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Factory Scrap Furniture

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design, Sustainability Tagged with , , , April 30th, 2010 @ 5:18 pm

Recently in the “Architecture and Design” column of Treehugger.com (one of the best environmental blogs on the web), there was an intriguing article about coffee tables that were made almost entirely of wood scraps from door and window frame factories in South America. The tables were designed by Chilean design students for Remade in Chile. Remade is a South American program in seven countries that promotes the reuse and recycling of everyday waste to create new desirable and fashionable products.  Founded by Marco Capellini, Remade in Chile encourages aspiring artists and designers to use waste materials in their work by hosting international design contests. Most recently, the Animal Gallery in Santiago, Chile held its third Remade in Chile Contest in the heart of the city’s capital.  By the deadline on March 17th, 2010 the contest received 250 entries! Other projects included a line of dresses made from old Puma sneakers, waterproof sheaths for electronics made from wool and fiber wastes, and children’s’ chairs made from tights and nylons just to name a few.

These scrap-based coffee tables are beautiful examples of Merida Home’s mantra “sustainability with style”. While the coffee tables are chic and polished, owners can rest easy knowing that they prevented more materials from ending up in landfills or littering Chilean streets. Marco Capellini says projects like these that use waste materials also help keep end costs down which make eco-design affordable, since raw materials would have been more expensive. I look forward to see more innovative products that come out of Remade in Chile.

Fun Friday Find: Nama Rococo gives us wallpaper that can dance!

By Whitney Filed in Fun Friday Finds, General, Interior Design Tagged with , , April 23rd, 2010 @ 2:39 pm

Our fantastic Creative Director Maegan Fee tipped me off to Nama Rococo… in visiting their website it was immediately clear why. Nama Rococo gives us a new way to hang art on the wall – and I’m not talking traditional paintings. Nama Rococo produces one of a kind, stunning hand-painted and hand-screened wallpaper that can instantly add edgy fashion to a room. The prints have a wonderful sense of rhythm and movement that are at once new and exciting yet familiar and soothing.

After checking out their impressive collections (I loooove Tokyo & Vine!), I spent some time digging around the rest of their website and was pleased to find comprehensive “about” and “history” sections. I always find it fun to learn about the journey that people take to achieve success. It doesn’t altogether surprise me that Nama Rococo founder Karen Combs’ story starts off with a wild-haired ride to New York City in the 70’s…

The most impressive part of the Nama Rococo website, however, is the fantastic job that it does in translating their high-end, unique and eclectic style to the web. From the punches of color found in the background flowers to the playful animated graphics, the Nama Rococo website does a seamless job of mirroring the sense of movement and rhythm seen in their prints.

Bottom line: This is not your typical classic high-end textile website. Whether or not you’re in the market for new wallpaper, this is a fun site to check out.

Nama Rococo Website

Fun Friday Find: Design a Reusable Tote Bag and win $2,000!

By Whitney Filed in Fun Friday Finds, Interior Design, Sustainability April 16th, 2010 @ 1:06 pm

Exciting news for designers and fashionistas alike!  I just learned that Bloomingdale’s is currently running a reusable, green tote bag design contest.  We all love our reusable bags; I use mine to haul my groceries home from Whole Foods, to tote my gym clothes to work, to carry my books and towel to the beach, and – for the particularly cute ones – I sometimes even use them as oversized purses.  So, you can imagine how thrilled I am to hear that I can have a stab at designing my very own bag!

Worried that you don’t have the software to design something on your computer?  Fear not; you can create your design directly on the Bloomingdale’s website with their easy to use tools.  Draw a design from scratch with the pencil tool, use their pre-defined shape tools, or type a meaningful message with their text tool. Sound fun? You can get started here (the page may take a few minutes to load).

But, the best news of all is that the winner (selected by the fabulous Rebecca Minkoff) not only gets to see their design created and sold on Bloomingdales.com, they also receive a $2,000 Bloomingdale’s shopping card!  Runner up will receive $1,000.  You also have the chance to win design of the day ($100 reward) each and every day that the contest runs.  There are only NINE DAYS left, so, what are you waiting for?  Put your thinking cap on and start designing…

Planning to submit a design?!  Tell us about it here!  Here’s a sneak peak of my fun Merida Design… !

My Beautiful Merida Tote Bag!

My Beautiful Merida Tote Bag!

