Going Green Isn’t Just a Great Color Choice

In the time we spent working on this new website, we noticed a few recurrent themes in our weekly meetings and daily designing. One of the larger ideas is our industry’s intersection with environmentalism. When Julie began as an interior designer decades ago, it was–or sometimes seemed–as simple as upholstered chairs and custom curtain trims.  It was important to understand color and pattern trends, but lately it's been just as important to appreciate the missions of the brands we utilize in projects, the origins of the materials we source, the importance and influence of the natural world on our designs.  

It’s likely that a lot of  industries noticed this evolution.  As our world became more aware of environmental causes, we invented and found solutions that make our work more relevant to these issues. “Conscious consumerism” might be a buzzword, but for Carlisle Design, we like to think we’ve been conscious designers for several years. Stella’s role was built around the belief that shopping second-hand is advantageous for so many reasons, preventing viable homewares and furniture from going to landfills being a key one. Sourcing locally-made goods can mean that less materials are shipped from place to place and reduces carbon emissions; we can admit that we weren’t always thinking in terms of reducing our carbon footprint when we committed to supporting local vendors, but we are proud to say that we didn’t have a hard time transitioning to more eco-friendly practices in our firm because we have historically instilled them in our work. 

Stay tuned for some more in-depth meditations on “upcycling”, thrifting, using recycled materials in construction, and plant-centered design (maybe our most favorite topic)!