Chemical-Free Kids

If you have kids, creating their first bedroom is a fun and momentous project to undertake. These days, there’s lots of research undertaken and published surrounding the health hazards of furniture paints and glosses – naturally, these are a concern for parents. The issues surround the use of chemicals and volatile solvents, which are used liberally in traditional brands of paint.

I’ve found a company called Buy Organics www.buyorganics.co.uk, which stocks a range of natural paints which are safe to use on children’s cots and toys. The range is called Auro Natural, and can be used on wood, metal, plaster and masonry. The paints use alternative ethical and eco-friendly ingredients, which include binder resin made from linseed oil, castor oil, sunflower oil and detergent made from castor and rape oil. The drying agents are also lead free. Because of the absence of these volatile solvents and chemical hardeners, drying times are more dependent on temperature and humidity than conventional paints.

The Buy Organics site gives quite detailed instructions underneath the product about application and paint ingredients. This natural paint is available in white, or a range of naturally-tinted pre-mixed colours. The site sells plenty of other natural paint products, as well as other organic products from furniture to eco gifts. The paint is £12.90 for a tin, including VAT.

Further links which may be of interest include http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7416405.stm http://www.defra.gov.uk/Environment/chemicals/lead/advice1.htm.

Ghostly Furniture For Halloween

Of all days in the year to mention Ghost Furniture http://www.ghostfurniture.co.uk/, today seems rather fitting. The company's marketing slogan is ‘Bringing quality furniture back from the dead and making it hauntingly beautiful’. And yes, some of their furniture pieces do look rather spooky. The company uses eco-friendly materials wherever possible, and the pieces are made by naturally recycling materials which would otherwise be thrown on the rubbish tip.

'Dinner for One' is set on a pine tilt-top table which was found in an antique shop in Newcastle. Ornate vintage cutlery, a vintage plate, napkin and a wooden wine goblet are all fixed to the table. The napkin has been treated to make it sculpturally rigid. The table can be tilted, as in the picture, and everything stays in place. The whole piece has been painted in Farrow & Ball White Pointing and treated with a special smooth wax finish. When the table is flat the goblet can be used to hold flowers, and the plate can hold fruit, making it a rather practical piece of art. I've included another picture of another piece called 'Shadow Cabinet' (the non political type) above, which has been finished in a matt, French Grey paint from a range bought in Paris. The piece was found in a house clearance in the Derwent Valley.

Sleep Easy

If you’re investing in an expensive hand-crafted wood bed, often you have to buy the mattress separately. This can be overwhelming in itself, as there are hundreds of mattresses on the market – firm, soft, bouncy, not-bouncy etc. And some can be more expensive than the wooden bed frame itself.

I’ve been doing a bit of research over the last couple of days, trying to find the most back and body-friendly mattress on the market. Having chatted to an osteopath yesterday, who sees all manner of postural problems and musculoskeletal injuries on a daily basis, I’ve been reliably informed that the best mattresses are those made from memory foam. He has one himself in fact. I have to say I’ve seen the product on the market, in everything from slippers to pillows, but I’ve never really given it much consideration.

In the case of the memory foam mattress, the foam moulds to the body during the night, supporting everything from the back to the hips and knees. It’s not even a product reserved for those purely with back pain or orthopaedic problems – I have since discovered my friend in her mid-20s has a memory foam mattress, and she raves about it. She said it gives her and her boyfriend the best night’s sleep ever, as it stops all the annoying tossing and turning which generally happens as the body adjusts itself to alleviate pressure.

To read more about buying a memory foam mattress have a look at http://www.ergoflex.co.uk/memory-foam-mattress.php. I think the general advice would be do a bit of research on the brands, and don’t necessarily go for the cheapest. The quality appears to vary considerably.

Making a Stand Against Unethical Manufacture

Even though I blogged about the Guardian’s ecostore http://www.guardianecostore.co.uk/ earlier this week, I couldn’t resist drawing attention to this stunning handcrafted Sheesham wood book stand that’s also available on the site. Given that I was trawling the web and the high street just a month ago for a recipe book stand for my Mum’s birthday, I really wish I’d spotted this at the time.

I opted for a black cast iron stand in the end as the wood designs were generally nothing special, but this is considerably more beautiful with an intricate carving of flowers, and has all the feel-good factor of being fair trade. It also has a brass hinge at the back of the stand so the angle can be adjusted.

