Top 10 sustainable home decor brands

According to Legatum Institute in the UK, one in every 30 people (based on a report from 2017), were living outside their country of birth, this sums up to 258 million people. These numbers are growing every year and this means that more people then ever are starting new lives in different countries around the world like never before. This lifestyle supplies many great experiences and adventures but can increase drastically the consumption of home decor products.

The baby-boomers and their parents usually bought a sofa set that was used, on average, 15-20 years. These days because of the different lifestyle, Ikea is the easy and common place to buy furniture and home decor but when thinking about it ikea is actually parallel in home decor and furniture to fast fashion. The products are designed and manufactured to be used for a short period of time until the style would change and definitely can't be moved to a new home because of the quality of the materials they are made of. As many other industries the home decor, furniture and interior industries creates masses of products with a short life span.

Having a nice and welcoming home is clearly something important since it reflects to the safety feeling people have at their homes- so how to do it while thinking consciously? Here are 10 brands from all around the world creating these products differently.

Kuchinate

Kuchinate (crochet in Tigrinya) is a collective of African asylum-seeking women living in Tel Aviv. Kuchinate is composed of over 260 women who design and create crochet products for the home, such as baskets, poufs, and rugs. The brand was established in 2011, providing the women of the collective the possibility to earn money and to cope with the harsh realities of their lives, through creation rooted in African culture. Each of the women receives a fair salary for their work as part of the collective, as well as social services. Kuchinate has changed the lives of these women, most of them mothers for whom the collective serves as their sole form of income. The begginers of the collective are Diddy Mymin-Kahn, a clinical psychologist that studied the effect of rape and sexual assault on Eritrean asylum-seeking women and in 2012 she was joined by Aziza Kidane, a nun from Eritrea and a nurse by training that in 2012 was honored by the US Department of State for her efforts to combat human trafficking.

Tip Toe

Was founded in 2015 after a super succesful crowdfunding campaign that in the end sent their products to over than 40 countries around the world. Tip Toe products are challanging the traditional furniture industry. All products are made around Europe in careful conditions at factories that the company built a solid and long lasting relationship.

Besides the quality of the products and the production the design idea behind the products is designed to be disassembled. The metal legs and wall brackets are modular and can be attached and disattached.  Customers could buy only the legs and fit them to their own wood plate or the opposite and in a scenario where one part of the furniture is ruined only the damaged part can be replaced instead of the whole item, minimizing consumption and resources. Matthieu and Vincent, the founders wanted to revive  the heir of pioneering and “avant-garde” French designers who have profoundly marked the history of furniture. From the first concept of modular table legs emerged in 1972 to 1982 that Philippe Starck explored further the concept through tables developed on behalf of Les 3 Suisses. This is how the company got here developing this innovative form of disassembled high quality furniture.

Kaffee Form

Probably one of the most innovative brands with a unique product. The brand is based in Berlin and was founded in 2015. The company developed a sustainable material made from used coffee grounds and other renewable resources, all of them plant based and biodegradable. As a coffee cup, it is given the perfect new life as a result of a short, green supplyy chain alongside local, social partners and production in Germany. It promotes the principles of the circular economy and reuse the grained leftovers from coffee machines. Global consumption is steadily rising, meaning that the coffee grounds, the remainders, are too. The cups are light but still exceptionally durable and robust, break-proof up to a drop height of 1.5 m, dishwasher-safe. Food-safe and free from plasticisers/BPA and of course recycable as part of the circular economy school of thought. Every cup is one-of-a-kind as a result of the special appearance of the marbled surface of the material that resembles wood and rounded off by a light coffee aroma.

Armadillo & Co

The brand is mainly motived and inspired by collaboration, a search for the uncommonly beautiful human touch. The brand was founded in 2009 by Jodie Fried and Sally Pottharst. They wanted to elevate age-old methods of craftsmanship through a uniquely Australian contemporary design process that is done together while driven by ethics and aesthetics.
All of the products are infused with the rich history and artisanship of the hands that created them. No machine can truly replace the care and precision of the handmade. The brand works with a family of artisans in India draws on expertise cultivated over many generations, that weaves its way into each rug. They are proud to play a small role in keeping these ancient skills alive, whilst bringing a truly unique, soulful product whose subtle variations speak of authenticity.

Objects made slowly by hand still have a place in today’s world – telling rich stories, sparking conversations and inspiring new memories for years to come.

