Design for Life: Quality is Green
(Page 2 of 3)
March/April 2008
By Carol Venolia
Their home is in a lovely old building in a walkable neighborhood. They remodeled small, dark rooms into flowing, naturally lit spaces; the finishing details echo the building’s timeless beauty. Though their budget wasn’t huge, they used high-quality materials.
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Beth and Eric’s small home lives large because of good design: With 769 square feet, the couple could budget for high-quality materials because they didn’t need much. For example, they could afford high-efficiency windows because there were only nine moderately sized windows to replace.
"I’ll never forget the moment when the connection between small space and quality dawned on me," Beth says. "I was walking down a Japanese street when I noticed there was a tiny, exquisite garden in front of every house. I’d been struggling with my own mess of a garden in California, and when I looked at these I thought, ‘If I only had 10 square feet of garden, it would be beautiful all the time because it would be totally manageable.’ Now that I’m living in a cozy place, I understand that you can instill quality in every surface when the size is manageable."
Beth recommends deciding what’s really important, investing in high- quality things that matter most and letting go of the rest. "With fewer, better things, we’re likely to feel more satisfaction," she says. "And that’s green."
The economics of value
Quality doesn’t have to be expensive. When remodeling their kitchen, Beth and Eric found small, colorful tiles they loved, but tiling the whole counter with them would have broken the budget. So they used them as accent tiles in a field of less-expensive environmentally friendly tiles.
Beth and Eric also benefited from a tradition in their multi-unit building: When residents remodel, they put reusable items in the basement for neighbors to take. The couple scored all their historic molding there, lending affordable timelessness to their remodeling.