The Future Of Home Series: Volume 2 - The Comfortable Home

Privacy and Security

Last week we touched on the 4 pillars of a healthy home: air, light, water and comfort. In this installment of our Future of Home series, we want to dive deep into our favorite aspect of a healthy home - comfort! Beyond physical comfort, the importance of emotional comfort can’t be highlighted enough given the world we live in.

Last week we introduced you to the Delos Darwin Wellness Platform. One of the partners that they work with is a company called Josh . Their voice activated system combines all of the wired features in your home and weaves them into a tapestry to truly make your home feel secure, day and night. It brings you all of the convenience of Alexa, Google or Siri without the privacy concerns! I always wanted one of those systems, but my husband would never allow one in the house. Josh promises that your data will never be sold for marketing purposes or third party advertisements. You also have the power to determine how much information your home collects. Their system has unlimited personalization capabilities giving you unparalleled peace of mind.

As we continue through our Future of Home series, we hope that you will check out one of our favorite blogs by a fellow designer, Laurence Carr. Laurence shares a number of other great companies who are developing technologies to support wellness in our homes. Her post “Wellness in the Home Gathers Momentum in 2020” is an informative blog that compliments our post last week which focused on the Delos Darwin Wellness Platform.

Eco Friendly Furnishings

When we talk about comfort in our homes in regards to furnishings and fabrics, it’s important to talk about where the materials in our home come from. Choosing materials that are eco-friendly, free of toxins and manufactured in the United States can add another layer of comfort to your home. As designers, we have seen and heard horror stories of furniture that has come over from abroad with a bit more than the client bargained for - stowaway bugs! It’s critical to know the regulations and safeguards that are in place for the inspection and handling of any materials that will enter our homes. One way to know exactly what you are getting and where it has come from, is to source from US vendors who source materials locally. We want to highlight just a few of our favorites!

Abner Henry has it’s roots in traditional Amish craftsmanship, but they are embracing innovation, and creating pieces that are locally sourced, timeless treasures. Little details such as hand forged iron, dovetail drawers and live edge tables are just a few things we love. This is a company that prides themselves on reducing their carbon footprint, which is something we can all do to help this beautiful planet of ours. Old Biscayne Designs is another company exclusively using U.S. grown hardwoods from sustainable forests. Both of these companies produce quality furniture that you can feel good about sharing space with.

Wesley Hall is a great upholstery manufacturer that we look to often when designing spaces because they place value on manufacturing responsibly. Their furniture is 100% made in the USA. In fact, all of their wood, cushioning & finishing supplies are made in the USA as well. None of their cushioning contains "Tris" (a.k.a. 1,3-dichloro-2-propyl phosphate or "TDCPP"). This is the fire retardant chemical recently discussed in the press as a carcinogenic. Unlike many others, Wesley Hall only buys USA-made foam. None of their wood-finishing materials contain carcinogens and none of their wood frames contain toxins. Made exclusively of US-grown maple, their hardwood frames are kiln dried and effectively, sterilized. Finally, none of their glues contain toxins. Also made in the USA, the glue is water-based and safe.

This dining room that we designed as part of our Charlottesville new build project showcases the Casey Console from Abner Henry that we customized to our desired dimensions. We also customized the Flynne dining table from Old Biscayne Design for this room. These sharp looking and very comfy dining chairs featured in this dining room project are from Wesley Hall.

Eco Friendly Textiles and Wall Coverings

One of my favorite fabric and wallpaper lines is Romo. Many of their fabrics have the Oeko-Tex Certification. If a textile carries the Oeko-Tex STANDARD 100 label, you can be certain that every component, i.e. every thread, button and other accessories, has been tested for harmful substances and that the fabric therefore is harmless in human ecological terms.  Our Romo rep just visited the studio to show us the new Villa Nova and Zinc collections. Many of these fabrics carried this certification.

We also got to view some great new textured wallpaper offerings from Romo’s Omexco line. Omexco has a long history of being eco-conscious. They push their creativity whilst trying to reduce waste by custom cutting by the yard for each order. As a manufacturer, Omexco limits their impact on the environment on different levels. They use recycled fibers as much as possible and favor renewable energy for the production process. They always opt for products with a non-harmful base and renewable materials such as cork or recycled sari silk. All these efforts allowed them to obtain the Ecological Label as well as the certificate for sustainable forestry. We used this awesome metallic cork Omexco wallpaper on the dining room ceiling in another one of our new build projects.

We also love working with Romo because of their charitable initiatives. Since 2006, Romo has partnered with Oxfam, a global organization working to end the injustice of poverty. Romo has directly funded efforts to build schools and wells to provide clean drinking water to regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Romo has also provided scholarships, textbooks, and support for the successful “Education of Girls” campaign. There is still so much more to do, so please visit the Oxfam site to learn about how you can be involved. Working with companies like Romo with a true social conscious certainly makes us all the more comfortable and eager to promote them with our clients.

Working with natural fabrics and materials that have less chemicals and harmful toxins certainly helps create a layer of comfort in your home. Another aspect of creating comfort is working with performance fabrics and indoor / outdoor fabrics. I look back to the old days of really crunchy outdoor fabrics and commercial fabrics with the unnatural feel of flame retardant treatments. But those are definitely the days of the past. Performance fabrics and Crypton fabrics are now being incorporated into many furniture and fabric lines and they’re incredibly soft and comfortable to the touch with added durability for peace of mind in a home with kids, pets or even just the occasional spill of some red wine. And outdoor fabrics have also improved by leaps and bounds. We will often specify outdoor fabrics for interior upholstery or drapery. You’ll have much more sanity living with these easy care fabrics.

Creating beautiful spaces is our passion, and designing with your comfort in mind is our privilege. We enjoy meeting with vendors who are staying up to date on the latest innovations. This collective knowledge is just some of the value we bring when working with our clients. We look forward to working with you!