Comments on: Manufacturing organic home furnishings

By: The Futon Shop

The Futon Shop — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:37:32 +0000

Hi, We're an American manufacturer of Organic and natural material mattresses that also sells sustainably grown hardwoods frames and beds and we'd love to be interviewed by your website if you have any interest. Feel free to check out our line of premium Organic and natural ingredient mattresses or go to our about us page to learn more about our futons and commitment to the environment. Thank you for your time and hopefully we'll be hearing from you! Rio from The Futon Shop

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 10:09:39 +0000

How do they reconcile the need for natural, non toxic, untreated materials with the zillion regulations requiring everything we sit on, lie on etc to be treated with more chemicals for fire retardency?

By: Alison

Alison — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 16:23:49 +0000

My question has to do with balancing the needs for a sustainably manufacturable product with those for one that works.

As a chihuahua owner, I have heavily varnished bare wood floors everwhere except the kitchen, where the floor is bare linoleum. My furniture has metal legs; sitting furniture is upholstered in vinyl (see http://loglog.peghole.com/2003/20031222.html) and padded with washable throw pillows. I have one Ikea pull-out bed with a washable fabric slipcover that I am sure is treated with something extremely toxic to keep it stain-free and spill-resistant and easy to wipe hair off of.

I am afraid that making more environmentally-friendly choices would mean weekly waxing of the floors and scuttling vinyl and 3M finishes in favour of smelly, hairy, stained sitting furniture in sustainable hemp.

Alternatively, getting rid of my pets. Which I am not going to do.

Is my vision of my choices too extreme?

By: Pat Lundin

Pat Lundin — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:49:28 +0000

Hi Kathleen,
I read your blogs with great interest and have purchased your book and pattern making DVD. I find all of your information invaluable as I am a total novice, making a career switch from social worker to the sewn products industry. It is really great fun to get my mind around so much new material while planning my venture.
Regarding today’s blog, I really like the website they put together and my questions for the folks at A Natural Home is this: how did they go about getting their web design..did Yahoo do it for them or did they use a do-it-yourself web design program? Also, because I too am planning a sustainable business using organic textiles, who was their inspiration? And, lastly, how did they select their textile supplier? Did they get submit specifications to several or what? That last question is one I am grappling with right now. Thanks Kathleen!