Since 2017 Armadillo & Co established a foundation to support the lives of underprivileged communities through the provision of educational, health and community structures mainly in areas where the brand operates.

EcoBirdy

Transforms old plastic toys into beautiful design furniture. The brand is based in Antwerp, the designers have not only created design pieces, but a whole system from the collecton  and recycling of old, unused plastc toys to the design and producton of the furniture. The brand accompanying storybook to introduce youngsters to the concept of circular design and inspire them to contribute to a more sustainable future. Each step of the supply chain is based on social and environmental responsibility. The design, recycling and producton of ecoBirdy furniture are all done in Europe with fair business practices.

As a result of the recycling technology of plastic all products have a speckled look with vivid
eye-catching colors as well as being recognizable products made from recycled content and could be recycled again: a conscious choice of the designers to make waste material look like something beautful and appealing. ecoBirdy was awarded by fve internatonal design prizes and invited by important exhibitons and museums to showcase pieces of its debut collecton all over the world.

We Are Studio Studio

The label was founded in 2016 and is based in Hamburg, Germany where all the products are made. The brand creates functional and aesthetically pleasing furniture and ceramics with a contemporary feeling. All production is done while thinking about sustainability, from the materials the founders choose to the production processes.  Since all the products are made by hand there is the magical feeling of the fingerprints  on the products. At the same time the brand aiming to produce in the highest standards so for the furniture production they collaborate with Hamburger Tischlerei Møbelwerft a company the has more then a decade of carpentary experience to achieve the bast quality with the best designs.

Alterra Pure

Focus on sustainability but on top of it they focus a lot on transparency. Both founders, Kevin and Wanda have many years of expeirence in the textile industry but after this expeirience they understood that they want to do it in the right way. A completely open and no-secrets company. Being conscious to the brand means being aware of the process that brings the end result. Environmental and Social Sustainability aren’t marketing terms for them since they want to make a difference that benefits their farming communities, the ones who make their bedding from scratch.

The founders know any small thing that gets into their bedding and they share it from seed to sanctuary with their clients regularly. They work closely with all their suppliers from seedkeepers to seamstresses making sure that they work in good and safe conditions because they believe that all of the supply chain failures are being reflected in the end product so they are aiming the highest from spinning their own organic cotton yarn up until the cutting and sewing of the product.

Pretty Pegs

Jana and Mikael founded the brand in 2012 after a shopping experience in Ikea. They saw there a nice sofa that caught their eyes but they didn't like the legs of the sofa. After a short research they understood that today most people buy Ikea furniture but they are not 100% happy with them since they don't fit their style necessary and the items are the same all over the world. The brand's mission is to inspire as many people as possible to personalize and extend the lifetime of their IKEA furniture.  

Pretty Pegs are here for all of those who believe it’s all in the details. For all of those who sees a different solution than the already given - and - for those who wants to create a home that tells the world who you are.    

In mid August 2019 Pretty Pegs and IKEA Germany launched a collaboration to provide a richer choice for personalizing one of IKEA’s most popular storage furniture – BESTÅ. With a curated range of Prettypegs legs and knobs, there are now even more ways to fit this storage unit to the customer needs, style and wishes. To be exact, there’s actually 5609 different ways to combine Pretty Pegs legs and knobs onto the BESTÅ. 

Rose & Fitzgerald

Is an art, design and craft studio based in Kampala, Uganda and was founded in 2013. The brand was founded by a Californian couple who fell in love with the indigenous of east Africa, the materials that are sourced there and the people that transforms these materials into authentic and beuatiful products. Courtney and Laren, the founders, were drawn to the magic of handmade objects and the feeling that each maker pass down with his hands using different techniques to create different objects. The Rose & Fitzgerald brand was born out from this magic moments while endeavoring to preserve traditions and mixing old crafts with contemporary and simplistic aesthetic. The collections are designed for those who find added value especially in one of a kind products and the imperfections of the creator's hand and touch. 

Tom Hagen

Is a Photographer and Designer from Munich, Germany. The main focus of his work is on aerial photography projects that show the impacts of human presence on earth. As a photographer he is drawn to the relationship between man and nature and their interaction with each other. In his aerial photography he is focusing on documenting unique landscapes that have been heavily transformed by human intervention. By creating a beautiful composition of sometimes complicated sceneries he is trying to sensitize the viewer for those subjects by taking a look on the extraordinary forces impacting the planet. Most of these extreme forces are manipukated on nature by humans and by documenting them Tom hope to open a more open an common discussion about these impacts.