Quick Tips for Summer Decorating

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Paige

Now that summer is fast approaching, what better way to make way for the new season than to bring the outdoors inside with sustainable wood furniture. The summer is all about enjoying time and the weather outside, but why shouldn’t that mentality be used inside as well? After all your spring cleaning you deserve to redecorate some of your most used spaces and there’s no time like the present.

The key for summer is functional living spaces that promote communal use and don’t feel crowded. You’re most likely to have more people in your home during the summer months so having an open space, but not sparse, is key.

Here are some simple ideas of ways to make the most of your space:

Teak Wood Mirror Octagon – $258.08 (on sale!)

The Teak Wood Mirror Octagon is a great way to make a room feel bigger. Mirrors give the illusion of more space and the interesting shape makes it also a talking point for guests. Putting a mirror on the wall of a common area is one simple way to have a big impact on the room’s ambiance.

Teak Tower Shelving Unit – $219.23 (on sale!)

Shelves and storage space like the Teak Tower Shelving Unit is another way to create space and enhance design without creating clutter. Get your things off the floor and onto shelves to make a room more aesthetically pleasing while saving space.

Hollow Cube Wood End Table – $224.78 (on sale!)

The Hollow Cube Wood End Table is multipurpose in that your can use the base to store books (as pictured) as well as table. Finding multipurpose pieces like this are great to bring new life to a room.

Teak Inlay Console Wood Table – $428.74 (on sale!)

Likewise, narrow tables like the Teak Inlay Console Wood Table are a good way to have the usefulness of a table without the added bulk. They’re perfect for small spaces to provide design and create a comfortable feel without making the room feel cramped. They can be used in narrow hallways for things like vases as well a decorative books which can be changed for every season to keep the space current.

Lotus Flower Inlay Square Wood Wall Panel – $137.36 (on sale!)

And lastly, bring some whimsy to your room with some of our wood wall panels. These intricate panels are not the typical wall art and thus immediately garner attention in any room. Bare walls can make a room feel unwelcoming and in the summer that’s the last thing you want for your space. These panels are a quick and easy way to make your walls interesting without worrying about if the colors match!

Any of these ideas will have your home feeling just as ready for summer as you are!

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The Balance of Nature and Modern Design

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Jordan
Finding the balance between modern style and natural fibers can be difficult. Sleek lines and smooth finishes are desirable, but sometimes it can be hard to find them in authentic wooden furniture. However, much of our sustainable wood furniture have an interesting, geometrical shape-without the plastic that is often found in modern design. We focus on keeping pieces elegant, yet fascinating. Plastic furniture has made its way in and out of style, but wooden pieces are always chic and always appropriate. Surprise your guests and keep their eyes excited by adding a single twist stool under your bar. The pallet stays neutral, but you have not lost stylistic interest .
Or try something more daring and go for a double twist stool in monkey pod wood. It is still modern and unique without being overbearing.

Whichever sustainable wood stool you might choose, remember that modern style is about innovation and sleek lines- not synthetics.

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Decorating for Winter with Natural Wood Furniture

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Kayla

As we enter the coldest parts of winter, there arises a need to brighten up life. The beautiful, sustainable wood furniture pieces of Verde Lifestyles come in a range of finishes that can bring warmth and charm, even in the dead of winter.

After a long day of shoveling snow or hitting the slopes, you’ll want nothing more than to come home to a warm bath or shower in your home spa. Bring natural warmth and a touch of the outdoors inside with any of our radiant teak wood bath decor, like this teak wood storage unit.

This funky monkey pod wood end table — with its unique “Z” shape and deep, rich chestnut poil finish that accents the dark hues of winter time — is the perfect spot to place your mug of hot cocoa or holiday cappuccino.

And you can bring a piece of that outdoor beauty you noticed on your snowy stroll home with this Tree of Life wall panel, which evokes a sense of serenity and peace — an ambiance that’s welcome in the winter months.

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The Beauty of Imperfection

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Kayla

The obvious benefits of decorating with natural wood furniture are the sheer beauty of the product and the fact that it’s an environmentally sustainable way to enhance your home. But another draw of wood furniture rests in its imperfections.

Handmade wood products vary vastly in tone, and can come with small cracks that are sanded and finished, knots or other slight imperfections. This is because the wood is hand-picked and hand-carved, ensuring that every piece is unique. The imperfections preserve the all-natural feel of the product.

These flaws should not be considered as blemishes, but are rather what makes wood furniture so appealing. You simply can’t replicate such organic beauty with machine-manufactured products. Sustainable wood furniture is polished in its design, but these imperfections give the pieces character and charm.

Make your home beautiful with one-of-a-kind sustainable wood furniture today by clicking here!

