Ecological style in interior design.

Characteristic features of the style

Eco-style is an interior style that successfully combines the use of natural, renewable and environmentally friendly materials and comfortable modern design. Conscious consumption is evident in every detail of the interior, but does not violate the comfort and practicality of homeowners. Below I will tell you in detail about the main characteristics that should be taken into account when creating a design:

• Natural building and finishing materials. Pay special attention to materials that are made from environmentally friendly sources. Good examples can be wood, stone or cork. It is also worth considering that the materials should be minimally processed so as not to lose their natural aesthetic qualities.
• Furniture and decor from recycled materials. Here the choice is huge – recycled glass, wood and much more will do. Such technologies have a minimal impact on the environment and look stylish.
• Minimalism. In this point, I mean that you should not deny yourself everything and sleep on the floor. But do not clutter the rooms, leave only what you really use. This approach will create an atmosphere of calm and comfort at home, reducing the level of consumption and your expenses.
• Hand-made products. This is a kind of symbiosis of the previous points, which will allow you to realize your creative potential and decorate the interior with authentic eco-style attributes of your apartment. You do not have to do it yourself, you can buy it from local craftsmen during your next vacation.
• A large amount of living greenery. Here the author is practically not limited by anything. These can be either ceiling phytoboxes made by your own hands, or floor flowerpots with large-sized plants.

The interior, made in eco-style, is chosen by those people who want to live in unity with nature and preserve it for future generations. The interior in eco-style looks great not only in country houses among the Alpine mountains, but also among the noisy metropolis. Below I will tell you how to do this.

What color is best to decorate interior?

The ecological orientation of the style determines, first of all, the colors used in finishing and choosing furniture. As a rule, these are the shades that we encounter in nature: sand, earth, grass, coniferous, terracotta, blue, white.

Only “acidic” shades and sharp color combinations are excluded. They are inappropriate in such a design – after all, an eco interior is conducive to rest, relaxation, everything should contribute to this.

What materials to use for finishing?

A room in eco-style is finished with natural materials whenever possible, and, as an exception, with their imitation. The key factors for choosing finishing materials are durability, environmental safety, renewability and minimal impact on the environment. First of all, choose: wood, stone, cork, terracotta, ceramics, glass, paper, wicker or rattan panels, mats.

• Cork flooring is the most obvious and attractive example. It is pleasant to walk on, has a low cost, and also has good sound insulation. Cork collection has minimal damage to nature, because the bark is quickly restored.
• Linoleum (marmoleum). It is important to carefully look at the composition and buy only from well-known brands that comply with the technology. Among the obvious advantages are biodegradability and a wide range of designs.
• When choosing parquet and laminate, the composition and manufacturer also play a key role. But now you can increasingly find models without formaldehyde and other toxic additives. The only caveat is that the price will “bite”.
• For the bathroom and toilet, you can use porcelain stoneware and ceramics. There will definitely be no problems with the design, for eco-style pay attention to imitation stone or wood.

• Natural paints. Choose non-toxic options with a low content of volatile organic compounds, which contain only natural ingredients.
• As for wallpaper, pay attention to canvases made of natural fibers. Such models will be more expensive, but they are biodegradable and have a pleasant tactile effect.
• Wall panels and plaster should be considered only from recycled materials and without the addition of toxic compounds.
• It is also better to choose wall tiles from recycled materials without the addition of impurities.

What furniture is suitable?

For eco-style, environmental friendliness is primary, conscious consumption and closeness to nature. Therefore, we pay attention only to those products that are natural and completely safe. It is best to focus on wood, stone and glass. It is allowed to make some furniture elements yourself. For this, improvised materials are used – for example, wooden cuts and logs.

For an eco-style apartment, simple-shaped furniture is suitable, quite massive, and the shape should be as natural as possible – either straight and even rough, or, on the contrary, smooth, imitating natural curves found in nature. In the first case, the texture of the wood or stone should be as simple as possible, and its processing – minimal. In the second, careful processing and polishing are allowed. Another suitable type of furniture is wicker items made of vine, rattan, bamboo.

