good news for those who craft, repurpose, and/or recycle: “The ‘who knew?’ factor of upcycled house goods will be even bigger in 2011, according to those at Etsy, the online marketplace for handcrafts. Look for plastic bags turned into bowls and bike parts into clocks.” 3. Not such great news: “Victorian, Edison-style and squirrel-cage bulbs are surprisingly hot little numbers despite the shift toward CFLs and LEDs. No, not for all your lighting needs but perhaps for your decorative clear-glass and bare-bulb fixtures so that you can really see the filament.” Would you be willing to sacrifice your more eco friendly bulbs to return to “Victorian”-style lighting? According to the article, “New carbon-filament bulbs offer 1/3 of the light at 10 times the price.” Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/04/2560426/eleven-trends-for-2011-go-eclectic.html#ixzz1AbSSWVdO
The Verde Lifestyles coupon code for the holiday season is here! Use pumpkinpie at checkout to receive 20% off of your order! This is a great deal, especially with the gift-giving season right around the corner. Green decor is a great gift not only for those in your life who are environmentally-conscious, but also for anyone moving into new digs–students, newlyweds, someone who just landed their first job. Here a few ideas to get you started on your shopping spree:
Nothing says luxury like a sleek teak wood bath bar. It can be used in a multitude of ways–use it to enjoy your hot bath with a book, a soothing cup of tea, or just to keep toiletries and towels close at hand.
Add space and light to a small apartment, or just a small room, with a large mirror in a beautiful sustainable wood frame. Mirrors are great for opening up cramped or dark spaces, and their frames can add detail and color to a bare wall.
Our natural, versatile bamboo rugs are a must-have for any green interior, and are indispensable as far as eco-friendly flooring goes. Welcome Fall! Starting today, October first, we’re offering a new coupon code for the month of October. Get 20% off of orders of all wood furniture with the coupon code applecider. All of our wood furniture is up for grabs, so go to it! We have a LOT of wood furniture, so there’s bound to be something that catches your eye. If you’re not sure where to start, here’s a little inspiration to get you started:
Our wood stools come in all shapes and styles, but what they all have in common is the beautiful, sustainable wood they’re hand-carved from.
Every college student knows the feeling of dread when that time of year rolls around again: time to buy another semester’s worth of textbooks. Buying textbooks new often costs hundreds of dollars, hours of your time waiting in lines at crowded bookstores, and frantic nights of catch-up reading because the books that you ordered online arrived late. In short, it’s a nuisance, but there isn’t really a way to get around buying textbooks for class–those 200 page readings are just a part of the college experience. In an attempt to cut down on waste, energy, and publishing costs, Arizona State University is partnering with HP to run an on-demand textbook printing technology, along with only two other schools in the country (The University of Kansas and Portland State University). According to an article from ASU’s website: “HP has developed new technology that can print a perfect-bound book, with a laminated color cover, within minutes, and is rolling out the concept in a pilot program with three universities.” “What we’re excited about is that we’re literally never out of a book if we have the digital file,” Mekelburg noted. And, he added, the “print a textbook on demand” process is very ecologically sound. “The books aren’t printed on the East Coast, stored by the publisher and shipped here.” In the article, Thurman Holder (director of new business for HP’s Imaging and Print Group), states that on-demand printing can reduce the publishing industry’s footprint by an estimated 25%. The cuttings from the printing process are even collected and reused to make note cards. What do you think of this technology? This month, the Producers Guild of America released the Green Production Guide, a website and resource to help make film production a little more sustainable. The guide includes tips for recycling props and other materials used on-site, an extensive list of vendors and companies offering green products and services, a carbon calculator, and many more resources for tracking and improving the use of energy and materials in producing films, TV shows, and new media projects.
From the website: “With seed funding and support provided by Disney, Fox, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros., the PGA, as part of its PGA Green Initiative, has developed this tool for the production and entertainment community to further its goal of integrating sustainable practices into its operations and reducing the environmental footprint within the production process.” Fun fact: past carbon-neutral productions include “Syriana”, “An Inconvenient Truth”, “The Day After Tomorrow” and “Sweet Land”. To be considered a carbon-neutral production, producers must calculate their total carbon footprint (all energy expended–transportation of actors and crew, electricity used on set, materials/labor to make props and costuming, etc.) and then offset that total footprint by doing things like planting trees and investing in clean energy.
Australia’s leading fashion brand, Cylk, collaborated with such luxury retailers as Henri Bendel and Fred Segal to prove to the world that high-end fashion can be eco-friendly. Started in 2006, Cylk initially made clothes composed of 100% silk. Now, they have an entire ready-to-wear collection made of luxury blends that include super fine bamboo, silk and modal. While bamboo is a more well-known fabric, modal is made from the cellulose of beech trees. The most unusual aspect of Cylk’s designs is their brilliant take on the current cut-out trend and fabric removal. This unique dress draws attention to the shoulders by removing fabric from the sleeves. Cylk has the perfect combination of eco-friendly and unique, designer fashion.