Green Building Education in Boston

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design, Sustainability April 16th, 2010 @ 1:05 pm

Getting serious about going green, but need help? The NEXUS Green Building Resource Center in downtown Boston is the perfect place to start. NEXUS is an affiliate of the U.S. Green Building Council but expands their mission by also offering technical assistance, policy advocacy, and educational services. The Green Roundtable was founded in 1998, and has since evolved into NEXUS, a space where all can come to learn and network for the purpose of making buildings cleaner and greener- whether it be their own home or a huge commercial or industrial building. Green themed educational events and classes are held at NEXUS every week and cover a variety of topics for all types of audiences. From LEED exam prep courses to Boston Green Drinks social networking events, there is sure to be something that fits your interest level.

Even if none of the events appeal to you, the NEXUS exhibit space is a great resource to learn about green building materials and products. After all, owning a Merida natural fiber area rug is only one step in making your home green! In the Samples Library, Nexus has samples of floor tiles, countertops, insulation, window treatments and more. More about NEXUS and its mission can be found at http://www.nexusboston.org/

Fun Friday Find: Show off your Interior Design Skills with See My Design!

By Whitney Filed in Fun Friday Finds, General, Interior Design April 9th, 2010 @ 1:29 pm

Warning: This site is addictive and may consume hours upon hours of your time in one sitting. Now that I’ve gotten my disclaimer out of the way, I have to share my newfound obsession: See My Design. See My Design features a blank floor plan that allows you to design and build a room – from scratch!

Perfect for novice designers and seasoned experts alike, this site allows you to select the type of room you want to design (home office, bedroom, baby’s room, etc.) and then add design elements to the room one by one. Select your furniture, area rugs, walls, plants, and accessories, size them to your liking and position them where you want in the room. You can use the corner with the three squares to spin pieces around. Make sure you do not miss the color picker on the bottom of the screen (hence my super pink baby room!).

Start with an blank canvas....end up with a fully furnished baby room!

This is a great tool to use if you’re designing or setting-up a new room and you already have some of your furniture or a Merida natural fiber area rug (wink, wink). You can enter the exact dimensions of your room and the pieces, and then see how they look to scale. Not building a new house? Play around with rearranging your current room layouts — and save yourself the back the pain of dragging heavy furniture from place to place to see how it looks.

If you already have plans tonight you may want to cancel them; your new found career as an interior decorator is calling…

Fun Friday Find: Reknit reinvents your old sweaters!

By Whitney Filed in Fun Friday Finds, General, Interior Design, Sustainability Tagged with , April 2nd, 2010 @ 12:42 pm

The first time I heard about Reknit I fell in love with the concept behind it.  Reknit features a mother/child duo that is giving a whole new meaning to the age-old concept of reusing clothes…and we’re not talking hand-me-downs!  Launched in the beginning of this year, Reknit turns your ragged old sweaters into coveted new items for a minimal fee ($30.00).

Sounds great, but how does it work?   Each month there is a featured item, from gloves to hats to….thongs!  You can have a say in what you want next month’s item to be by voting between four or five suggested items on the site.  Whatever the month’s item is, you then pick one of your old sweaters and mail it in to the website founder’s Mom.  His/her Mom then unravels it and uses the yarn to knit something new and beautiful!

Reknit: How it works!

Reknit: How it works!

The only catch is that you have to act fast.  As pointed out on the site, the founder only has one Mom, and since all items are hand-knit they cap orders at a mere 30 per month.  Fortunately I got my order for a new laptop case in for this month.  Now I just have to decide what color I want it to be and which corresponding old sweater I can do without.  Just in time to free up some precious closet space for my spring wardrobe…

A New Room for an Inspirational Blogger

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design, Sustainability Tagged with , , , March 29th, 2010 @ 5:37 pm

If you are a green interior design enthusiast, you have probably stumbled upon a blog called Green Your Decor.   Recently I was visiting the GYD site and came across founder and primary blogger Jennae’s very personal piece about her four year old daughter’s heartbreaking battle with leukemia.  In the article, Jennae touches on the difficulties that come along with battling a  serious disease and the tremendous strength that her beautiful daughter Ja’Naya has exerted to overcome it.

Ja’Naya is now in remission, and Jennae and her family are celebrating the good news, however, they are still moving closer to Ja’Naya’s doctors.  Uprooting your home is difficult under any circumstance, and since Ja’Naya will be spending much of her time home recovering, Jennae decided to make the most of a tough situation by surprising her daughter with a beautiful, positive and (of course!) sustainable new bedroom.

Jennae put a lot of time and effort into planning Ja’Naya’s new sanctuary and knew that she wanted a colorful, uplifting wool rug.  After doing some research, she was particularly attracted to Merida’s Letter Lines wool kids area rug in Marker because of the fun vintage chic look, and also because she felt comfortable with the natural wool rug fibers and the socially responsible choices that were made to craft the area rug.  When approached to contribute a Letter Lines kids wool area rug to Ja’Naya’s new room, Merida Home gladly accepted and we are proud to be involved in such an inspiring project.

