How green is your galley?

The newly remodeled kitchen in Rob and Kelly Pretlow's Maple Leaf home brims with nifty features. Rob is happy to show off a soft-close cabinet and demonstrate the range hood's high-powered ventilation. He asks visitors if they noticed the dishwasher, humming quietly in the background.

But in this kitchen, the new technology — like compact fluorescent lights with dimmers, LED lighting and energy-efficient appliances — serves a more specific purpose: to make the kitchen as green as can be.

And that would be very, very green.

With the guidance of Alicia Silva — one of a small but growing number of green designers in the Seattle area — the Pretlows picked sustainable flooring, used nontoxic paint and glues and recycled many of their old kitchen materials. They used locally made light fixtures and insulation made with recycled shredded bluejeans, and decided against a heating system in their kitchen.

The couple knew from the start they wanted to remodel their kitchen using materials and building processes that were gentle on the environment. "With remodeling, there had to be so much impact by getting rid of stuff, so much is going to waste," Kelly Pretlow said. "We wanted to try to balance that with positive impact choices."

More green designers

With green building and green remodeling growing in popularity, green interior design was bound to follow. The number of designers doing sustainable design is still limited, but more designers are getting certified by organizations such as the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design) program, which offers a interiors accreditation.

Seattle boasts nearly 40 professionals on that list, and additional designers doing sustainable work are listed on Web sites including the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).

But it will take time for green interior design to even get close to the norm. Designers say it requires a major time investment on their part to research where materials come from and convince vendors to supply more eco-friendly products.

But there is definitely interest.

Silva, a Sustainable Building adviser and co-founder of home store Greener Lifestyles in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, has seminars on the topic at the Environmental Home Center and for the American Society of Interior Designers, Washington state, which are both open to the public. And more stores in the Seattle area have opened recently, featuring sustainable and healthy home products.

People are starting to understand that the impact of the choices they make in their own homes affects everyone else, or will eventually, Silva said.

"You have to think of the whole world as a swimming pool and there is no 'no-pee' zone," she said.

Green designers confront plenty of misperceptions about eco-friendly design. Designer Christine Suzuki said price and design are still people's main priorities, and they tend to worry that green materials are unattractive and expensive.

Suzuki, who is LEED certified, slips green materials into presentations, then tells her clients about their eco-friendly qualities.

"When people see something that's just gorgeous, it's a real plus to find out it's using recycled material," she said.

Green's broad reach

The description "green" can be applied to a wide variety of materials. In general, eco-friendly materials have less impact on the environment because they tend to use fewer fossil fuels for production and/or transportation, and some eliminate toxins that pollute indoor air quality.

Green interior design often includes materials with recycled or salvaged content, materials produced locally, energy-efficient appliances and paints and sealants low in toxins.

Silva also considers natural or biological materials green, including the river rocks used as an accent in the Pretlows' kitchen. The gray oak cabinets traveled a long way, from Italian company Poliform, but the company has an energy-efficient manufacturing process, and the cabinets are made without toxic glues, Silva said. "Green is really about quality and things that last longer," she said. "When you understand green deeply, you understand it's not that hard (to do)."

Eco-friendly furnishings

Furnishings are more challenging than remodeling staples like countertops, paint and nontoxic glues, especially for people who prefer a more traditional look over the modern aesthetic, which is more common among green décor.

But there are alternatives like antiques, which might not be perceived as green but are, according to designer Keith Miller, who is working on his LEED certification. And manufacturers are starting to respond as the market demand for green materials and furnishings increases.

"Whatever was taboo last month might have improved this month," he said.

Doing your homework

Some people feel overwhelmed by all there is to learn about sustainable materials and green processes. Miller takes a more pragmatic view of eco-friendly design.

"My job is to research," he said. "I look at every single design project as a unique set of circumstances that requires research, and part of the research is to check on the evolution in green design and subsidize the products that are proving sustainable."

Much of green design is simply returning to the way things were made a century ago, when maintaining homes with nontoxic cleaners and solid furniture was the norm, Silva said.

"It seems new, but it's not that much," she said.

Paying for itself

The Pretlows, who own Maple Leaf Community Yoga, already had eliminated toxic cleaners from their home. They also have furniture made from solid wood and try to buy as much as they can secondhand. Their $100,000 kitchen remodel was another step toward living an eco-friendly lifestyle.

Though a high-end remodel, to be sure — the national average for major kitchen remodels was around $43,000 in 2005, according to Remodeling magazine — salvaged or recycled materials can keep costs down and still make a remodel green, Silva said.

The Pretlows expect their new kitchen to last 40 or 50 years.

"We don't expect everybody to live like us," Rob Pretlow said. "But if they're inspired, that's wonderful."

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com
full article