Cylk is the leader in seamless eco-chic bamboo fashion, and “combines high-end fashion with environmental awareness. With an aim to promote fair trade practices and discussion of sustainability issues, the Cylk philosophy is about caring for others, respecting nature, and working together to make the world a better place.” For more information regarding their environmental awareness philosophy and to view the whole collection, check out the Cylk Web site.
We’re very excited to announce that we are opening our very first giveaway contest! If you’re interested in winning a FREE 2′ by 3′ Dark Brown bamboo rug, you have until next Friday, August 20th to post your favorite green tip or trick on our Facebook page’s Wall. To enter the contest, you must “like” our Facebook page in addition to posting your green tip/trick–we’re trying to reach 500 Likes, and will host a giveaway every week until we do! Also, we’re going to need at least 25 comments before we can pick a winner, so be sure to tell your friends.
We’ll pick our winner based on our favorite green tip or trick. What kinds of “tips or tricks” are we looking for? Anything that you’ve discovered makes living a green lifestyle easier day-to-day. This could include recycling tips, tips for saving electricity, water, or food, tricks for reusing or repurposing old junk laying around the house, etc.
Go here to learn more about our 2′ by 3′ bamboo rugs. If you missed the opportunity to use our previous coupon, don’t fret–we have a new one! Use the coupon code verdedecor at checkout to get 15% off of an order of $150 or more! Here are a few great products to inspire you:
Sustainable Wood Stools. This 23″ Double Twist stool is beautiful, elegant, compact–and eco-friendly! Our stools come in many shapes, sizes, and colors, so there are plenty of opportunities to incorporate one into your home.
Natural Wood Benches. Great for indoor or outdoor use, this natural teak wood bench is the perfect size for kids and adds an elegant touch to a patio, porch, hallway, or bathroom. It is finished with natural teak oils and needs very little maintenance.
End Tables are extremely versatile and come in many varieties. Ours are natural and made from extremely sustainable, fast-growing woods. This coupon is only available for a limited time, so don’t hesitate! Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or issues with using the coupon.
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Summer Coupon CodeIf you haven’t already noticed the brown banner on top of our pages, here’s what’s going on: Verde Lifestyles is offering a 15% discount off of all orders over $100! Just type in the coupon code, summer2k10, into the appropriate field at checkout and click “apply”. Not sure what you could purchase to qualify for the discount? We have plenty of beautiful, eco-friendly products for your home to choose from! You can start looking here: Our sustainable wood products come in a variety of shapes, sizes, styles and colors—there’s truly something for every taste and every room!
Our Teak wood spa shelves will add a subtle, natural presence your bathroom. They are manufactured from wood from the plentiful Teak tree species in Southeast Asia, some of the fastest growing, most abundant hardwood trees in the world.
Our sustainable wood twist stools are perfect for sitting or setting objects on. Each stool is finished with all natural, non-toxic oils, making them safe for any area of the home and for the environment. They were hand-carved and finished by local Chiang Mai, Thailand artisans. If you’re looking to add a few eco-friendly, artistic touches to your home, check out these green home accents:
Our recycled steel bowls are both stylish and strong, and can be used indoors or outdoors. Made completely from recovered steel, they can function both as a centerpiece and as a conversation starter.
Give your walls some shine with unique art pieces made from recycled steel. This piece’s smooth pebbles are arranged in a flowing shape that can complete a room from wherever you want to place it. Provide any room with the calming presence of this polished, elegant Buddha wall panel. Available in three different finishes [honey, walnut and white wash] and four different sizes, this piece will be at home in any setting. Happy shopping! As our business accomplishes new milestones and discovers new avenues for expansion, there are suddenly a ton of new projects that need to get done. Already having a lot on our plates, Danielle and I were searching for a new team member to handle many facets of the day to day copywriting and online social involvement. We had also been working on putting together a more comprehensive set of rules and guidelines for customer service to help better serve you. Well… the search is finally over!
Marie Schutt, a senior at the University of Michigan, is a perfect fit for our search engine marketing needs. In addition to her Linguistics and Creative Writing double major, she has experience as an editor and writer for multiple Ann Arbor-based companies. She has also had to do plenty of online research, blog posting and promotional writing for those companies, which has helped her hone her skills in online copywriting. Marie has approximately three years of experience working as a customer service representative and media assistant for the Instructional Support Services division at U of M. We can admit when we’re under-experienced and immediately saw an opportunity for improvement on our current customer service setup. Here’s a few fun facts about Marie: Her favorite cuisine is Japanese food, about 95% of her wardrobe is thrifted, she has a minor in Mandarin Chinese and she loves watching foreign films. Welcome to Verde Marie! |
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