Hip Houseplants

 From what I hear indoor plants had their heyday in the 1970’s, where living rooms began to look more like jungles with palm trees, hanging ferns and climbing plants. These days when it comes to plants it’s becoming a more architectural, minimalist look where choosing the right plant and pot is like selecting a piece of art.

So it’s not surprising that potted plants are quickly becoming my favourite obsession. And not only because they significantly improve indoor air quality, but because they create the most amazing statement pieces.

So if you're looking to reinvent your indoor/outdoor spaces without spending a fortune, here is some inspiration and tips:

Group plants for extra impact. Make sure they vary in height for the most pleasing outcome.

It’s all about the pot – spend the time finding the right one. And please.. no more terracotta.

Liven up otherwise dull spaces such as window sills & awkward corners

Select flowering plants that coordinate with your decor and colour scheme.

Be creative!

Get things growing

Delights from my garden

A new generation of veggie gardeners are transforming the urban environment and the way we are thinking about food. They are digging garden plots in city parks, tearing the turf out of their back yards and filling their balconies with pots full of herbs and greens. It’s the young, the urban, the cool.. and hopefully the rest too.

Waves of immigrants from Europe brought gardening knowledge and tradition with them to Australia in the years before and after the war, but the gardening bug skipped a generation as many children of the immigrant families rejected those “old world” ways (yes I’m talking about you Mum and Dad). Fortunately, the grandchildren – the new generation of veggie gardeners - are driven by the search for unique produce, heightened flavours and organic pesticide-free food. And so, the simple garden-to-plate approach is finding new relevance.

And here’s why:

·         Simply seeing how long it takes for food to grow gives a whole new respect for the ingredient. 

·         Fresh, flavourful, more nutritious produce. Vegetables and fruit grown in nutrient-rich soil and picked minutes before eating is much tastier and much more nutritious than produce that was picked two weeks ago, shipped across the country and artificially ripened.

·         Pesticide free produce. If you actually knew how many times store bought produce was sprayed with artificial fertilizers, synthetic pesticides and growth promoters - the chances are you probably wouldn’t eat it. Many pesticides and herbicides were registered long before extensive research linking them to cancer and other diseases could be established. They are poisons designed to kill living organisms and can therefore also harm humans. 

·         Getting your kids to love vegetables. Kids who grow vegetables are more likely to eat vegetables. This is also a good way to foster a child’s connection with the natural world and sense of environmental responsibility, and to help them to establish a lifestyle that includes good eating habits and outdoor activity.

Whether it’s a move to the future or back to the way we were.. it’s a move in the right direction.

More of my home grown delights

Chicken Coops: The New Dog House

Raising poultry has long been a task associated with pastoral settings and wide open spaces. However, many urban city dwellers have opted to ruffle some feathers right in their own backyards, and the resident canines are having to move over to make room for the ladies. The movement for backyard flocks has definitely gone from folksy to chic..

Having four chickens myself in my inner city backyard, I can see why! Apart from laying the tastiest eggs you’ve ever eaten, they are ridiculously cute – each baring their own little unique personality. 

These feathery friends have real merits that go beyond producing ordinary eggs

These eggs are super fresh, beautifully coloured (inside & out), highly nutritious and delivered daily! Feed them only organic feed and keep a pesticide free yard for them, and you have nutrient rich organic eggs high in omega 3’s and Vitamin E (essential nutrients most store bought eggs lack).

Move over Rover let Ms. Hen strut over

Chickens make great pets for the entire family. They provide an excellent opportunity for children to learn about pet responsibility and nurturing, combined with sustainable living practices. Plus, each chicken has a distinctive personality which will win you over.  

Going green in the garden

No more pesticides, dumped leftovers and food scraps, or costly fertilizers.  Your backyard chickens love to range freely and eat all the nasty garden pests so you don't need to use poisonous pesticides. They also eat almost everything we do, therefore most food scraps and leftovers can be fed to them.  This reduces the amount of food waste going into our landfills, which in turn has a multitude of eco friendly benefits. Equally as important, all this eating leads to nitrogen rich compost 'black gold', a fertilizer that's the envy of all your gardening friends (my grass has never looked so good!).  However, as I learnt the hard way chickens may devourer your (entire) vegetable garden; it is important to be mindful as to where you let them range.

Having backyard chickens is incredibly fun and rewarding for the entire family. Researching and understanding the full scope of what's involved will lead to an even more enjoyable experience for all.  Chickens come in a wide variety of colours and sizes as do the houses they live in. Have fun with selecting what's best for your needs.   

Green your baby's nursery

Call it a new parent rite of passage: eager mum and dad-to-be armed with wash buckets and paint brushes ready to transform a drab bedroom into a cute, colourful nest for their new arrival. Walls are painted, plush carpeting is tacked down, new furniture is trundled in, and quilts, pillows and blankets are laid out in abundance.