Features lighting

As much natural light as possible is a mandatory requirement of an eco-friendly interior. If it is not enough, artificial lighting must be added. Lighting fixtures in the design can be “invisible” – built-in, creating a light stream that complements the light from the windows, as well as decorative – with lampshades made of textiles, rice paper or vines, with elements in the form of tree branches or animal horns.

Awareness of the need to protect the planet is growing, so many owners of eco-style apartments are starting to use eco-lamps in their apartments. First of all, such lamps are energy efficient. This includes all lamps that operate on LED light sources. It is also important that they are made from recyclable materials/biodegradable materials.

How to choose decor?

Eco-style does not like clutter of objects, in this sense it is close to minimalism – after all, in nature there is nothing superfluous. Therefore, decorative items “part-time” usually perform utilitarian functions. For example, wicker baskets and chests in the interior become convenient storage places. Simple homespun rugs add exclusivity and warm up the stone floors, a bright pumpkin becomes a colorful design accent and simultaneously serves as a lampshade.

Unusual “pictures” made of stone and wood, beautiful pebbles placed in a glass vase, mirror frames with a shell design, river pebbles laid out in the bathroom as a rug – it is difficult to even list all the possible decorative elements available in eco-style.

A wonderful addition to the interior will be served by a fireplace – both “live” and “bio”, or even its imitation – logs stacked in a suitable niche.

Textile design in eco-style is also distinguished by the naturalness of fabrics and colors. The material for upholstery of furniture, sofa cushions, as a rule, is chosen rough, textured – linen, jute. Curtains on the windows are often replaced by roller blinds or bamboo blinds.

The main rule is to maintain a sense of proportion. You can not oversaturate the interior with decor, no matter how “correct” and appropriate to the occasion it may seem. Otherwise, you can get the opposite result to what you expected.

Interior greenery

Living greenery is another “tool” of the designer, with the help of which you can enliven the simplest interior or turn an ordinary room into a corner of the tropical forest. Living plants give a feeling of closeness to nature, purify the air and create the right microclimate.

Whole walls with flowers in pots and boxes, panels of moss or climbing plants look especially impressive in the eco-style. Microgreens or useful herbs for brewing tea can be planted on the balcony or kitchen. And if the plants do not have enough light, you can always use additional phytolamps.

Green accents can be created using large plants such as ficus, palms and monsteras. You can also use phytoboxes and phytomodules, including for the ceiling (in such models, plants grow with their roots up).

But what you should definitely avoid is artificial plants. In addition, your entire living florarium should not end up turning into something painful and binding, so it is good if the plants require a minimum amount of time from you for maintenance.

Features of decorating different rooms

Living room interior

When decorating a living room in eco-style, it is advisable to use only natural materials; if this is not possible, it is worth replacing them with imitation. Regular “plastic” windows do not fit into the style at all, so it is better to make the frames wooden. A budget replacement is plastic “under the tree”.

You may not maintain the entire design in one style, from furniture to small details. To create a style, sometimes a few expressive details are enough – the main thing is that everything else does not contradict the main idea.

Bedroom

The most intimate room in the house belongs only to you, and its design should be be such that you can calmly relax and unwind. Nothing distracting, causing tension or irritating the nervous system.

For the design of a bedroom in eco-style, several style-forming elements, as well as natural finishing materials or natural motifs in the decoration of walls and textiles are quite enough. A wooden bed, a wool rug under your feet, warm beige tones of the walls, light cotton curtains – the image of a bedroom in eco-style is ready.

Kitchen design

And again – natural materials in finishing, simple forms, textile elements… But all the same – characteristic features of country style. What is the main difference? Country style allows saturation with small elements in design – various “folk” objects: painted dishes, clay figurines, curtains with frills, decorative pillows, chair covers. In eco-style, such excesses are unacceptable.

