Pretty Little Green Things

Posts Tagged ‘eco-friendly interior’

Even though I live in the big city, I’m definitely a country girl at heart.  Maybe it was growing up on an old farm in Minnesota, the house always full of dogs, cats, kittens and birds, or just the peaceful feeling you have being in the middle of nowhere.  Whatever the reason, when I saw the Ranch at Rock Creek in Montana, I knew they were on to something special.  Located in the mountain of Western Montana, this full service ranch is just as green as it is country.  The existing buildings provided much of the inspiration because the owners were able to keep a lot of those furnishings and light fixtures to incorporate into the new design.  In fact more than half of the woodwork like beams, floors, walls and cabinetry came from the existing property.  All of the rooms in the main lodge plus the freestanding cabins and log rooms are decorated differently.  I couldn’t decide on just a few to show, so I’ve included a large smattering of some of my favorites.  Enjoy!

Gorgeous view!

Appaloosa room. Check out the fringe on those chairs!

The living room at Bear House, a separate log cabin on the property.

Bedroom at the Bluebird Cabin.  Not to be biased or anything, but I think this might be my favorite.

The Loft bathroom.  How cool is this bathroom complete with barn doors and a freestanding tub next to the window?

Palamino room

Riverhouse living room

Sharps bedroom.  Check out the fabric on the headboard.  How fun is that?

Moose House, one of the log cabins.  Amazing view, huh?

And here’s the inside of Moose House

In addition to the main Granite Lodge, the Ranch at Rock Creek also has a few luxury canvas cabins.  You feel a little closer to nature, but have all the comforts of home including chic dude ranch decor and a full bathroom.  This one would be my choice if I was staying at the Ranch at Rock Creek.

The living area in one of the canvas cabins.  I love that wood burning stove!

And for your dining pleasure, the Dining Room at the main Granite Lodge

Not be outdone, the Ranch at Rock Creek also features a full service spa with a roof made of sod & planted with wildflowers.  I’m loving how they even decked out the pedicure stations to match the decor.

Photos from the Ranch at Rock Creek

High up on my list of places to visit is Jordan, mostly for the chance to visit Wonder of the World, Petra.  It’s not just because we share a fabulous name (if I do say so myself), but because of the stunning scenery and ancient buildings carved into sandstone.  If you’ve never seen pictures of Petra, I urge you to take a look at these from photographer Mansour Mouasher.  Or do a quick Google image search and you’ll see what I mean.  A few hours drive from this lost city, is the Evason Ma’in Hot Springs and Six Senses Spa.  Just like all Six Senses, this hotel has a deep commitment to the environment and local culture.  Plus the hot springs and nearby Dead Sea make for a relaxing whole body getaway.  Enjoy!

How stunning is this location?  This green resort is nestled in the hills of Jordan.

The Six Senses Pool

The Pool Bar.  Um, if this bar was next to the pool, I might not actually make it outside.  Okay, okay just kidding, but how nice is this bar?

Brown Bar

 Brown Bar Terrace

Jordan Springs Restaurant

Zarb in the Olive. Such a romantic spot!

One of the Evason Ma’in guestrooms

The terrace of the Honeymoon Suite

The Library

Photos from Evason Ma’in Hot Springs, Jordan

What could be better than tacos & margaritas?  Eating them in a LEED Platinum restaurant!  Yup, Seattle based Little Water Cantina is expecting to achieve this lofty green goal all while serving up delicious Mexican food in their 3,000 square foot restaurant.  Designed by Shed Architecture & Design, the restaurant has a hip and sustainable vibe.  Green facts: Little Water Cantina is lit almost entirely with LED lights and they cut their water use (a huge deal in the restaurant biz) by about 70%.  Plus energy use is down and reuse is up.  Case in point, the cool light feature made of 800 reclaimed tequila bottles (and by reclaimed I mean individually dug out of the dumpster by the dedicated owners) and the awesome pendant lights hung over the bar made from vintage gramophones.

To go along with their LEED certification, Little Water Cantina serves local & organic food when feasible, uses only eco-friendly cleaning products and composts all of their food waste.  If only I lived nearby, I’d be enjoying a margarita made from local & organic ingredients right now! (That means its good for you, right?)  Plus the interiors are as hip as they are green.  Enjoy!

The bar with the cool gramophone pendants.  I also love the mix of textured wood with the tons of tequila bottles all lined up.

You can sort of see a detail of the pressed tin behind the bar where the beer taps are hung.

A close up of those cool gramophone pendants.

Bar top made from a plank of live edge wood.  Gorgeous!

How cool is this mural?  I wonder who all the people are in it…

Here’s a peek of the dining room and that 800-bottle tequila wall.  Collecting those bottles and envisioning what it all will look like really takes foresight!