Such extensive preparations go a long way to brightening baby's room, but  they may not offer such good tidings for its tiny occupant. These typical enhancements may, in fact, be exposing an infant bundle of joy to a myriad of toxic chemicals, from the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) wafting off fresh paint to the formaldehyde off-gassing from carpeting, furniture and even new bedding. But that doesn't mean parents should stow their paint brushes and lay down their newborn in dingy quarters. Nurseries can be both clean and green, with the right preparation.

So here are some of my tips to create a green and healthy nursery:

PAINTING
If you're set on painting the nursery, do it as far in advance of the baby's birth as possible. Ensure you use water based, LOW or NO VOC paint.

FLOORING
The synthetic carpet that you see in most carpeting outlets is not only non-biodegradable but may be tainted with up to 120 toxic carcinogenic chemicals. Choose natural fibre carpets made from wool - check that they haven't been treated with unnecessary chemicals or glue. If you're repolishing timber flooring ensure you use non-toxic coatings.

BEDDING
All-cotton bedding materials have many eco-advantages over those made from synthetics like polyester, but you can't get away from the fact that cotton is on of the most heavily pesticide sprayed crops in the world! So follow Miranda Kerr's lead and buy all organic sheets (and clothing). And ensure you purchase organic mattresses that are made without fire retardants which contain a toxin known as PDBE.

FURNITURE
As well as being sturdy and functional, make sure the furniture is non-toxic. Solid wood treated with  non-toxic varnish, oil or wax is best. Avoid chipboard wood at all costs as it is made using formaldehyde. There are many companies that specialise in eco-friendly furniture - so you have no excuse.

PLANT FRESH
Living plants can remove toxic chemicals including formaldehyde, benzene and carbon monoxide from the air according to a two year study by NASA scientists. So why wouldn't you liven up the room with a beautiful plant or two?

ELECTRICAL
Remove Wi-Fi, cordless phones and mobile phones from the baby's nursery. Most importantly, ditch those baby monitors! They emit radiation at higher levels than mobiles.

All these chemicals and toxins are an unfortunate reality in our day in age. But education and knowledge is the best defence I say! So before you buy anything - do your research!

The new feature wall: Green Living Walls

Sick of painted feature walls? I am! Pretty sure they went out of fashion in the 1990’s. 

So what’s the new black? Green Living Walls. Why not transform a bland wall into an exotic wall of greenery, literally adding life to the surrounding spaces and ultimately the people within them. 

The immediate benefit of a Green Living Wall is that they create square meterage of ‘greenspace’ while using minimal floor space. They conveniently come in module units which can be vertically stacked to any height, and their inbuilt reticulation system ensures maximum resource efficiency in our current water sensitive climate.

And whilst not only adding instant aesthetic value to interior spaces they also improve the indoor air quality. Indoor pollution is a major health concern, especially in the cooler months when we spend more time inside, fortunately plants have an innate ability to filter the surrounding air of toxins, increase oxygen and act as humidifiers. 

Now can you see why these are becoming hot property. Much more appealing than beige on beige don’t you think?

‘Cheap’: The high cost of our discount culture

My parents still own the leather couch they bought when I was born 26 years ago. Today the idea of anything (an appliance, a piece of furniture or even a house) being built to last is almost laughable. When your vacuum cleaner stops working, you most likely haul it out and trek to Target to replace it. Even if you could find someone to repair it, the trouble and the cost would be unwarranted. If you need a bookcase, there's always IKEA: Sure, you'd prefer to buy a sturdily built hardwood version that doesn't buckle under the weight of actual books, but who has extra dough to spend on stuff like that? The IKEA bookcase is good enough, for now.

That cycle of consumption seems harmless enough, particularly since we live in a country where their are plenty of cheap goods to go around. But have you ever stopped to think what this disposable culture is doing to our environment? 

IKEA furniture or cheap furniture has no lasting meaning or value. They aren’t and aren’t intended to be heirloom pieces – so once we tire of them we simply throw them out and replace them. We have literally become a society that no longer expects or respects craftsmanship in everyday objects. In fact, the very idea of making something with care and expertise is destined to die.

Nevertheless, it’s a scary thought that IKEA is the third largest consumer of wood in the world – think of all the trees that are cut down in order to make a bookcase that is destined to become landfill in a couple of years time.

So my advice to you would be to invest in good quality, Australian made furniture. Ensure you spend the time to find pieces that you absolutely love and that were made to last. As an interior designer I see trends come and go every season, but don’t succumb to the temptation and ensure you find classic, timeless pieces. Pieces that you would never consider throwing away. 

The cost may be higher, but the price is right.