Latest 'Green' Designs:
Some Freaky Furniture

Dec. 23, 2003 -- Claudia Laslie is partial to antiques, like the 1930s desk with brass trim for her new Victorian home in Great Barrington, Mass. But her latest additions have a bit of history, too. The 41-year-old mother of two has bought $11,400 worth of sofas and chairs made from recycled newspaper, wax and wood. "They look like cement but they feel like velvet," she says. "You can't tell it's made of recycled material."

Remember when the eco-friendly home was sure to have a hemp futon and blob-like beanbag chairs? Now green is the new black among upscale makers pushing high-end pieces with some pretty unusual materials, like the $3,200 "Favela" chair made from wood scraps found on the streets of Brazilian shantytowns and a $14,200 coffee table with branch legs gnawed by a real beaver. Even the mass-market guys are getting in: Home Depot's higher-end Expo Design Center sells tile made from melted-down glass bottles.

Odd as it sounds, designers from New York to San Francisco say more clients are requesting this kind of furniture. In the past year alone, sales at eco-furniture.com have risen threefold. Architect Jeffrey Beers, whose restaurant projects include China Grill in Miami and Fiamma in New York, says requests for green interiors by his residential clients are up 30% from a year ago. According to Conscious Media Inc., which tracks the green marketplace, Americans spent $2 billion on natural home furnishings and appliances last year.

Impractical to Use

Yet some customers are discovering that the green look may be friendly to the environment but not necessarily to their home. For one, some of the furniture is very delicate and impractical. Fashion designer Lisa Olivieri purchased a $700 chair made from formaldehyde-free plywood and bungee cords, but it's not very functional. "It's kind of bouncy. You can't really use it at my desk or my sewing machine," she says. Another problem is that the look isn't always sophisticated enough to match the price tag. Some designs have "a kind of late-hippies look," says Christopher Mount, professor of design history at Parsons School of Design in New York.

This isn't the first time, of course, that eco-friendly looks have appeared in the home. With the 1960s peace movement came meditation benches and furniture made of cardboard or recycled scraps of wood. By the early '90s, the environmental movement took root with mainstream America, and companies responded by coming out with furniture for the home that was made from "sustainable" wood from forests where harvesting is tightly controlled. But like a pair of Birkenstocks, the furniture was practical but not always easy on the eyes.

This time around, interior designers are pushing a high-end look and it's not attracting only do-gooders. These eco-designs are mostly finding favor with people who want to make an environmentally conscious statement, but who want their homes to look chic at the same time. New York architect Dennis Wedlick says eco-friendly furniture gives homeowners a "sophisticated, intelligent reason to buy, rather than 'that color looks great.' "

Gregory Rothman decided to shift to green when he redid his Chicago duplex this year. He dropped about $11,000 on a bistro table and five chairs made of walnut from a "managed" forest. "It looks good," says the chocolate-shop owner. "It's not chairs made out of logs from the crafts fair."

Indeed, the target customers for green furniture are the yuppies, or those whom environmentalists like to call Greenback Greens -- well-to-do people who've grown accustomed to recycling and biodegradable trash bags and don't mind the idea of eco-decorating, so long as they don't have to sacrifice style. "They'll still buy their SUVs, but they'll sit on the environmentally friendly couch while watching the Super Bowl," says Cary Silvers, a vice-president with polling firm Roper ASW, which tracks the green movement.

Bored With Minimalism

It's an unlikely ally for a cause that once decried the SUV crowd as enemy No. 1. But with worries about the economy and terrorism now overshadowing fears of rain-forest demolition, according to recent Roper polls, the Greenback Greens may be a bright spot in an otherwise stagnant movement. "They'll have the finances to spend on something like this, and it will make them feel good," Mr. Silvers says.

Then there's the whole organic movement. "My readers are the people who live organically but also buy their Prada shoes," says Danny Seo, author of "Conscious Style Home," a book about living glamorously and organically. And while full-scale "green" residences have yet to start commanding premium prices, designers say that adding an eco-friendly furniture piece here and there is appealing to people weary of the stark minimalist decor of recent years. "No matter how sleek and simple you are, part of you likes to feel the traction you get from real nature," says furniture maker John Houshmand, the New York designer responsible for the beaver coffee table.

The trend shows no sign of slowing down. Bean Products, a company formerly known for its inexpensive hemp beanbags, just came out with B Organic, a pricey line that includes a $3,700 hemp loveseat. And interior designer Anthony Cochran and Jesse Johnson, a Yale M.B.A. graduate, are set to launch Q Collection, a line of high-end "sustainable" furniture, in January. "When you look at our furniture, you won't think granola," says Mr. Cochran.

Yet like any furniture trend, this one may have limits on how sustainable it really is. One problem: There are no official guidelines for what constitutes "green." which leaves some of the furniture in a rather gray area. Gerard Minakawa, owner of Ukao Grass Furniture in Santa Barbara, Calif., makes his furniture out of bamboo (very green) bound together with formaldehyde glue (not so green). "I cut one problem out and I have to deal with the other," he says.

Some companies say their furniture can be disassembled and recycled. But taking it apart can be a chore. "People are having enough trouble recycling the basic things in their kitchens," says Joel Makower, founder of Greenbiz.com, a Washington, D.C., outfit that tracks environmental business trends. "I think it's a little dubious that people are going to dismantle their furniture."

When Jane Norman decided to deck out her Accokeek, Md., kitchen in bamboo, nobody bothered to warn her that the bamboo flooring she had chosen was especially delicate. The dishwasher installer came and scratched it up; it's been sanded down some, but the Smithsonian art conservator says the marks are still visible. The floor is a nice change of pace, she says, but she's not about to become a hard-core greenie. "I'm not raising my own sheep for wool."

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