Photos from Little Water Cantina

Okay, so perhaps I should have held onto this hotel to show you during the snowy winter months since Vigilius Mountain Resort is a fantastic ski destination.  But as the ever excited blogger that I am, well, I just couldn’t wait.  Located in the South Tyrol mountains of Italy, Vigilius is part spa, part peaceful getaway, part luxury resort and all green.  Designed by Italian architect, Matteo Thun, the hotel is so full of eco features that it earned 5 green stars from Eco Hotels of the World.  To name just a few of these features, the resort is a hermetically tight building to maintain the most energy efficiency possible.  In the summer months, sun shading helps keep the rooms cool and in the winter months, the rooms are heated with radiant floor systems.  Low-flow plumbing fixtures and towel changes upon request help conserve water.  Plus the area around the hotel is car free with the only way of reaching the hotel through cable car.  Now that’s how to be eco-friendly!

But on top of all of these eco-creds, Vigilius Mountain Resort is also a stunning destination.  Clean mountain air, amazing views, absolute tranquility and a hotel full of beautiful natural materials means that you may never leave.  And once you take a look at these pictures, you’ll realize why I just couldn’t save it till the winter.  Enjoy!

Vigilius Mountain Resort at night.  Notice the ‘sun shading’ devices at the exterior of the property to help it stay cooler in the summer.

The lobby.  I love the pops of red against the natural textures.

Another view of the lobby at sunset

I love the eco-friendly swimming pool filled with natural spring water.

One of the guestrooms.  Isn’t that wood color just gorgeous?  The color and texture feel very pure and clean, perfect for a getaway hotel.

The bathroom.  All of the guestrooms have a radiant flooring system that draws heat from an exterior clay wall.

Seating area in the Suite.  The chair is a wonderful nod to traditional wood carving of the Tyrol Basin.

Suite bathroom. I love the contrast of the ultra modern orange glass against the natural textured wood.

Photos from Vigilius Mountain Resort & Design Hotels

I have a special fondness for peeking into fictional homes – home tours, model homes, show houses, you name it.  There’s something about getting a firsthand view of the way other people could live together with seeing new design trends, furniture and materials that I find so fascinating.  And when the show houses are also eco-friendly, well, I can’t think of anything better.  This year’s HGTV Green Home 2011 is no exception, featuring great design plus the latest & greatest in green products and technology.

The Green Home was designed by Linda Woodrum with lots of eco-friendly aspects such as no-VOC paints, energy efficient appliances, organic fabrics, certified woods and an awesome net energy usage computer program that monitors the whole house’s efficiency.  In fact, there are so many more sustainable features that this house has earned a LEED Platinum Certification, a huge accomplishment for the whole team.  I’m loving the fresh, colorful, artful and young design which suits its location in the new eco-community of Stapleton in Denver, Colorado perfectly.

You’re actually getting an extra special sneak peek of the house, because it’s not open to the public until May 5.  If you live in the Denver area, I urge you to check out the house for yourself (and report back – I’d love to hear your thoughts on the design and eco-friendly integration).  Tickets are only $20 with proceeds going to Urban Peak, a non-profit that offers services for homeless and runaway youths.  If you like the house, you can actually enter online for a chance to win it.

Living Room

There’s actually a TV hidden behind those framed artworks!

Dining Room

Kitchen

The “Do” Room, which like its name suggests, is a room for laundry, storage, utility or just doing stuff.

The Loft

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom sitting area

Master Bathroom

Boy’s Bedroom

Girl’s Bedroom

Photos from HGTV Green Home

I had every intention of completing my weekend project today – sewing and installing a new roman shade for the kitchen.  In fact, if you remember, I made a pledge a few weeks ago that I was going to tackle one home project each weekend both as something to show on Pretty Little Green Things, but also as a kick in the pants to finally “finish” our apartment.  Well, as we all know, pledges and real life are sometimes two very different things.  And let me tell you, life won the battle this weekend.  But rather than give up and move on to a new topic, I thought I’d post my roman shade progress as a little teaser for you.  And by next weekend, hopefully you’ll see the completed product!

Here’s my lovely fabric!  It’s from Mod Green Pod, who, if you’re not familiar, make brightly colored and fun patterned organic fabric.  I was lucky enough to not only get the fabric on super sale, but also find it in the exact navy blue color I was searching for.

Another peek at the fabric with my lovely sewing machine in the background.  My quilter mom made sure I had a good quality sewing machine as soon as I moved to New York.

And here we go!

I’ve been a bit obsessive searching for how-to’s on making a roman shade.  It’s actually a fairly complicated procedure and I was nervous getting it all right.  There’s not a lot of forgiveness if you make a mistake in your measurements.  From my vast searching, I found that one of the easier to follow how-to’s came from Martha Stewart (who else, right?).  If you’re thinking of trying the same thing, here’s a link to her instructions.

You have to measure EVERYTHING very precisely when you make a fabric shade.  So here I am trusty pencil and measuring tape in hand.

Pinned and ready to be sewn!

While we were out and about today we passed by a pile of random stuff waiting to be picked up for trash collection.  Normally I take a quick glance to see if there’s anything good and then continue on my way.  But today, this bamboo blind sitting on top of the pile caught my eye.  We quickly nabbed it for the extra hardware and mounting board.  Reduce, reuse, recycle!

By the time I got to the part when you sew the rings on the back of the shade, it was getting late and I was getting tired.  There are a ton of rings that get sewn on the back, just fyi!

