WRITTEN & ILLUSTRATED BY

Sally Ann Gething

Guide to Fabricating your bedroom

Teen’s

Eco-Friendly

We are in charge of our choices and actions. Us as human beings have the

power to impact anyone, anything and especially our earth. Earth have provided us with resources such as Food, minerals, materials and life its self. So why go Green? well, us humans have not being choosing the right choices for the big pic-ture, which is Earth, even until

now we are taking the easy way out by not caring. Going Green benefits

the Earth and our health, it preserves our natural resources and reduce tox-

ins! So do it for the Earth because by that you are doing it for you.

WhyGo

Green

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It our home and since we are responsible for our planet, we should take good care it. As a student you may think we cant make such a drastic help to the environment, well to those who do, you think wrong.

Earththis is

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There are lots of things us students can do and one of the most effective change is by Going Green, like Fabricating your bedroom Eco-friendly. Fab-ricating your bedroom for a start help you reduce your carbon footprint in

an instant because we uses renewable fuel and materials! Maintaining our natural resources by using sustainable materials. Even with little changes like

fabricating your room eco-friendly has such a big impact to the world!. Eco-friendly bedroom does not just benefit our earth it also better for ourselves,

family and also your money over the life time.

Going green in our everyday life isn’t as diffi-cult as you think! Today finding eco-friendly op-tions is becoming easier and easier! So lets go green and being a conscious consumer!.

So lets go green and be a conscious consumer

The health benefits us because of the toxin-free materials and benefits the environment at the same time since it uses

less energy and uses fewer natural resources, many of the materials used have recycled contents! Many people don’t realize that usual household items consist of harsh chemicals, pesticides and more, they are highly detrimental to the environment and our health!

Designing your

Bedroom

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3 starting steps1 Bed

The best way to start is to sketch out a simple design of your bedroom, com-plete with where the windows are and the doors. Then decide where you want to locate your bed, it is the most important thing, since.. it is called a “Bed room”

2Most teenagers have a study corner in their room, so if you are planning to

have one you then need to decide where it will go. The best place is to have it near the window because then with natural light can help you study in a bet-

ter environment and uses less energy since you can use natural ones.

Study desk

3If you are having a wardrobe in your bedroom thing about what kind of wardrobe are you planning to have and how big is it. Sketch it in your bedroom sketch and keep in mind the size that you want. Make sure you write down all the sizes in your sketch, the best way it to make a minimum and a maximum size.

Wardrobe

These three steps are the main idea to place the big furnitures. From here you can decide what theme would you like to have for your bed-room. Pick a theme that you really like. Once you know the theme think about your main colors and what other colors would go with it, then think about what accessories. The best way is to write it down on your sketch book what kind of colors would you like your bed to be, your desk, your wall even your carpets.

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My design sketch

My parents just bought a new house and i am so excited to recreate my new bedroom. This is my sketch of my bedroom. My theme is fluffy girly. I chose this theme mainly because i currently have my fluffy pink carpet that i absolutely love, so i have set the theme according to my carpet. Im thinking on having

one wall a bright color while the others are settled down town, this is to give it a little fun although i’m still confuse either to have it on my study corner wall or the wall behind my bed. So, this is my sketch of my new room, i’m still very uncertain with all the pinks and all the desks and furnitures to be black. I made the sketch from a birds eye view to see everything in de-tails.

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Understanding

Sustainability

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Sustainable materialsWhat are sustainable materials?

Sustainable materials are analyzed by the impact that they have towards our environment. When buying furni-tures it is very important to get sustainable materials. We often have to see from what is it made of, how much energy it consumes and the impact on our landscape if it discarded. It is having the least amount of en-ergy consumption, lack of emissions, waste.

Sustainable materials maintains our natural resources because we uses less energy and we do not use non-renewable fuels and materials. Using sustainable materials does not only benefit our environment due to eco-friendly they are but it is strong, last for a long time and it is durable. It also reduces your carbon footprint and consumption of natural materials! Using locally produced materials or even furnitures are a good way to start, not just that it will also be cheaper despite paying for the transportation. Eco-friendly materials, a vital compo-nent of sustainable building, come from renewable rather than nonrenewable resources. Such materials en-hance the health and efficiency of homes, but they also promote conservation of dwindling nonrenewable re-sources worldwide and reduce the overall impact associated with resource extraction, including transporta-tion, processing, fabrication and disposal of materials.

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Sustainable materials can either be natural or synthetic. Synthetic are man-made resources, usually made using natural materials that are then modified such as cardboard, wire, paper. While natural resources are not modified, wheat and tim-ber are examples of natural materials.

Should be:

• Resource efficiency

• Indoor air quality

• Energy Efficiency

• Water conservation

• Affordability

They are:

•Cork - renewable, recyclable material harvested from cork oak trees, preserving these valuable plantations.

•Bamboo - a super fast growing grass, very strong and uses less energy to har-vest than regular timber.

•Hay

•Straw - formaldehyde free, compressed straw or wheat, a waste by-product from harvesting.

•Felt - a non/woven cloth made from natural wool. A strong, versatile material

•Certified spruce ply - a well managed European softwood with minimal waste in processing and renewable.

•Hemp - strong durable fiber, with low fertilizer and pesticide demand and high carbon dioxide absorption.