We can’t wait to read about Ja’Naya’s reaction to her new room (how could she not love it?!) and see photos documenting how the room turns out!  To read about the design and see mock-ups of Ja’Naya’s room design, click here.

Fun Friday Find: Mod Green Pod

By Whitney Filed in Fun Friday Finds, General, Interior Design, Sustainability Tagged with , , , March 26th, 2010 @ 12:02 pm

Hi, I’m Whitney, the online marketing specialist here at Merida Home.  As the online marketing specialist, part of my job entails searching the web to find like-minded businesses that share our passion for design and sustainability.  We hope to connect with and support these companies and we hope they connect with and support us too.  In my searching I’ve come across some really great sites that I want to share with you, so I am starting a “Fun Friday Find” that will feature the most interesting site of the week. Without further ado, this week’s first-ever Fun Friday Find is the Mod Green Pod website.

I have known about Mod Green Pod for a while since I had the pleasure of working alongside Lisa in her Boston studio space a few years ago.  I love the fun whimsical fabric and wallpaper prints, but am really inspired by Mod Green Pod’s emphasis on sustainability and dedication to creating local jobs here in the US.  After seeing Mod Green Pod featured in the Urban Sherp newsletter, I decided to check out their site and see what Lisa and the gals have been up to.  That’s when I found their Room Creator…..

The Room Creator features a traditional living room set-up with basic white chairs, a couch, a lamp and curtains.  The room looks pretty drab – but here comes the fun part!  You can drag Mod Green Pod’s wallpaper prints onto the walls and use their fabric to upholster the furniture.  Watch the room come together and get inspired to take some design risks with your own décor!  Don’t like what you create?  Refresh the page and try again.

Hint, you can even decorate the family cat…

Living Room Before Transformation

Living Room Before Transformation

Living Room After Transformation

Living Room After Transformation

Now all this room needs is a matching Merida Home Pavo Thrive Lagoon wool area rug to tie the flooring into the lovely blue color scheme…..

Think you can design a better room?  Send us a screen shot of your favorite design!

Vintage Travel Posters

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design Tagged with , March 25th, 2010 @ 11:09 am

My apartment is a constant work in process. I just moved in October, and while my roommate and I have the kitchen and living room pretty well set, there is one room that needs some serious work: my room. I have all of the furniture I need, but the walls are still completely blank. I still have all of my silly trite wall posters that I had in college, but I’m ready to move on from my Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe portraits. I want to do something a little more grown up, but still fun.

I do, however, have one wall poster that I absolutely love: a vintage travel poster. I love the colorful bold graphics of these types of posters and I have decided to look for a couple more to get framed for my room.


There are hundreds and hundreds of these posters that can be easily found and ordered online. http://www.art.com, http://www.allposters.com, and http://www.zazzle.com, have particularly large selections of vintage travel posters. That way you can pick and choose posters by color theme, location, or artist. Since my room is already a potpourri of colors, I’m choosing posters based on the location they are advertising and am picking only places that I’ve been (not necessarily the ones pictured in this article).

The original prints are more rare and expensive because they are collectors’ items and considered authentic and beautiful works of art. Originals can be found in high art museums such as the Louvre, the Met, and even the Library of Congress.

As always, when considering colors for your own rooms you can use Merida Home’s Area Rug by Color Search!

Paint: The Good and the Bad

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design, Sustainability Tagged with , , March 25th, 2010 @ 10:59 am

At this point most of us know that some paints can give off harmful chemicals, and you may know that you should look for interior paints with Low-VOCs or No VOCs. But what exactly are VOCs and what potential harm do they pose?

VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compound. VOCs can include a variety of chemicals that are emitted as gases from either a solid or a liquid. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to VOCs can cause headaches, nose and throat irritation, skin allergies, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, and some VOCs are potentially carcinogenic. Yikes!

VOCs are a large contributing factor to indoor air pollution, which in turn, is a hazard to human health.

The scary thing about VOCs is that they are emitted from a variety of common household items like paint, lacquer. paint strippers, wood preservatives, household cleansers and disinfectants, and even dry-cleaned clothing.

Levels of VOCs are usually 2 – 5 times higher indoors than outdoors.  When painting, the level can be as high as 1000 x higher than outdoor air. Even when dry, interior paint can emit VOCs for years after it is applied! This means that you are possibly being exposed in almost any building interior.

However, these days there are many low or no VOC paint options on the market so it is much safer to paint the interior of your home. Another benefit of these new paints are that they are almost orderless- which makes do-it-yourself remodeling much more pleasant!

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