Sustainable Kitchen Design Tips

This post about sustainable kitchen design tips is sponsored by Beautifully Responsible. All opinions are my own.

The kitchen truly is the heart of the home.  It’s where we gather as a family to cook and eat.  My kitchen table is covered with paint and scratches from 2 decades of artistic and academic children.  It has seen an awful lot of wear and tear over the years.  While I love every inch of it, to say it is beaten and battered is an understatement. 

Over the last few years, my husband and I have been working on a very slow kitchen makeover.  And, since eco friendly living is important to us, we have been trying to figure out how to build a sustainable kitchen without going broke.  It’s not easy but there ARE  small steps you can take to create an ethical kitchen on a budget!

How to Design an Eco-Friendly Kitchen

How do you renovate sustainably? Small choices during your home remodel can make a big difference in creating a green kitchen.  Design a more eco friendly home with some of these tips:

Look for recycled materials if you can find them

Anything you can find second hand or upcycled will be perfect in your sustainable kitchen design.  Reusing something is always better than buying new if you can!

Choose quartz or Corian countertops 

Natural stone like marble sounds fabulous in your sustainable kitchen design, right?  However, marble is very porous and stains easily.  We chose a countertop made from ground quartz that was embedded in a polymer base (similar to Corian).  A long lasting solid surface counter that will basically last longer than the house will!

Skip the fad kitchen designs

Remodeling the kitchen is expensive and a huge drain on resources.  Don’t do it more often than you need to. 

Reface cabinetry instead of replacing completely

Interested in sustainable kitchen cabinets?  The most sustainable product is one you already own.  Don’t completely rip out your old cabinets and cabinet boxes.  Instead, just redoor or reface them.  This is the option we chose for our green kitchen remodel.  

Upgrade appliances carefully

Find energy efficient kitchen appliances that do what you actually need them to do.  If you don’t need to program your stove from work, don’t invest your hard earned money in a Bluetooth enabled appliance.  

Choose energy efficient kitchen lighting

Upgrading your kitchen lighting can save you significant money over the years.  We chose new kitchen lights made from metal (rather than plastic) with replaceable LED bulbs.  Yes, some kitchen lights we found actually had lights that could not be replaced.  So, when the bulbs burned out, you threw away the entire light fixture.  Absolutely insane!

Choose low to no-VOC paint and stains

Cutting down on paint fumes is important for your health.  However, make sure that you use an easy to clean kitchen paint.  Dirty children and pets are hard on painted cabinets!

Choose sustainable kitchen flooring

There are many options for sustainable flooring.  Choose carefully so that it lasts for the life of your home. 

More Green Remodeling Tips

There are many small ways to tackle an eco friendly kitchen renovation.  Here are just a few things to keep in mind for your kitchen remodeling project:

• Find green contractors for your eco friendly kitchen renovation
• Placement is key.  Don’t put your stove right next to your refrigerator.
• The most eco friendly kitchen is made with easy to clean surfaces!
• Install a ceiling fan for heating and air conditioning improvement
• When it’s done, fill it with sustainable kitchen products!

Choose Beautifully Responsible, Resilient Flooring

What is resilient flooring?  Basically, it is the intersection of environmental sustainability, well-being, and durable performance.  Resilient flooring is an actual category of flooring products, just like hardwood or carpet. 

Beautifully Responsible, Resilient Flooring possesses the physical strength and flexibility to stand up to nearly anything an active family can do to it.  It has more “give” than hardwood, stone, cement, or ceramic tile but less than carpet, making it an ideal choice for everyday life. Anything that can’t stand up to your family’s wear and tear is not truly sustainable. 

Their third-party certified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) provide you with a listing of environmental impacts for each resilient flooring product. Their goals are to:

• OPERATE RESPONSIBLY: Leading in environmental health and safety as well as corporate social responsibility.
• REDUCE WASTE: Finding new solutions to reduce energy, water, and material waste.
• CONSERVE NATURAL RESOURCES: Removing the need to harvest less-abundant natural resources by combining highly abundant natural ingredients with synthetic materials  to create long-lasting, highly durable, nature-inspired designs
• DECREASE EMBODIED CARBON: Improving efficiency in manufacturing means less greenhouse gases are emitted in the process.

If you are planning a kitchen remodel, check out  @ResponsibleFloors on Instagram and Pinterest.  You will find tons of sustainable kitchen design tips to inspire you!  Visit BeautifullyResponsible.com to learn more

 

More Sustainable Kitchen Tips

 Like these sustainable kitchen design tips? Want more eco friendly home design ideas?  Here are a few more posts to read:

• How to use less water in the kitchen: Easy tips to reduce water usage in the kitchen
• The Sustainable Kitchen: 5 Easy Ways to Live Greener! Easy tips for a more eco friendly kitchen. 
• Green Energy For Homes: Making the switch to renewable energy.