•Bio/resin - petroleum free, bio-degradable and compostable plastics made from cornstarch

•Reclaimed materials - timber, steel, aluminum, plastic, fabric can all be effectively reused interesting ways

CORK

Choosing your

Materials

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Choosing your materialsConsider these

Should be: facts

• Recycled content and recyclability• Renewable materials• Certified wood• Local produce product• preserve materials • low-emitting materials• low or non toxic materials • Energy star equipment • sustainable purchasing policy

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Flooring

coverings made of wood (plank floor, parquet flooring), cork flooring most environmentally safe and clean. Wood would be one of the most recommended floor coverings because it is completely natural and also has an excellent heat and sound insulation. Wooden flooring needs to be taken care of but no worries, it doesn’t take much and with a good care they will last long. Not only that wooden flooring gives the room beauty yet comfort to the atmosphere.

One of the best wooden flooring is Parquet’s material which are made of elm, oak, birch and other hardwood trees. Using wood gives you a great eco-friendly advan-tages because it does not impede exchange which also preserves the indoor temperature.

PARQUET

LightingChange your light bulbs with energy saving ones!

This is a very simple way of going green! Simple change your regular light bulbs to a fluorescent light bulbs. Fluorescent light bulbs are more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs, according to Energy Star, a U.S. Environmen-tal Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy program. With a fluores-cent light bulb it gives you more advantages than regular lightbulbs, first of all it preserves energy which helps the environment and your electricity bills. “but when your lightbulb is not needed, don’t forget to switch of your light!. Every switch counts!”

Fluorescent light bulbs is 75% less energy than regular light bulbs yet last 10 times longer!.

If every Ameri-

can uses fluorescent light bulb they would save

enough energy to light more than 3 million homes per year which save $700 million and is equivalent to 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gases, or the

annual emission of 800,000 cars.

fun facts

walls

Wallpaper have been quite popular be-cause of its low cost and their varieties of designs and

colors. Using wallpaper is also a really nice touch to decorat-ing your room, since they have lots of choices in shapes, de-signs and colors we are able to chose in which are suitable for our bedrooms. It can create fullness, add a bit of a pop and even highlights your room. Make sure you get natural wallpapers that are made of herbs such as bamboo, rattan, cork, jute, cane, sisal and more than two hundred other natu-ral materials. They “breathe” and maintain the optimum level of humidity in the room. In comparison with other types of wallpa-per these have excellent sound insolation. Another obvious advantage is that natural wallpapers have bactericidal properties and are anti static.

Wallpaper VOC stands for Volatile Or-ganic Compound which are basically or-ganic chemicals. At room temperature they have high vapor pressures which results from a low boiling point. The result from these low boiling points is that the liquid or solid substance evapo-rates quickly into the surrounding air.

VOC Free paint is paint that doesn’t contain VOC, hence the name, VOC free paint. There are a number of benefits that come from VOC free paint some of them are that they have much more less toxin than paint

that contain VOC which means it is both safer for the environment and the painter themselves. The majority of people who pur-chase this VOC free paints are seeking to find paint that are actually better for there health because of the decreased amount of toxin that comes with it, but there is also a very common misconception that these paints even though having low VOC amounts or no VOC at all may come from “natural paint” which are the kind of paints that come from clay, lime, chalk and linseed oil.

paint

Bedding

Bedding product that are made with natural fibers and with no chemical treat-

ments is one of the best for your good night’s sleep. If you prefer innerspring mattress—steel coils sur-rounded by layers of fluffy padding—you can rest easy on beds made from organic cotton and wool, with steel coils that aren't coated in chemicals. Or for some people prefer a solid-foam mattress, you can opt for latex made from the milky sap of rubber trees.

MattressYou may not be so con-scious but your common bedsheets contains lot of harsh chemical dyes, pesticides (from cotton plants) and more. These bedsheets are manu-factured horribly for the earth!

To get the best eco-friendly bed sheets, follow these two steps! ps: This goes with pillow cases!

bedsheets ‘n’ curtains

What are they made our of? Are they completely cotton? Are they a blend?. The best choice it to always go organic or free trade cotton. This means that no pesticides were used to grow the cotton the sheets are made from and fair trade means that they were made through ethical methods. Organic cotton sheets may be a bit pricier but they are well worth it.

Look for sheets that haven’t been dyed using chemicals. Chemi-cal dying process uses unharmonious substances and releases chemical fumes into the air. It is best to buy sheets that were dyed with vegetable and soy based dyes, this guarantee your sheets are eco-friendly!.

Step 1:

Step 2:

Go Creative

Get Inspired and make your own decoration! Remember to go Green while you’re at it!

Create your own table with just a shelf! Its easy to use and very creative! All you need is Non-VOC paint (make sure the color is the same as the shelf). Sketch the design of the desk that you like then paint over it and place the shelf where it looks like a table! This is great in your room and such rare look! Go for it! It doesn’t cost much and doesn’t use much wood! SO ECO!

your very own side table

no more empty walls!

Be create with the empty wall space you have in your room and a great way to do it is by adding pictures. Print lots of pictures of good memories and simply stick them to your wall! You can even make shapes out of them creating a little memory wall. by doing this you add up more color to your room and makes it even more attractive. This will also work with posters! Even your favorite cd albums or simple your collection! don’t be afraid to show them off!