The stand comes from a BAFTS (the British Association for Fair Trade Shops http://www.bafts.org.uk/) and IFAT (the International Fair Trade Association) registered fair trade supplier who works with a project in Saharanpur, Indian. The employees benefit from hygienic conditions and fair wages.

It’s undoubtedly lighter than a cast iron stand, which means it can be easily tucked away when not in use should space in the kitchen be limited. I guess the stand could also be used in an art studio or something similar.

The stand costs £14.95 on the Guardian ecostore website – plus postage of £4.50. But even at around £20 it’s got to be a better buy than many of the uninspired, and largely unethical, designs on the current market.

Bench of beauty

Wow. What a beautiful and unusual bench this is. As you can see it’s made from lots and lots of twigs which are actually coppiced Hazel from the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust http://www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk/. Each is naturally unique and environmentally friendly.

It’s been designed by an artist who, until now, I knew little about. His name is Russel Pinch http://www.pinchdesign.com/ and he’s a furniture designer who graduated from the Ravensbourne College of Design in London, before reportedly working as Sir Terence Conran’s design assistant. It seems he continued to do rather well for himself, later becoming senior product designer for the Conran Group http://www.conran.com/.

The info on the eco-shopping site where I discovered this bench http://www.nigelsecostore.com/ explains it was originally designed to be on display at the head office of an organic skin and body care company called Neal’s Yard Remedies http://www.nealsyardremedies.com/ (this site is actually really good and has loads of natural-type goodies, so take a look). The bench is, fortunately, now available for everyone to order.

I say fortunately, it’s perhaps unfortunately, as it costs a whopping £1,150. But then without doubt this is a naturally beautiful and sturdy piece – it weighs 65-75kg. The care guidelines say the bench can be used indoors or out, although it does recommend indoor usage.

Indonesian Illumination

I came across the Guardian’s online ecostore for the first time recently www.guardianecostore.co.uk and was taken with these atmospheric lamps. Don't they look pretty? What's more, they’re ethically produced in Indonesia. The company which designs them was reportedly set up to offer fair and stable work opportunities to local craftspeople. The villagers work directly from their homes, or from the producer’s workshops, and help to keep traditional techniques alive. Light in these lamps is filtered through a shade made from Lidi, which are palm fronds (more information about palm fronds can be found at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/palm+family) and paper.

The Guardian has clearly caught quickly on to the eco-friendly and fair-trade band wagon, offering loads of ethical products in its online eco store. Other products include soft furnishings, mosaic dishes, fair-trade patchwork bedspreads (gorgeous) and pretty solar star lights. The Guardian ecostore is really well organised, and the buying process seems pretty straightforward.

Christmas Cards with an Ethical Edge

If you’re one of those irritatingly-organised shoppers who buys Christmas presents in the January sales - eleven month's earlier - you may be itching to put pen to paper and write your Xmas cards. That’s if you haven’t already.

I got into conversation with an overly-enthusiastic Christmas-goer recently, who confessed to having already done just that. Whether that’s healthy, I’m not sure but, even so, it made me think I should probably start looking. I’ve always gone for cards that support a charity in the past, but this year I’m aiming to shop ethically http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics and give be a little more caring about the world's diminishing trees and rainforests, as well as charitably.

I love mooching around in charity shops and most have their Christmas card range in already. I spotted a classy, contemporary charity card in Oxfam, which I think I may well go for. The design incorporates a pink reindeer on a silver and black background. As it is printed on 50% recycled card it conveniently meets both of my card criteria this year. They retail at £3.99 for eight cards, so not exactly ‘value’ but they definitely catch the eye. There’s also a feel-good factor knowing that 100% of the profit goes to funding Oxfam’s work to fight poverty – often with charity cards it’s a much lower percentage.

If you want to check out Oxfam’s full range of cards online go to www.oxfam.org.uk. They range from quite basic and not particularly trendy, to fun and fashionable.

