How to choose eco-friendly home decor.

Home decor can be found in nearly every department store near us, but how do we make sure we pick the most sustainable options regardless of the store? Making sustainable home decor choices doesn’t necessarily mean spending a small fortune on a lamp, sometimes it’s just a matter of picking the right materials and country of manufacture.

Fabrics: there are a few things to consider when looking at pillows to decorate our sofas, and they are all information you can usually find on the tag. What material the pillow cover is made of and can it be removed easily, what material is used to stuff the pillow, where was the pillow made, and what do the care instructions look like.
The most eco-friendly materials are wool, recycled cotton, hemp, linen, bamboo and cork. The least eco-friendly are polyester (even if it is made with recycled plastic), acrylic, any petroleum by-product, and chenille. Hemp and linen are the best choices, followed by bamboo and cork, and followed not too far by recycled cotton. Regular cotton is not unfortunately as eco-friendly as we wish it was, as the cultivation of the plant requires a much larger amount of water compared to a similar size and yield plant, such as hemp. These considerations go for any home decor item that involves fabric, like window coverings, upholstery, lamps shades, etc. You can find more information about fabrics here.
Light fixtures: lamps are a little more complicated of a decor item because they require so many different materials to be made. Ideally, the best item would be made of only one type, metal, or two types of material , like metal and glass. In both cases the entire item has a very good chance to be entirely recyclable (except for the power cord, unfortunately). Realistically, a lamp we would be able to find in any given store is bound to have a few more types of materials, like plastic and some form of fabric at the very least. For the base material, the most sustainable choices are glass, metal and ceramic. If we take in consideration durability, the sustainable choice is metal. Lamps involve a light source as well, and in general, built-in LED lighting is not a sustainable choice, as it already shortens the life of the lamp to the lifespan of the LED light. LED light bulbs are most definitely the most sustainable choice for light source, distant second being fluorescent lighting. Some of these considerations would apply to light fixtures are well, like wall or ceiling mounted ones.
Decorative items: this is a very broad category, that goes from vases to wall and center tables decor, sculptures, and even bookends. The most eco-friendly materials are bamboo, metal, glass, cork, and all the eco-friendly fabric types mentioned above. The least sustainable material is epoxy resin, as there aren’t really options for a really sustainable version of it, and it is most often mixed with other materials that even if they were recyclable on their own, they aren’t anymore because they have been encased in epoxy resin. It is possible to find unique and beautiful decorative items made with hemp, and here is an interesting article that shows what hemp can do for your home decor.

Generally, the most sustainable thing to do is either modify what you already have giving it a glow up, or visit a flea market or thrift store, and give new life to an interesting unique item you may find there. Reusing, renewing, and recycling is always more eco-friendly and sustainable than buying new things.