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Dressing Up Wall Space with Natural Wood Decor

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Kayla
Filling empty walls can be a daunting task, but choosing the right wall decorations can bring character and spice to a room in need of some flavor. Fortunately, our all-natural wooden wall pieces offer a sustainable way to transform modest walls into a magnificent focal point for any room.
The Mudra Hand Panel This stunning, hand-carved panel is the perfect way to bring serenity into your home. The positioning of the hand is a Buddhist symbol and ritual gesture — called a mudra — that represents discussion and teaching. The lotus flower in the middle of the palm symbolizes purity. The panel is made of durable Monkey Pod wood by local artisans from Chiang Mai, Thailand, and is finished with natural, non-toxic oils that make it environmentally friendly and safe for any room. Hang it above a mantel or doorway and its symbolic intricacies are sure to stir up conversations among onlookers.

 

Teak Wood Mirror Octagon Bring a beautiful, natural feel to your bathroom with this homemade teak mirror. Crafted from farmed teak wood, this product will last for years with the proper maintenance. Check out some of our other teak wood bath decor that will look great with this piece!

Bird Wall Panel – Walnut Tone Finish Handmade from Monkey Pod wood that comes from some of the fastest growing and most abundant trees in the world, this square wood panel depicts the soothing image of birds resting in a flowering tree. The natural walnut oil finish makes for a beautiful surface that will look great against warmly colored walls. Give your family room a harmonious vibe with this stunning piece of art.

24’’ Lotus Flower Inlay Square Wood Wall Panel Symbolizing purity, this ornate lotus pattern evokes the pure beauty of nature. The unique inlay pattern makes it a piece impossible to overlook. Carved from recycled teak wood and finished in a light teak oil, the panel is built to withstand weather and could be the perfect touch for your patio or deck.

3 Tree of Life Wall Panels These wood square carvings are not just elegant works of art — they also tell a story. Finished in a natural wood oil, the handmade panels depict three stages of a tree’s life: first embedded in a forest of other trees, then the exquisitely twisted tree of life with its many leaves, and finally a cross section of the tree’s rings, revealing its age. Every panel comes comes with two small hangers, making it easy to hang the collection in any arrangement you choose.

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Decorating for Fall with Natural Wood Furniture

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Sara

Are you starting to notice some yellow in the leaves, a cool edge to the breeze, or heaps of “Back to School” signage at every retail establishment? Yes, it is almost fall! Season of pumpkin spice, hay rides, and all things cozy and warm. Wouldn’t you like to add a bit of that back-to-nature feeling to your home? With sustainable natural wood furniture, you can!

While many of our pieces evoke a sense of tranquility, with their graceful lines and natural wood grain, autumn seems to demand deeper tones that might recall cinnamon, nutmeg, or a piping hot cup of coffee. With that in mind, let us direct you toward a select few that are sure to warm up your living space for the cold months ahead.

18″ Wood Twist Stool in Walnut Oil Finish Picture yourself coming home from the farmer’s market with a bag of freshly picked Macintoshes and a cup of cider, then collapsing exhaustedly into your living room couch. Set your cider on one of your new sustainable wood twist stools that double as great end tables and turn on the TV to catch the game!

Lotus Wall Panel in Dark Wax Finish The delicate carving on this wall panel — courtesy of master craftspeople in Chiang Mai, Thailand — resembles a series of spindly, browning leaves nearly too fragile to stay on the branch. Hang it in the hallway or above the mantle as a striking tribute to autumn.

Teak Block Wood Bench Encourage a greater sense of community at your family dining table by replacing individual chairs with a bench or two! You’ll be able to make the most of your space by squeezing in a couple extra hungry mouths. Great for kids!

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Top 5 Sustainable Wood Stools

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Sara

20″ Sustainable Wood Twist Stool

Carved from a single piece of found Monkey Pod wood, this 20″ twist stool is the perfect height for use as an end table or as seating. The design requires careful cutting and sanding by artisans in Chiang Mai, Thailand, but the result is a graceful, organic quarter-twist formation perfect for the living room or bedroom. This style is available in two eco-friendly finishes: a natural walnut oil and a crisp white wash.

 

18″ Teak Block Hollow Wood Stool

This one-and-a-half-foot stool is handmade from sustainably farmed teak wood, regulated by the Royal Forestry Department of Thailand. It’s made to look like a solid piece — almost like a butcher’s block — but is in fact hollow, so it’s easier to move around your home or office as seating, an end table, or a place to display a work of art. This style is available in two different natural finishes: oak and chestnut.

 

Pouf Wood Stool

These plump little stools are a great versatile addition to any living space. Use a couple of them as end tables in a low-lying seating area, or group a few together around a low table for use as seating. They’re carved by hand from single pieces of eco-friendly Monkey Pod wood, so each one will be slightly different, adding a unique flair to your space.

 

Mushroom Shape Wood Stool with Storage

If there is one thing everyone needs more of in their home, it’s storage. This piece features a removable “mushroom cap” that reveals a storage compartment. With this adorable and quirky stool in your living room, you can cut down on clutter by keeping kids’ toys, magazines, a candy stash, confidential memos and etcetera out of sight, but within easy reach!

 

23″ Double Twist Sustainable Wood Stool

Like our regular twist stools, this piece is great as an end table or extra seating — with an extra twist. Resembling a three-dimensional figure eight, the Double Twist stool is available in three elegant natural finishes: tung oil, walnut, and white wash.

