Just because you want to be responsible when it comes to your interior style, doesn’t mean that all of a sudden, you have to sacrifice your living room to wicker baskets and woven rugs. I am on a quest in my healthier living series to figure out how we can make our home more sustainable without it getting too dull.
Sustainability begins at home. From finishes to furniture, selecting eco-friendly products and practices can enhance the design of your home as well as leave a positive environmental impact; truly a win-win situation!
Furniture from seaweed and recycled tea lights. Human urine made into building material for construction. Right now, we are seeing a lot of companies trying to be more environmentally friendly, using upcycled materials from production. Not only has it been Mater´s main mission from the very beginning, but they keep pushing the agenda to develop stunning and long-lasting furniture with sustainable materials.
Mater means mother in Latin and is a subtle nod to their mission of making design matter and reducing our ethical footprint while making Mother Earth a better place for everyone. They reuse and upcycle unwanted materials, such as recycled aluminium scrap from old bicycles and old car components as well as wood fibre from making chairs, used plastic and glass. They support old traditions and forgotten craft techniques such as ancient sand casting and woodturning in India. While most other brands are using oak, Mater has turned to fast-growing mango wood, which is the byproduct of an already thriving industry of the mango fruit.
And they’re always pushing new ways in production and researching exciting new ways to create strong, durable materials from waste, looking into ocean plastic waste, food waste and even elephant poo!
As I said, to begin with, sustainable furniture really doesn’t have to be dull. Look at the Nestor Chair, for example, it is a new dining table chair launched by Mater in April and designed by Tom Stepp. It is made from FSC certified beech wood with natural paper (hemp or linen) cord seat. It has the characteristic Mater Sirka Grey stain, which makes it ultra-modern and fits perfect with the Space Copenhagen table, Mater launched in 2016. It’s also very price-comparable, it comes in the cheaper end of the spectra of my top 10 dining chair list. So again, there is certainly no reason not to selecting eco-friendly products for your home.