5 Sustainable Items Shaping Home Design in 2022

Fast fashion has rightfully received its fair share of public scrutiny, but what of fast furniture and furnishings? Happily, 2022 looks set to be the year in which home design truly steps up to the sustainable mark. So, from all-natural wall art to zero-waste cookware, our roundup of five designer items is proof positive that waste not, want not.

A Bigger Splash

Perfect for your pool house or spa area, bathroom, and even in the shower stall, these wallpapers are printed on natural, sustainable, and PVC-free materials, a design choice ideal for spaces that are exposed to water and humidity. They are composed of smooth, pressed fiberglass sheets that are coated with a special antibacterial protective covering, making them easy to keep clean. The papers, from Italy’s Wallpepper, are available in a range of flora- and fauna-inspired designs.

wallpepper.it

Related: View 8 Exceptional Eco-Friendly Estates

Smash Hits

Multidisciplinary design studio BRCJ Designs has expertise in architecture, interior design, and home decor. The company was founded in Los Angeles by Benjamin R.C. Jones, who started out working on large-scale projects but is latterly “more focused on a smaller scale—single-family homes, custom furniture, design commissions…”

Jones experienced a newfound appreciation for the reuse of materials following a recent visit to Rome, where repurposed stone can be seen everywhere. This was the starting point for his Spolia coasters, Latin for spoils. The final sustainable design came about by accident—Jones dropped an early model while unmolding it and, rather than throwing the concrete fragments away, he cast them in resin.

brcjdesigns.com 

Related: Discover Eco-Friendly Design Solutions

Hive Mind

Bee & Sons knitwear has been a long time in the making. “I first came across recycled wool 20 years ago when I wrote an article for a women’s magazine,” remembers founder and fashion journalist Deborah Bee. “It seemed amazing that we were sitting on an untapped resource of wool that was good enough to turn into new clothing.” On the hunt for wool at the beginning of lockdown, to knit a cardigan for a friend, Bee came across recycled yarns and decided to start her business.

“Reusing wool saves on pollution from making virgin yarn, and stops perfectly good fibers ending up in landfill.” Bee & Sons’ yarns are thoroughly washed and reconditioned before they become an elegant slouchy cardigan—choose from designs on the website or commission one to your own specifications and help Bee to “save the world, one cardigan at a time.”

beeandsons.com

A Cunning Pan

Heritage brand Samuel Groves has been making cast-iron cookware since 1817 but it is keeping up with the expectations of its 21st-century customers. Its new Britannia pans are made from more than 70 percent recycled material and are 100 percent recyclable at end of life (they also come with a lifetime guarantee), possibly making them the world’s first “circular” cookware. The “cast-iron with a conscience” collection, which is pre-seasoned, boasts outstanding results on all cooktops.

samuelgroves.com

Twist and Shine

Back in the 1980s, acclaimed lighting designer Enzo Catellani returned from a visit to eastern Asia with some unusual bicycle headlamps that he had come across. He liked them so much he repurposed them into the Ciclocina lamp. When the originals went out of production, his company Catellani & Smith started making its own new version, the CicloItalia.

The firm has now reinvented the headlamp once more as the CicloItalia Flex. As the name suggests, the ceiling, wall, and floor lamps have a branching element that can be moved—“flexed”—into your desired position or configuration, to shine perfectly angled light into your chosen space.

catellanismith.com

Banner image: Giverny wallpaper by Italian brand Wallpepper