Three Cheers For Flokati!

I recently discovered Flokati. I might be a bit behind the times here, but what a great alternative to synthetic floor coverings! Ruby picked out this awesome fuschia Flokati wool rug-- 100% wool, vegetable dyed and machine washable!-- for her room, and I chose a large natural colored square one for my room. I paid $800 for the pair, which seemed more than reasonable to me. I love our wood floors, but being the top unit in a duplex I was also concerned about soundproofing, and for Ruby's room, protecting the floors I had just paid to have refinished. The Flokati was a logical solution to all our problems. I forwent the rug pad, as it is dificult and expensive to find healthy, non-offgassing rug pads. In fact, the pad underneath is commonly considered the most toxic part of a rug...so for Ruby's room, I just laid the smaller round rug on top of a larger rug (purchased second hand) and it seems to work just fine. In my room, I laid the large 8 x 10 rug over the majority of the floor and set my bed on top of it. So far, so good. So next time you're in the market for something cozy to put your naked feet on, think Flokati.

Butterflies in Your Bathroom

Did you check out that cool wallpaper in the bathroom photos below? It's made by Mod Green Pod and is vinyl free, and the designs on silkscreened on using non-toxic, water based ink. Oh, and totally wipe-clean-able!

The High Price of Tile

Wait! Before you run off to the new, neighborhood "green living store," read this post about my experience buying tile. It seems like there are boutique "green" home stores opening up everywhere these days. I've spent a fair amount of time organic interior design and home furnishing shops over the past six months, and while there is no doubt they are convenient, I believe you pay a premium for this convenience.

I needed to tile my bathroom. The existing tile was hideous-- stained, outdated, and cracked. I thought about creative ways of saving it, but in the end, new tile was our destiny. My first stop was Epoxy Green in Venice. I browsed the different tile options with my designer, Kishani () and priced the different options on recycled glass bathroom tiles. Prices ranged anywhere from $25-45/sq foot. The tiles were nice, but still, the prices seemed steep. Kishani suggested we take a quick look at what her favorite stone and tile shop had in stock, thinking that maybe they offered a recycled glass tile option without the high price tag of a specialty store. Afterall, recycled tile should, in theory, be less expensive.

Thank god for my designer. We headed over to Royal Stone Tile, in West Los Angeles, where a very nice-- and super cute-- salesperson named David brought out samples of their recycled glass tile options. Glass ranged from 25-100% recycled material, and prices were substantially less expensive. I settled on a nice lavender/gray mosaic at under $3.00/sq foot! At about 80 square feet of tile, I saved close to $2000. Granted, the tiles at Epoxy Green were nicer tiles, but for someone on a budget concerned primarily with environmental responsibility, this was an important discovery.

Shop around! Research the options, know what you want, and look beyond the one-stop high end "green" boutique store to find it. It worked for me.