Here’s your last sneak peek of the sewn panel & lining.  There’s still plenty left to do, so there will be more to come!

I design luxury hotel properties as my day job so I look at a lot of properties just as a part of my research.  When I see hoteliers committed to not only creating a hi-end boutique experience for their guests, but an eco-friendly one as well, I take notice.  The Hotel Felix in Chicago is just such a property.  It’s the first LEED Silver certified hotel in the Windy City with recycled & organic materials, energy efficient plumbing & lighting and recycling programs to name just a few initiatives.  They also have an upcoming Green Roof which I can’t wait to see.  The design of the hotel is a beautiful blend of modern, artful touches and understated elegance.  Enjoy!

The Hotel Felix was re-developed in this historic building in Chicago.

The Reception

Hotel Lobby

Art glass installation in the Lobby

Another view of the Lobby.  Take a peek at the fireplace in the background with fire log display on the side.

The Lobby Mezzanine

The hotel restaurant

Guestroom

The double guestroom

Even the room key cards are biodegradable!

Photos from Hotel Felix

I’ve been writing about San Francisco quite a lot lately so forgive me if I sound like a walking advertisement.  No proceeds have been made off these blog posts and I’m not planning on moving there either.  San Francisco just seems to have some really awesome eco-friendly things going on around town.

Today’s San Francisco based project is Bar Agricole, a refurbished restaurant in a 1912 industrial corrugated zinc warehouse.  Designed by Aidlin Darling Design, this spot is just about as green as it gets.  With a LEED Platinum certification application underway, you can be sure that as much thought went into the design of the restaurant as it did the sustainability.  From wood reclaimed from whiskey barrels, concrete throughout and glass sculptures that double as both amazing works of art and skylights, not to mention delicious hand-grown food, Bar Agricole has really set a new standard of green dining.  I’m not actually going to write much about the design of the restaurant because I just don’t think my words could do this stunning property justice.  But if you want to know more, Interior Design wrote a fantastic article that you should check out.

Photos from Interior Design

Raise your hand if you’ve had enough of winter.  You can’t see me right now, but my hand is stretched as far up as it can get.  Unfortunately I’m not heading off on a tropical vacation anytime soon, so I figured a little warm weather inspiration was just the thing for the almost end of winter blues.  Let me introduce you to a gorgeous little resort in southern Vietnam called the Six Senses Ninh Van Bay, so named for the little bay it sits on.

As with all Six Senses properties, this resort is equal parts stunning and sustainable.  Traditional Vietnamese architecture blends into the natural rocky landscape with 58 villas of varying sizes, from the Hill Top Villas all the way up to the massive Presidential Villa.  Using local and renewable resources is standard for this hotel group so you’ll see a lot of natural wood, stone and other materials throughout.  Their eco-consciousness touches on all aspects of energy efficiency, water conservation, waste reduction, fair-trade and local community building.  Oh yeah, and did I mention this resort is stunning?

Yeah, so I wouldn’t mind eating my breakfast here.  Just saying.

The Water Villas are nestled into the rocky shoreline.

This is the interior of the Water Villas as seen above.

The Beach Pool Villas.  I’m not sure if that means they’re near both the beach and the pool, but does it really matter when they’re this gorgeous?

This is the bedroom of the Beach Pool Villas.  Here you get a good look at the local wood and other materials used.

I’m not really a bath person, but if I had a bathroom like this, I could totally be convinced!

The Presidential Villa

Presidential Villa Bedroom

Of course no Six Senses resort is complete without an amazing spa.  I’m loving the stepping stones and lanterns leading up to the entry.  Very zen.

Photos from Six Senses

Being conscious about how you live just naturally bleeds into being conscious about how you eat.  At home, I try to cook organic food, limit our meat intake and cook as many veggies as I can fit in our tiny kitchen.  So it’s no wonder I fell in love with The Plant Café Organic in San Francisco as soon as I laid eyes on it.  Not only to the owners, Mark Lewis and Matthew Guelke, serve up delicious organic cuisine, their restaurant is just about as green as the food.  This could-be LEED certified café is located at Pier 3 on the waterfront in an old adapted warehouse and was designed by Cass Calder Smith of CCS Architecture.  Natural and recycled materials abound, including leaving the existing ceiling beams & girders intact, dining tables made from reclaimed hickory, flooring made from coconut shells and even your check arriving in used books.  In addition, the owners are true innovators and, I’m going to just make a wild guess here, technology lovers.  Solar panels provide about 20% of the restaurant’s electrical needs.  To wash dishes and hands, they’ve instituted an electrolyzed water system that increases the acidity of water to the level of bleach.  That means, no soap is needed at handwashing stations and in dishwasher.  Pretty cool, huh?  As for the decor, I’ll let that speak for itself.  Enjoy!

The back wall is displaying the Living wall of plants.

The outdoor patio towards the waterfront.  I could definitely hang out here on a nice summer day!

I love the ceiling treatment and hanging bulbs.  Why hide an old industrial ceiling when you can enhance it?

Photos via Inhabitat