Design^Sprout | Your Guide to Green Design

Shop at Thrift Stores? Careful, it Could Ruin Your Credit.

 I shop at thrift stores every day. Seriously, like every single day. I don't always buy but, living in San Francisco, they're all over the place and represent the modern day treasure hunt - you never know what you'll discover.

   Leave it to corporate America to take this most harmless of hobbies and turn it against us. According to the Concord Monitor, credit card companies are noting purchases like thrift stores, shoe repair and tire retreading as proof that you're headed for financial ruin and using this as reason to deny, lower and in some cases even harm your credit.

   Big Brother proves once again he's no friend of the planet. (source: Mother Jones)

Once, twice, three times a blanket.

   Oh those Europeans! Seems like they can make everything stylish doesn't it? But it takes a particular talent to transform old packing blankets into these uber-stylish throws. Dutch designers Jane and Jantein of Ladak are just those talents. Made from 100% recycled materials, these blankets are beautiful enough to hang on your wall and leave me wondering, "Why didn't I think of that?". 

Save a Bear. Skin a Monster.

    Made from brushed cashmere and all-natural wool, Longoland's cheeky take on a bear skin rug would definitely inject some humor into your decor.   Considering how rare monster sightings are these days I'm sure this rug is pretty pricey (price upon request - always a bad sign!) but hey, a girl can dream. Check out the monster skin chair below - fantastic!

Recycled FedEx Wine Rack

   Not the most chic looking design on the planet but clever none-the-less. And if you're like me, your wine never stays around long enough to acquire a permanent address anyway.(source: craftzine)

The Ejection Bar Stool - You'll Wish You Had One.

       Need to make a quick getaway from the creepy barfly lurking in the seat next to you? Enter Motoart's F-4 Ejection Bar Stool. Re-purposing original parts from a retired F-4 Phantom Jet Fighter, the designers allow us to live out our Top Gun fantasies while poking fun at drunken bar antics . Ahhh, if only it worked.

Container Living - You've Seen it Before but Not Like This.

     Move over mobile homes, container living is here to stay.

      Once confined to scrap metal yards or landfills, shipping containers are quickly becoming the darlings of the modern architectural world.  Easily transportable, widely available and practically indestructible, these metal boxes just may be an answer to the worldwide housing crisis.

    Oh, and they're cheeeaaaap.  A used container can be bought for around $2,000.  Not bad, considering the average price of a house in California still hovers at around $400k. With such affordable pricing, architects and designers have had ample room to experiment, resulting in much chicer and more forward-thinking designs than the dissected mobile homes once traveling the US highways.

    Architect Adam Kalkin has received much notoriety for the high design of his Quick Houses. Based around the construction of five shipping containers and coming in at a cost of just $100 per square foot, multiple floor plans are available for customization boasting many of today's modern appetencies; stainless steel kitchens, wood floors, and walk-in closets.

     Even big business is jumping on the bandwagon. Hospitality giant Travel Lodge has recently finished construction on a 100 room hotel made by cleverly fitting 88 recycled shipping containers together. The Uxbridge, England building cost much less and was finished more quickly than new construction. 

   Although in truth there are a finite number of containers available for recycling, that number is in the millions, making container construction a viable alternative in worldwide building. Looks like we may all be sleeping in a box sooner than we thought.