Recycled Glass Countertops: Transforming Waste Into Durable Beauty

Over the last few years, recycled glass countertops have become a popular option for people who are looking for something unusual, beautiful, and that also makes a personal statement about their environmental consciousness.

Terrazzo montage. Courtesy of Green Home Source.

The current spectrum of conventional countertops come in styles made from materials including: plastic laminates; quarried stones like granite; silicate minerals like quartz; metals like stainless steel; and butcher block woods.

While there’s nothing wrong with conventional countertops in terms of beauty and functionality, the biggest reason for considering recycled glass countertops or other terrazzo countertops is that they’re the kindest thing that you can do for the planet in terms of preserving natural resources.

For those that don’t know, terrazzo is the original recycled product, a composite material made for centuries by taking leftover pieces of materials like quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable chips and combining them with a cementing binder to cure and then polish for a beautiful, smooth, textured looking surface.

While terrazzo surfaces are beautiful, since they’re using already existing materials that would otherwise find their way to the landfills, they’re also not taking any existing resources from the environment.

Today, countertops made either exclusively or even partially of recycled glass are also gaining a lot of attention because of the broad range of colors and designs they come in.

Depending on the manufacturer, they require no special maintenance, to quite the bit, though they all have their unique charm. Three of the top makers worth taking a look at are: EnviroGLAS, IceStone, and Vetrazzo.

If you’re the sort that really doesn’t like maintenance, then you are really going to love EnviroGLAS because it doesn’t require you to do any waxing or resealing once the countertop is installed.

EnviroGLAS takes post-consumer and industrial glass and porcelain bound for landfills and creates products including countertops and flooring.

Click to read more ...

Self-Expression Made Easy - Creating Your Own Unique Clock

Photo courtesy of Craftstylish.com

The clocks have leaped forward and spring is almost officially here. This time of year always brings out the desire to clean up the clutter and maybe do a little redecorating too!

One of the best and least expensive ways to change the feel of a room - and definitely make it a little more unique - is to create an accent clock.

Besides that, a refurbishing project can be a great weekend family activity where you can get everyone involved, including the kids! A clock making project offers a lot of versatility in both the designs and materials that can be used.

Click to read more ...

Healthy Low-Budget Strategies for Giving Your Home a Cool Vacation Feel

Window mirror photo courtesy of Recycled Crafts.

With few exceptions, no matter where you are in the world, summer heat is still raging on, the air conditioner is still humming along, and the windows are closed making indoor air stale.

It’s worse if you have chemical sensitivities and live in a small apartment. There are though some simple and often low budget things that can be done to give any home a naturally more airy and healthier feel.

One of the first and easiest things that can be done is to just strategically place some mirrors to give a more open feel. “Very often, when you are reflecting the outdoors, the space can appear larger and you get that beautiful greenery, ” said Bernadette Upton, founder and president of EcoDécor, a universal design and decorating company using sustainable principles, products, and practices.

Besides reflecting some green from the outside, another strategy for bringing the outdoors in and naturally purifying that stale air, is to have house plants.

Click to read more ...

What’s in Your Home Environment Can Be Making You Sick - Airborne Lead

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Are you renovating or restoring your home, then you and your family may possibly be exposing yourselves to dangerously highly levels of lead vapors in the air.

The highest concentration of lead found in homes comes from paints produced prior to 1978, when the U.S. Product Safety Commission banned lead from use in residential paints. In addition, older furniture can also contain coatings of lead paint, which can resurface even after it has been recoated by nonleaded paint due to flaking or restoration. Test kits to check for lead in paint are available both in hardware stores and online.

Click to read more ...

What’s in Your Home Environment Can Be Making You Sick - Formaldehyde

Leakage of formaldehyde from new furniture is preventable by varnishing, painting and sealing the furniture with a waterproof finish such as polyurethane. Photo provided by preteenagerstoday.com

Washington, D.C.- Traditionally, when we buy our homes and the furnishings in them, we take into account things like the number of rooms in a house, what style and size of furnishings we want, but rarely do we think about what the stuff we buy is made of.

While to many the chemical composition of things might not matter, it can make others very sick. Personally, I remember being young and having to help my father paint the fence of our house in Greece, getting nauseous from the paint fumes, and throwing up. The smell had no affect on my father. I don’t know what was in the paint, but it made me sick.

Today, many homes are constructed with materials that contain formaldehyde, in addition to many of the furnishings that we buy which also contain the substance - and it’s where you least expect it.

Click to read more ...