Feature Article |
How to Go Green
By Roxanne Patel Shepelavy
23. SLEEP EASIER. Trade your mite-infested, earth-destroying synthetic mattress for an all-natural one made from rubber, organic cotton and wool; converts say they’re more comfortable than their old Sealys. Try one at the huge Organic Mattress Store in Hellertown (410 Main Street, 484-851-3636; theorganicmattressstore.com), which carries all different firmnesses, but at a premium: $400 for a lower-end crib to more than $4,000 (the highest-end king). The store also stocks everything you need to bed down for the night — box springs, mattress pads, beds, linens — all made from natural and organic materials.
24. RAISE THE CURTAINS. Dress your windows in all-natural treatments from Satya, a gorgeous Bella Vista clothing-plus boutique where everything is made from sustainable materials like hemp and bamboo, in factories that don’t use sweatshop labor. The curtains, in earthy browns, are also hemp, but blended with silk for a soft sheen. While you’re there, pick up the shop’s signature princess-cut Ramona coat — organic wool with a bamboo lining — for $425 (701 South 9th Street, 215-627-3440; satyaboutique.com).
25. BABY YOUR BABY. Register for a DucDuc crib from Piccolini kids’ store in Bryn Mawr. Better yet, put in your order for DucDuc’s $6,000 Dylan Crib System (ducducnyc.com), which starts as a crib, changing table and bench that you can eventually transform into a daybed, bar and ottoman for the den. New York-based DucDuc makes all its ultra-modern children’s furniture with sustainable-harvested hardwoods and no-VOC lacquers, and it gives 10 percent of its profits to kids’ charities — as does Piccolini, which last year donated proceeds to Alex’s Lemonade Stand (932 West Lancaster Avenue, 610-527-4505; piccolinionline.com). While you’re there, pick up all-natural sheets and bumpers from Cotton Monkey, made from cotton grown without pesticides, and dyed — in green, pink, blue or white patterns — with water-based pigments (cottonmonkey.com). Then head down the road to Narberth’s Character Development, with its huge selection of eco-friendly wooden toys, including Maple Landmark name trains — each car a different letter — manufactured in Vermont from diligently harvested wood, with waste recycled as kindling (209 Haverford Avenue, 610-668-1545, characterdevelopment.net; also available at family-owned Pun’s in Bryn Mawr, 839½ Lancaster Avenue; 610-525-9789).
26. MAKE IT A BUD. Vase, that is. Esque vases — molded out of recycled beer bottles — are more art than function (esque-studio.com). They come in a variety of funky shapes, mainly, of course, in beer-bottle green, for $90 each at Bruges Home (323A Race Street, 215-922-6041; brugeshome.com).
27. FLUSH RESPONSIBLY. There are two reasons to swap your ordinary throne for Kohler’s Purist Hatbox. As a low-flow toilet, it can halve your annual water usage. And it’s lovely. In fact, it doesn’t even look like a toilet, with no tank, a super-quiet flush, and a cover that drops silently with just a tap. At $3,000-plus, it may be the best seat in the house (us.kohler.com). Find it, and other water-efficient Kohler’s bath products, at Ferguson Bath & Kitchen Gallery (2020 Springdale Road, Cherry Hill, 856-489-5620, and 302 Hansen Access Road, King of Prussia, 610-337-8856; ferguson.com). Or special-order the most outrageously beautiful bathroom item ever invented: the $20,000 low-flow Duravit Starck toilet, designed by Philippe Starck, which looks like an oversized porcelain teacup and is really too cool for your tuchus (duravit.us). Fill your medicine cabinet with products that guarantee no pesticides, no cruelty to animals and no chemical additives, like those at Juju Salon & Organics in Queen Village, which sells John Masters shampoos, Wood Sprite soaps and Mama Rose’s Naturals lotions (716 South 4th Street, 215-238-6080; jujusalon.com), or the herbal lotions and soaps from the Farm at Coventry, a Pottstown family-owned farm (1333 Ridge Road, 610-469-9591; farmatcoventry.com). Dry off with Origins’ organic cotton hand towels from the Shops at the Bellevue (Broad and Walnut streets, 215-772-9441; bellevuephiladelphia.com).