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Why Tree Farms are “Green”

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Sara

Farmed wood is an example of socially responsible forestry. Another way we can minimize our impact on the environment while still taking advantage of useful and essential natural materials such as hardwood lumber include utilizing found wood that’s been recycled, for example, from abandoned buildings. We can also make sure no natural resource goes to waste by uprooting the stumps of wild trees.

But recycled and found wood is in limited supply.  To meet our society’s demand for lumber, we need to cut down forests’ worth of fully-grown trees.

Tree farms give us an eco-friendly way to meet our supply needs because they save natural forests from being razed and left that way. When traditional foresters cut down wild forests, rarely do they take the time, effort, or the financial burden upon themselves to repopulate the area with new plants.

At a tree farm, on the other hand, lumber that has been harvested is replanted so that, eventually, the replanted section of land will be harvested, too, and the cycle will repeat.  This preserves wild forests, leaving them undisrupted for animal and other plant species.

Tree farms turn forests into a renewable natural resource, instead of a limited one that cannot sustain our demand for lumber at the current rate of consumption. They produce trees at a high-yield, short-turnaround rate for maximum efficiency — a process that also positively impacts our collective carbon footprint!

Support sustainable tree farming (and spice up your home decor) by clicking here!

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Making Hand-Carved Furniture

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Sara

The Monkey Pod tree goes by different names — Acacia, Rain Tree — but villagers in Chiang Mai, Thailand might call it a staple of the community. Wood carving is a skill passed down from generation to generation in this region, located near northern Thailand’s largest metropolis.  But carving is not a full-time job — between family members and close friends in this agricultural society, gathering together to carve furniture is a way to pass the time between rice harvests.

Artisans use large branches from the Monkey Pod tree in their creations, so the tree itself is spared and left to regenerate itself. This particular species is known for its quick growth — branches might add 1-2 inches in diameter per year.  Branches 1-2 meters long are cut and delivered to a facility for carving, pictured below.
First, the wood is “rough cut” into the approximate size of the final product with a chainsaw. This step is done while the wood is still “wet” — a term used for freshly cut material, since Monkey Pod has an unusually high moisture content at over 50%. Any scraps left over from this first stage is used by workers for smaller carvings or to heat homes in the cool season.  Rough cutting takes time and skill, since not only do workers need to ensure that each piece is identical as possible, but also that their chainsaw blades do not become stuck inside the wood.  The 18″ cube stool requires particular expertise because of its hollowed-out center.
Each carver typically owns his or her own tool set, which are also made by hand. After smoothing out the surface of each piece, they are placed in a natural “solar oven,” a room that allows sunlight to bring moisture content down to under 10%. Toward the end of this drying stage, workers raise the temperature in the room to eliminate wood bug eggs. Next the furniture is finely sanded — any cracks are inspected and smoothed — and a protective coat of natural oil is applied in 3-6 layers over the course of a week. Slight variations may occur between each finished product since the wood naturally shrinks and shifts as it dries — but that only means that any piece you order will be unique to you!
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All About Natural Wood Finishes

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Sara

If you love the look of natural wooden furniture and support its sustainable mission, you’ll want to see it maintain its healthy glow over the years.  Your furniture comes delivered already in a coat of natural oil — but what is a natural oil?  And how can you use it to preserve the unique qualities of your new decor?

While other types of wooden furniture may be coated in synthetic varnishes to preserve the wood and prevent it from greying or becoming dull over time, our products are sealed in teak or tung oil.  The difference is that synthetic finishes are liable to chip and wear down, exposing the household and its occupants to potentially hazardous materials, since hazardous materials go into the making of these sealants.  Natural sealants also wear down over time, but, since they are plant-based, exposure to teak or tung oil does not pose a threat to anyone’s health.

Tung oil is derived from nut of the tung tree, pictured right, which is native to southern China, but now is grown elsewhere as well.  It dries to give wood a honey-colored tint with a wetted, glowing look when applied slowly in thin coats.  To touch up furniture with tung oil, simply apply with a thin cloth — being careful not to saturate the wood — allow to dry, and reapply.  Tung is a “drying oil,” meaning that it hardens as it’s exposed to air, so it’s important to allow your furniture to fully soak up the oil before putting it back in its place.

Teak oil, on the other hand, isn’t made from the teak tree.  It’s a combination of natural linseed, rosewood, or tung oils — named as such just because it’s so commonly used on teak wood.  The application process is similar to tung oil.  It can be applied over the surface with a brush or thin rag, and any excess oil can simply be dabbed off with a clean section of cloth.  Oiling teak wood won’t increase its durability — teak is notoriously durable — but it will help promote a golden glow, pictured below right.

Teak oil differs slightly from tung oil because it won’t form a layer on top of the wood, instead soaking into the grain to protect it from becoming dull.  It’s a good choice for both teak wood and eucalyptus, while tung oil can be used on monkey pod and mango woods.  Both options are simple ways to keep your eco-friendly furniture looking as lovely as the day it arrived on your doorstep!

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