We all paint, wallpaper, carpet and furnish our homes because we want them to look nice and reflect our personalities, while some take it a step further and revamp their home’s interior whenever a new trend or fashion takes shape. But when you consider the materials, chemical ingredients and pungent smells involved in the process, you can’t help but wonder what it’s doing to the environment – let alone what it’s doing to your health!

Being kind to the environment – and yourself – doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice style and fashion when decorating your home. Here, we look at five eco-friendly ways to give your home that all important make-over.

One – ‘Green’ Paint and Wallpaper
Paints and finishes are among the most hazardous fumes found in the everyday household, as they release low level toxic emissions into the air for years after application.

Low- and No-VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) paints are odour-free and both are comparable in price to conventional painting methods. It’s that ‘freshly painted’ smell that signals the presence of harmful chemicals in paint, however for those of you looking to decorate using wallpaper, there are no such obvious signs.

Wallpaper became a very unpopular decorating choice in recent years but striking feature-walls are now an integral part of many designer interiors. Similar to paint, wallpaper is also a producer of harmful VOCs because of the inks used in manufacture. Eco-friendly wallpaper uses water-based inks, which are printed onto chlorine-free paper and sourced from managed forests. You can even find recipes for home-made wallpaper paste on the Internet, however, if that’s not really an option, low-VOC adhesive for light to medium-heavy paper-based wall decorations are readily available.

Two – Sustainable Flooring
Modular carpet tile squares are a great alternative to traditional carpet and are considerably easy to fit as they are usually 18” or 20” square and are simply held down by low-tack adhesive dots. The tiles are made from 100 per cent recycled materials and are delivered to your home. Plus, when you decide you want a new carpet you don’t have to feel environmentally wasteful because you simply send your old tiles away to be recycled into new ones for someone else. Look at it this way – if you spill red wine on the carpet there’s no need to panic, you only have to send that one square back and buy a new one! Alternatively, if it’s a unique rug you’re after, try designing your own with a variety of coloured and patterned squares that can be rearranged when the mood takes you.

For those of you, however, who simply want a professional to come round and fit a single layer of carpet, consider purchasing hemp flooring. Around a quarter of the world’s insecticides are used on cotton crops but hemp is so durable that it can be grown without any form of pesticides. If you’re traditional at heart and have always wanted wooden floors throughout your home, look for manufacturers who hold Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certificates – which signify their timber is purchased from a sustainable source.

On the other hand, cork, seagrass and bamboo are completely natural fibres that are fantastic as alternative flooring materials and grow in abundance – but the uses of bamboo can go a lot further than just the floor.

Three – Multi-functional Bamboo
Bamboo, although an excellent material for flooring, is actually suitable for use anywhere in the home, including kitchens and bathrooms, and can be used for work surfaces, cupboards and blinds – it can even be utilised as a toilet seat! Bamboo is an environmentally friendly and durable alternative to hardwood. It is a very sustainable resource and grows incredibly fast, unlike hard woods, for which manufacturers typically have to wait 60 years or more before it can be harvested. Bamboo reaches maturity in just five years at which point it can be harvested. It is competitively priced and very easy to fit, plus it is also less likely to form cracks and gaps over time due to expansion and contraction problems associated with temperature and humidity changes – such as steam from the shower.

Four – Eco-friendly Furnishings
Fortunately, those of us who do go out of our way to purchase organic and eco-friendly materials are no longer branded as ‘hippies’ or ‘tree-huggers’. There’s now a lot of choice available – on the Internet and on the high-street – when it comes to eco-friendly furnishings. Pliable cork chairs, for example, are very attractive and comfortable to sit on because they flex with your body weight. Cork is also waterproof and mould resistant – perfect for garden furniture as well.

Alternatively, consider re-upholstering your existing furniture with fresh fabric to give it a new lease of life – that way you’re being kind to the environment as well as to your wallet! Applying a wood stain will have a similar effect on tired furniture, just be sure to use natural beeswax or carnauba wax – it will also protect against discolouration from UV rays.

Five – Little extras around the home
It’s the little things around a home that make it feel cosy and lived in. Potted plants act as natural air filters and remove harmful chemicals and toxins from the immediate atmosphere, such as benezene and carbon monoxide. Peace lilies, bamboo palm and gerbera daisies are the most effective blooms to keep in your home.

Taking the time to decorate and furnish your home in an eco-friendly way could prove more time consuming and thought-provoking than doing it all the ‘mass-produced’ way. However, the environmental, health and style benefits are worth it, and the overall finished product doesn’t have to cost any more. Just spend five minutes having a look on the Internet, you’ll be surprised at what is available to you. Manufacturers really can make anything out of anything these days.