Five Eco-Friendly Kitchen Ideas

If you have moved into a new home, one of the first jobs on your list is likely to be the renovation of the kitchen. Kitchens are highly personal spaces if you like to cook and entertain, so having the layout in a way that suits you is essential. However, an overhaul of a kitchen will always have some environmental cost to it.

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Of course, the most eco-friendly thing you can do with a kitchen is nothing. However, this is not an option if the home’s kitchen has not been updated for years. If you are about to embark on a new kitchen design and are worried about the environmental cost, consider some eco-friendly options as you go. Not all environmentally responsible design choices are expensive. Indeed, may eco-friendly components of a kitchen could save you money.

Flooring.

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An attractive kitchen floor is really at the heart of the design aesthetic. If you are looking for an eco-friendly product try something like a Terrazzo Crete overlay. This surface is a specially formulated micro concrete which overlays the existing surface and which can be polished to form an attractive floor, ideal for a kitchen. Most surfaces like this have exposed aggregates and iridescent fragments that shimmer as sunlight hits them. If you have a concrete floor, why not simply leave it at that without the addition of anything other than a rug to warm the look up? Another good choice for an environmentally friendly kitchen floor is wood that has been reclaimed from another use. Wine infused wooden flooring is simply made from old wine barrels and will give a distinctive eco-look to any kitchen space.

Eco Cabinets.

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Fitted kitchen storage units do not have to be costly to the environment. The sub structure on which you will mount you counter top can be made of a simple plywood, reconstituted from other material. Most of the time you will want to specify a superior material for the fascias of your cabinets. By avoiding a tropical hardwood for your cabinet doors and end units you can claim to have done your bit for the world’s ecology. However, there paper based eco–friendly composites that have even less of a carbon footprint to worry about. These make for excellent green cabinet choices.

Sustainable Wood.

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If you are looking to use wood as part of your kitchen design, then look for FSC stamped timber which comes from a sustainable source. Use a veneer of the wood you have selected for cabinetry. When using a plywood base, try to avoid those that have been bonded with formaldehyde and ask your supplier to check. If you just want an updated look, why not use your old painted wood surfaces and simply strip them back to the natural color of the original?

Counter Tops.

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The use of recycled glass as an interior design material has grown in recent years. This is mostly because the range of finishes available using old glass has vastly increased in both number and quality. Colorful mixtures of different glass look great if your taste is for creating an eclectic kitchen design. However, if you want a recycled countertop that reflects the rest of the room’s color scheme this is easily possible, nowadays. Indeed, some types of recycled glass tops offer no clue as to their origins.

Tiling.

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Like counter tops, recycled materials offer a wide range of choice when it comes to splash back tiling in an eco-kitchen. Select a glass tile that will suit or ask a manufacturer to match your color scheme, if your project is large enough to warrant the cost. Other eco materials, like Azurastone blend traditional tiles with a stone appearance, great for mosaics. And if you want a metallic finish you can achieve it, cost effectively, from concrete-like tiles that are blended from recycled aggregates.

Picture sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.