A Prickly Situation

If you’ve ever stumbled across an ailing hedgehog in your garden, you’ll know all about trying to keep it warm, fed and alive. In the same situation my caring nature kicked in, and I was advised (not particularly well I might add) to feed it everything from dog food and bread, to milk and water. Incidently, a bit of reading up on hedgehog nutritional protocal recommends a meat-based food, such as cat food or, if they turn their little button noses up at that, unsweetened museli, Weetabix and a handful of raisins. You can read more about this on the British Hedgehog Preservation Society site http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/.

Anyway, with Autumn knocking on our doorstep you may well find a cute friend or two roaming about in your garden as they start to collect leaves, grass, straw and bracken to build their own shelter - known as hibernacula http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibernaculum - over the winter.

If you’re of a nurturing nature you can give them a helping hand, and encourage them to become resident in your garden, with a purpose-built hibernation box. There’s a Hedgehog House available to buy from http://www.garden4less.co.uk/ for £39.50, which is made from certified Forest Stewardship Council http://www.fsc-uk.org/ sustainable wood. The house offers protection from predators and the wooden roof lifts off making the habitat easy to clean. For that price they also throw in a high-protein mix of crushed peanuts, raisins and mealworm so you don't have to go down the cat food route.

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) also offers quite detailed design tips on building your own timber shelter for hedgehogs - as well as shelters made out of cardboard. When you have either bought or constructed your shelter, the BHPS advises placing it in a quiet part of the garden, against a wall or fence, with the entrance facing away from North or North East so as to avoid frosty winter winds. With that, hopefully, you'll be lucky enough to have a few prickly friends to keep a mothering eye on.

Toxic-free Painting

With eco-friendly, ethical and fairtrade products popping up all over the place, even despite the precarious economic climate, it’s no surprise there's some edgy eco-books that could potentially be on your Christmas wish list, if you’re that way inclined.

Straight on to the eco-home bandwagon is this new book, entitled ‘A Handbook for Eco Paints and Finishes’ which I found on a site called eco-logical books www.eco-logicbooks.com. Although I haven't got hold of a copy myself, I thought it was worth a mention as it chats all about eco paints, stains, varnishes and environmentally-friendly finishes, which can be used to safely paint walls and spruce up surfaces in the home. The book discusses the downfalls of conventional paints, and their potential toxicity, as well as protection and durability, floor soaps and timber finishes.

The author is Lynn Edwards, who has apparently had many years of experience in the field of natural paints, so it’s hopefully not just a book that has been cobbled together to play on people’s insecurities about environmental toxins. Should you get bored, the book is, appropriately, fully compostable. Its RRP is £9.95, or it can be ordered from eco-logic books for £7.95.

Bedroom Talk

When I hop into my gorgeous dark walnut bed, it's not often I think about the contents of my mattress. But maybe we should all be giving it more thought. In randomly browsing the web I found a site called Ecocentric http://www.ecocentric.co.uk/ which sells an organic pocket-sprung mattress made from organic wool which comes from Welsh farms. The mattress (available in single, double or king size) is inspected and verified by the trusty The Soil Association http://www.soilassociation.org/ and is free from potentially harmful toxins and allergens which any normal synthetic mattress may contain. With all these associated health benefits it does, however, come with a rather hefty price tag. £545 for a single. If you’re asthmatic this mattress may also help you, as it apparently discourages dust mites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_dust_mite

Ecocentric also sells a natural latex mattress. The natural latex construction means it’s naturally anti bacterial, anti fungal and again discourages dust mites.

As well as the organic mattress, the company has some lovely organic and fair-trade bedding sets, which I guess are a pretty sensible buy if you’re trying to create a healthier bedroom all round. Given how much I love my bed, and the amount of time I spend in it, I'm certainly going to look into this further.

The Driftwood Frame of Mind

I blogged last week about the driftwood sculpture industry, and just how dramatic some of the pieces which have been shaped by natural processes can be. Since then I’ve kept one eye open for other driftwood products and I found a really cute little driftwood frame, which is available on the Tangkoko Indonesian furniture website www.tangkoko.co.uk. The frame, which is made from recycled and aged hard wood, has a lovely rugged, natural quality to it, and I’m keeping this in mind as a potentially great gift for my Dad for Christmas. Looking at the photo on the website I reckon it’d be classy enough to be positioned on an office desk or in a place in the home which requires something equally grand. The frame is £23 - obviously a touch more than your average cheapo high-street frame - but the authenticity of the driftwood surpasses anything I've seen.