When it comes to home design, you are often faced with multiple options. From smart home solutions that give you a ton of wireless control, to more cost-effective solutions that won’t take a big chunk out of your home budget. But, arguably, the best solution for any home design is going eco-friendly. With this in mind, we’ve created a list of the top 5 eco-friendly cabinet options for your home. With luck, these should give you an idea of how easy it can be to make your home a bit greener.
Top Eco-Friendly Cabinet Options for Your Home
When it comes to making your cabinet eco-friendly, your best option is to opt for eco-friendly materials. As you’ll see, certain materials are far easier to grow, take less energy to process, and are far easier to reuse. If utilized correctly, these materials can create gorgeous cabinets that you can easily incorporate into various rooms. So, let’s see which eco-friendly options for cabinets are out there.
Bamboo
For eco-friendly flooring, Bamboo is a standard option. But, people often neglect that it is also an excellent material for making cabinets. Bamboo has a distinct grain that can work well for a cabinet. It also grows fast, which makes it pretty renewable. This will help you maintain a fresh look on your cabinet. Bamboo will also help with air quality in your home and make it feel much more eco-friendly as a whole. The cost-effectiveness of Bamboo also makes it a great choice for cabinets for your rental property.
It should come as little surprise that people opt to make entire homes out of Bamboo. In fact, if you take a closer look at Asian history, they’ve been doing so for centuries. When made correctly, Bamboo homes can be pretty comfortable and eco-friendly. So, if you want to spread your eco-friendliness from cabinets to other aspects of your life, know that Bamboo is a good choice.
Lyptus Eco-Friendly Cabinets
Lyptus is a building material that comes from a hybrid eucalyptus species. It takes around 15 years to fully mature, which is a quarter of the time needed for standard hardwood options. This fact alone makes Lyptus an easy choice for eco-friendly cabinet options for your home. The look and the feel of it closely resemble Red Oak or Mahogany. Therefore, if you are already using this wood in your home, a Lyptus cabinet will fit in nicely. Another notable aspect is that you can get Lyptus in a vast range of colors. Therefore, no matter what color palette you’ve chosen for your room, we are sure that you can find a shade of Lyptus that will fit in.
Reclaimed or Salvaged Wood
Reclaimed wood is wood that was previously processed and used for construction. Salvaged wood is wood that is still in its natural state. As you can guess, both reclaimed and salvaged wood can be terrific options for eco-friendly cabinets. Depending on the type of wood, both can bring a ton of character to your cabinet and help avoid it from being generic. What is important here is that you carefully evaluate the health of the wood and restore it properly if need be.
Formaldehyde-Free Eco- Friendly Cabinet Options
Whatever option you choose, you should always ensure that your cabinet is formaldehyde-free. When cabinet designers construct cabinets, they can opt to use fiberboard, plywood, or particleboard. While these are cost-effective options, they aren’t really eco-friendly. Simply because they contain formaldehyde, a carcinogen substance, ideally, you will stay completely formaldehyde-free with all your wooden furniture.
FSC and ESP-Certified
If none of what we’ve mentioned so far suits you, you can buy a new wooden cabinet. But, if you also want it to be eco-friendly, you should look for either FSC or ESP certification. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Environment Stewardship Program (ESP). These organizations ensure that wood is used in a responsible, eco-friendly manner. Therefore, their label will provide insurance that the cabinet you are buying has met their criteria for eco-friendliness. We’ve opted for the Green Choice program from Wellborn Cabinet, Inc, where they care greatly about creating eco-friendly cabinets. The criteria for eco-friendliness entail:
- Product resource management
- Environmental stewardship
- Proper wood acquisition
- Educated power usage
Final Thoughts About Eco-Friendly Cabinet Options
The only way to actually ensure that your cabinet is as eco-friendly as possible is to build it on your own. After all, even if you opt for eco-friendly materials, you will have difficulty learning how they were shipped, processed, and used. So, while you may feel good about being eco-friendly on the surface, you won’t actually have much of an impact.
The other option is to look for companies that make cabinets and that put eco-friendliness front and center. With such a company by your side, you can rest easy so that your cabinet will be as eco-friendly as possible. Another piece of advice for having a more eco-friendly home is to declutter your kitchen. Get rid of unnecessary items and ensure that you only store things you need. By doing so, you will need less furniture for storing items. And the ones that you will use can be relatively small. The smaller the furniture, the less wood you need to make it. So, go minimalistic and eco-friendly at the same time.
Unfortunately, when it comes to eco-friendly cabinet options for your home, this tends to be a more expensive one. For most industries, being eco-friendly comes at a cost. There are only a few instances where eco-friendly solutions are also the most cost-effective. In the vast majority, companies have to pick between profit and eco-friendliness. So, if you are serious about buying a custom cabinet and keeping your home green, know that it will take a toll on your budget.
Article provided by Beatrice White.
Thank you for this article, Beatrice. Are Wellborn cabinets formaldehyde-free?