In the kitchen, as in no other room in the house, it is important to observe the principles of minimalism – nothing superfluous! Do you want to emphasize the closeness to nature and make the interior truly unusual? Choose an accent lamp, and at the same time use it as an element dividing the functional areas of the kitchen. The easiest way is to add eco-elements to the decoration, for example, by decorating plain walls with large plant patterns or wood cuts.

The practicality of kitchen furniture is preferable to simple forms; not only wood can be used as consumables, but also, for example, transparent recycled plastic – it will not “interfere” with the perception stylistic “picture”, “dissolving” in space. Such “disappearing” furniture can be supplemented with several “heavy” items – this will balance the interior.

Bathroom interior

Minimalism, natural colors, space and lots of light – this is how the eco-style bathroom design should look. Sometimes it is enough to choose the right cladding and add a color accent with bright towels – and an unforgettable image is ready.

Wooden bathroom finishes and simple plumbing shapes add up to a natural eco-style. Eco-style in bathroom design allows the use of imitation materials. For example, porcelain stoneware tiles “under the tree” will look good in “wet” zones, besides, it is much more practical than wood, even treated with special compounds. The use of ceramic tiles is also welcome, and outside wet zones – plaster followed by painting with moisture-resistant paints.

The bathroom is the place where one single detail can make the style. For example, it can be a unique sink made of stone or a bathtub in the form of a pelvis. There are also more budgetary design options – for example, a piece of floor laid with sea pebbles, which also functions as a massage mat. It is good if the bathroom has a “warm” floor.

Modern houses in eco-style

The “eco” style has long stepped over the thresholds of apartments and got outside. The exterior of the house, reflecting the desire of the owner to get as close to nature as possible is the spirit of the times. And if earlier designers were content with making walls from timber or logs, or laying out their lower parts with “wild” stone, now the task is set broader: they try to “fit” the house into the surrounding landscape as much as possible, which sometimes leads to very eccentric design solutions. For example, some houses are literally buried in the ground, or “hang from branches” in an attempt to merge with nature.

Modern eco-style is not only environmentally friendly materials, it is also the possibility of their recycling, and application during construction and operation minimal harm to nature, and the creation of the most comfortable living environment for humans.

A selection of ideas for inspiration

The photos below show eco-style in various variations for houses and premises of various purposes.

Photo 1. The combination of wood, soft natural shades of gray and white, and the inclusion of the space outside the window in the interior are the characteristic features of the eco-style for this bedrooms.

Photo 2. Warm “creamy” shade of walls and floor, wooden furniture, simple shapes of lamps, minimalist approach to space arrangement – these features of eco-style make the atmosphere memorable and at the same time calm.

Photo 3. Eco-style in the interior of the children’s room can be emphasized with a wicker chair and wallpaper with natural patterns.

Photo 4. Complex “natural” forms of wood in the interior emphasize the environmental focus of the project.

Photo 5. Several decorative eco elements were used in the design of the living room of a country house. This is an accent stone wall near the fireplace, firewood stacked in special niches, and a view outside the window, included in the interior with the help of huge window openings.

Photo 6. Wooden paneling of the wall near the headboard, wooden bedside tables, simple natural fabrics are the basis of the style in the design of a small bedroom.

Photo 7. A small wooden cabinet and living greenery on the wall give the bathroom interior an eco-friendly feel.

Photo 8. In this interior, just one element “makes” the style. Wooden beams forming a “coffee table” with a bouquet of flowers make an expressive ecological composition.

Photo 9. A chandelier made of birch branches can become the only bright decorative element in the interior design.

Photo 10. A simple rectangular sofa in neutral upholstery against the background of green walls and wooden floors could would stand in a room of any style. The eco-friendly direction is given to the interior by the wood cuts near the dining area and the original flower rack.

In conclusion, I would like to note that eco-style interior design is not just a visual design, but a whole philosophy that allows you to take care of the environment, the health of the homeowner and aesthetics. Only this approach will allow us to save the planet and enjoy a conscious life.