24. RAISE THE CURTAINS. Dress your windows in all-natural treatments from Satya, a gorgeous Bella Vista clothing-plus boutique where everything is made from sustainable materials like hemp and bamboo, in factories that don’t use sweatshop labor. The curtains, in earthy browns, are also hemp, but blended with silk for a soft sheen. While you’re there, pick up the shop’s signature princess-cut Ramona coat — organic wool with a bamboo lining — for $425 (701 South 9th Street, 215-627-3440; satyaboutique.com).
25. BABY YOUR BABY. Register for a DucDuc crib from Piccolini kids’ store in Bryn Mawr. Better yet, put in your order for DucDuc’s $6,000 Dylan Crib System (ducducnyc.com), which starts as a crib, changing table and bench that you can eventually transform into a daybed, bar and ottoman for the den. New York-based DucDuc makes all its ultra-modern children’s furniture with sustainable-harvested hardwoods and no-VOC lacquers, and it gives 10 percent of its profits to kids’ charities — as does Piccolini, which last year donated proceeds to Alex’s Lemonade Stand (932 West Lancaster Avenue, 610-527-4505; piccolinionline.com). While you’re there, pick up all-natural sheets and bumpers from Cotton Monkey, made from cotton grown without pesticides, and dyed — in green, pink, blue or white patterns — with water-based pigments (cottonmonkey.com). Then head down the road to Narberth’s Character Development, with its huge selection of eco-friendly wooden toys, including Maple Landmark name trains — each car a different letter — manufactured in Vermont from diligently harvested wood, with waste recycled as kindling (209 Haverford Avenue, 610-668-1545, characterdevelopment.net; also available at family-owned Pun’s in Bryn Mawr, 839½ Lancaster Avenue; 610-525-9789).
26. MAKE IT A BUD. Vase, that is. Esque vases — molded out of recycled beer bottles — are more art than function (esque-studio.com). They come in a variety of funky shapes, mainly, of course, in beer-bottle green, for $90 each at Bruges Home (323A Race Street, 215-922-6041; brugeshome.com).
27. FLUSH RESPONSIBLY. There are two reasons to swap your ordinary throne for Kohler’s Purist Hatbox. As a low-flow toilet, it can halve your annual water usage. And it’s lovely. In fact, it doesn’t even look like a toilet, with no tank, a super-quiet flush, and a cover that drops silently with just a tap. At $3,000-plus, it may be the best seat in the house (us.kohler.com). Find it, and other water-efficient Kohler’s bath products, at Ferguson Bath & Kitchen Gallery (2020 Springdale Road, Cherry Hill, 856-489-5620, and 302 Hansen Access Road, King of Prussia, 610-337-8856; ferguson.com). Or special-order the most outrageously beautiful bathroom item ever invented: the $20,000 low-flow Duravit Starck toilet, designed by Philippe Starck, which looks like an oversized porcelain teacup and is really too cool for your tuchus (duravit.us). Fill your medicine cabinet with products that guarantee no pesticides, no cruelty to animals and no chemical additives, like those at Juju Salon & Organics in Queen Village, which sells John Masters shampoos, Wood Sprite soaps and Mama Rose’s Naturals lotions (716 South 4th Street, 215-238-6080; jujusalon.com), or the herbal lotions and soaps from the Farm at Coventry, a Pottstown family-owned farm (1333 Ridge Road, 610-469-9591; farmatcoventry.com). Dry off with Origins’ organic cotton hand towels from the Shops at the Bellevue (Broad and Walnut streets, 215-772-9441; bellevuephiladelphia.com).
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Posted by Anonymous | Jan. 2, 2008 at 1:58 PM