When it comes to beautifying your home’s interior, there’s a myriad of ideas to manifest. Whether it’s a new coat of paint that’s to be applied to every wall, or a furniture installation that you’d like to try out for your living room, just having a say on what your home should look like can give you a boost in terms of ego and morale.

However, if you want to be a responsible homemaker, it’s important to remember that this isn’t the only home you’re working to beautify and maintain. You’re also partially responsible for the earth’s health and wellness. This means that you need to make sure that how you customize your space wouldn’t harm the world, but instead, better it and become a responsible steward.

It might seem like a trivial thing, but according to a study conducted by the US Environmental Agency, people throw out 12 million tons of furniture on a yearly basis. Producing that much trash regularly can prove to be cataclysmic if not curbed. And if you’re living in the only viable home planet suited for living things in the solar system, taking care of it comes in your best interest. Here are a few sustainable interior design tips for your Amoa home.

Evaluate What Comes In Your Home

When you’re working with interior design, a lot of elements come into play. Whether it’s furniture, paints or other textiles, these things become a part of your home’s aesthetics. That being said, it goes without saying that these shouldn’t pose a danger to you nor the denizens of your home. It should also be environmentally-friendly and, if possible, reusable and recyclable.

An example of a potentially harmful substance would be the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) found in most paints, adhesives, air fresheners – sometimes even furniture, floor rugs and tapestries. In concentrated amounts inside the walls of your home, VOCs can prove to be a health hazard and have been known to cause eye and/or throat irritation, headaches, nausea, liver damage, and in extreme cases, even cancer. In order to avoid this (or minimize the damage VOC can cause), look for paints that are Green Seal-Certified. You can also employ the use of paint thinners, adhesives and other products that don’t produce as much damage to your home’s inhabitants. 

When it comes to furniture, just choose materials that are natural since VOCs come from artificially-made fibers and items. It’s also important to buy furniture that you’re certain isn’t involved in the illegal logging trade. Buying these supports that kind of damaging practice and if you want to protect the environment, it’s best to buy from suppliers that have sustainability in mind.

For tabletops and counters, while it seems tempting to get plastic-based furniture, it’s best to get ones made out of organic materials. Getting furniture made out of artificial or synthetic materials can potentially be harmful to you and the environment in the same way VOCs are. It’s important to make better, more sustainable investments by choosing materials that are made out of marble or some other related stone material.

For carpets or tapestries, make sure to purchase those made out of natural materials. Some carpets and rugs are made out of synthetic materials that are full of VOCs and these can potentially pose a hazard to you and the environment. Get the ones made out of wool, cotton or plant materials.

Note that while this costs more time and resources than the regular items you can find at the mall, it’ll also be more sustainable in the long run. Not only are you able to protect your own health and those who live in your home, you’d be doing Mother Nature a favor as well.

Let The Light Shine From Within

Remember that your home consumes utility, meaning electricity and water. Considering that the effort that creates electricity and water for you to use isn’t unlimited, it’s important to make sure that nothing goes to waste. What that means is that you need to optimize the way you consume these utilities in order to help Mother Nature and, at the same time, make bills sustainably lower as time passes by.

You might be wondering what interior design has to do with any of this. For one, lighting is an important factor when it comes to your home’s internal aesthetics. Light bulbs and lamps, especially if they aren’t LED ones, contribute a lot to the consumption of resources. The solution is to simply open up your home to natural lighting – the best kind of lighting around.

In order to achieve this, you might want to place mirrors or any related glass in every room of your home so light gets to bounce around them. If you want to keep your privacy while at the same time letting the light in, roller blinds are your best bet. Otherwise, freeing up your windows from heavy curtains and blinds is the best way to allow natural light to come in. If the light from the windows doesn’t cut it, just buy LED floor lamps and light bulbs to aid in lighting up your home. For your award-winning Amoa home, light can easily pass through ventanillas while still preserving a sense of privacy.

When it comes to saving up water, having decorative bowls and buckets in your sinks and bathrooms is a good idea. Not only do you have flashy looking bowls and buckets to hold water, you feel good using them too. The point is, however, to lessen water consumption and, using bowls and buckets for cleaning your hands, brushing your teeth or taking a bath is much more resourceful than having it continuously run down the drain.

Unleash Your Inner Plantita/ Plantito

One of the more fascinating trends that came about in the Pandemic is the taking care of home plants. The Plantita/ Plantito phenomenon has gripped the Philippines as a way for people stuck at home to cope with the lockdowns and quarantine measures set up. Unlike most trends though, this one isn’t particularly wasteful and can, in fact, help you and the environment in more ways than one. If your Amoa home has a porch, it could be used as a mini green wall where you can nurture many plants.

Apart from being a sight for sore eyes in a four-walled room that you see on an almost routine basis, plants provide oxygen and help filter out bad elements and chemicals in the air. The more plants you have in and out of your home, the better the ambience and air quality would be. In the long run, it’s something you might want to spend more time and resources for.

Of course, it goes without saying that you need to find plants that aren’t endangered. You’d also like to invest in plants that are native to the Philippines. This is because invasive plant species can cause devastating damage to ecosystems, so make sure you get those that are endemic to your area.

At the end of the day, interior design is about making your home look and feel better and more beautiful. Nothing can be more beautiful than Mother Nature herself and taking care of her through all the things you do (like interior design) can mean a better home for those who live in this planet.

It helps if the developer you’re working with is eco-conscious and strives to protect the planet you live in. AboitizLand follows the principles of New Urbanism which promotes wide open spaces and environmentally-sound practices when it comes to the planning of a community. Amoa, being one of its master-planned communities in Compostela, Cebu is built with open areas and parks inspiring its vecinos to customize their own space so they can be closer and friendlier to nature. If you’re interested in taking a virtual tour of, visit this link: https://bit.ly/AmoaVirtualTour2.