“We want to bring more of the outside inside!”

“Indoor/outdoor living is such a part of our lives.”

“Give me all the plant babies!”

Raise your hand if you’ve ever said these! *hand raise emoji* The outside world is an extension of the space inside our homes, and as we think about designing for both the indoors and outdoors, we find ourselves narrowing in on two main ideas: incredible finishes & furnishings (another post for another day!), and caring for our natural environment.

It’s absolutely true that sustainability and eco-friendliness are trending in interior design. And while we think that is GREAT, our hope is that it becomes a standard more than a trend. We make our homes in so many places, but we all share this world as a home, and taking care of it has never been more crucial. Today we are walking through 5 easy steps you can take to make your home more sustainable, and help take care of our ultimate home, Earth!

1. Go Minimal

From The Home Edit to Marie Kondo, there’s a million ways to go minimal. When we reduce the amount of items we bring into our home we reduce our carbon footprint. When you’re looking at how to style a space, think about how you might use less. For a kitchen counter consider a single large vessel to serve as a vase and use trimmings from outdoor plants to style it instead of faux stems. On a coffee table, choose one large-format book, a pretty tray to collect clutter, and layer in a single sculptural piece for visual interest. Minimal style is not only stunning, it’s environmentally friendly!

2. Shop Your House

Most of us have a ton of styling items right under our noses! Anyone on the LGD team will tell you that we move things around our house continually. Comb through your kitchen cabinets for cute plates & bowls to use on entry & coffee tables. Remove the frame from a wall in one room and lean it on an open shelf in another room. Take the linens out of your cabinets, roll or stack them prettily and clip some fresh greens to style a laundry or bathroom counter. Oftentimes we don’t need more, we just need to rearrange. Think of it as the world's cheapest shopping trip, and you don’t even have to search for a parking space!

3. Buy Local First

From ceramics to linens to pottery to furniture, in almost every city there are artisans creating these items by hand. Supporting local is more than just a boon to the economy where you live, it cuts down on carbon emissions by eliminating shipping from across the world. And often less carbon is used to produce these items as they’re made by hand rather than in large factories. If you’re local to Phoenix, check out our favorite finds here! (insert links)

4. plants, Plants, PLANTS

Plants are the total package: they’re beautiful, they’re textural, they come in any size, they’re fun to style with, and most importantly, they clean our air! As we know, plants are basically the best air purifier you can buy. All of the waste we create in the air by doing things like breathing and driving plants use as food! They take our waste, use it to grow, and then turn it back into clean, breathable air. Give us all the plant babies – and hopefully we keep them alive ;)

5. Responsible Sourcing

We get it. You’re not going to be able to buy everything locally or shop your home for every item. When we know we need to purchase items, we spend our effort sourcing items that have been sustainably produced from renewable materials whenever possible. It’s easy to choose natural materials like cotton, bamboo and linen for sheets and towels, and they’ll cost you only a fraction more than their synthetic alternatives. Opting for FSC labeled wood items means you know that they have been harvested in a way that doesn’t harm the Earth. With sustainable furniture options more widely available and less expensive than ever before, you can furnish your home and know you cared for the planet while doing so.

These tools are just the start of how we can decorate and design while being eco-friendly. What are you going to try? Have you found any great ways to work sustainability into your everyday life and home design? Tell us on our Instagram page!