Green Furniture

Apr 24

I’ll be the first person to bang on about how important it is to furnish your home with what you love and not be a victim of the moment’s fashion, but I have to admit I do get a flash of satisfaction when the interwebs tell me that green furniture is “on trend.” And when I say “green furniture” I mean it in both the environmental and color sense.

Green Furniture is IN!

Homes and Gardens is all about green colored furniture, painted furniture and thrifted vintage pieces for their 2024 trends. Green has been called “the new neutral.” and a “must have” color for any room in the home. Search queries for green kitchen cabinets are through the roof (smug sidenote - I painted my kitchen cabinets green in 2020) as the ubiquitous blue cabinet trend wanes. I’ve loved the color green forever, as my first ever blog post explained. Those who have been watching my furniture creations evolve will have seen a green dresser or green cabinet pop up as frequently as I allow them to! Even when the main color of the piece is something else, green tends to creep into the wallpaper color palette I choose. This black and green cabinet is a good example.

Murray may be all sophisticated black on the outside, but his true character is created with the green, cream and orange toned lapidary wallpaper on the inside.

Green is a highly versatile color that comes in a wide range of shades, from soothing pastels to vibrant emeralds. For a sophisticated color scheme I would always counsel interior design clients to build in a range of a specific color into an interior design palette. So, if you love sage green for example, try to add deeper green accents such as a forest green or a dark olive. The huge range of tones we term “green” allows you to easily incorporate green into any design scheme, whether you prefer a minimalist, modern look or a cozy and traditional feel. Green can be used as a dominant color or as an accent to add depth and interest to a room.

If you’re reading this blog as a newbie to the wonders of green furniture, take a look at some of the gorgeous color palettes you can pull off with a piece of green furniture such as a green coffee table or green dresser as part of the scheme.

Green Furniture with Neutrals

Green with neutrals such as brown, black, white and other tones of greens is an obvious place to start.

The green display cabinet in this image creates the focal point of the room. Along with cream, browns and a light rust color, the color palette pulls the room together to create a comfortable but earthy toned space.

Kali the Kaleidoscope Cabinet is a revamping of a 1930s china cabinet. I kept the gorgeous wood veneer on the doors where it was in good shape but added a deep green to the base and top and a dazzling cactus kaleidoscope style wallpaper to the back to make the piece work for a less fusty time. It’s a green cabinet in both senses of the word!

In this living room featuring a green coffee table as well as green upholstered pieces, the rich forest green is contrasted with clean bright white and some hints of gold. The inclusion of a tall palm lifts the green tones up off the floor and adds a feeling of tropical luxury.

This green cabinet is more like an accessory than a piece of furniture. It can sit on a table top. Whether you’re using it to display plantlife, treasures or as a shrine, a little green accent is always welcome in a home.

green dresser — Squire the Squirrel Dresser

My Squire the Squirrel piece was inspired by the similarity in shape to one of those old-timey orchard ladders that narrows towards the top, especially when the drawers are pulled out like rungs. This green dresser seemed like the kind of piece some squirrels would love to play on!

This green coffee table was nearly red, I must admit. Stella had a kind of colorful Romany flair in my mind, but she ended up green and gold with her beautiful natural wood top being accented with a star.

Green Furniture with Blue

Green is, quite obviously, associated with nature and the outdoors. Hopefully this connection conjures feelings of tranquility and serenity for you. By bringing the color green into your home, you can create a sense of connection to the natural world, even in urban environments. I live smack bang in the middle of the city of San Francisco, but you might mistake my living space for a jungle because it’s so important for me to have plants around me. Green plants, green walls, or green furniture can help to infuse a space with a calming and rejuvenating energy.

Other than keeping it simple by using greens with neutrals, there are many other ways to include green furniture in a color palette. A green and blue color scheme can be an excellent way to create a sense of peace in a room.

The light blue walls and ceiling with green toned lower half of this room evokes an outdoor color palette with a blue sky and green fields. The cream tones add a soft cloud like effect.

These soft dark green nightstands highlighted with woodland wallpaper from designer Timorous Beasties continue to be a fan favorite and the pair of nightstands sold very quickly!

I was encouraged to create another single green nightstand in a similar green tone, this time with a more modern and geometric style. This time I used a wallpaper from Hygge and West. Although originally intended as a nightstand, this adaptable furniture piece can be used as a green side table in a living room.

Green Furniture with Pink

A less expected green color scheme is one that incorporates a salmon pink. This can be a lovely way to warm up a palette.

The key with a green and pink color scheme is getting the right tones of each color. I’ve been playing around with AI generated images of various rooms and I can tell you, it takes a designer’s eye and not a computer’s to pick the exact green and pink colors that prevent this potentially stunning palette being an eyesore!

Beatrice is another great example of black on the outside, green on the inside. I am obsessed with this wallpaper from designer Mind The Gap. This black, pink and green cabinet might be one of my favorite pieces I’ve made.

Green Furniture with Yellow and Orange

This green dresser gave me a chance to combine a paint color with gorgeous natural woodgrain. When I found Tiger Lily, she was covered in a peeling map that someone had optimistically papered onto her. Although some of the woodgrain on the case was too badly damaged the drawer fronts looked stunning once they were sanded and coated.

The addition of the yellow and orange tiger lily flowers gave me an opportunity to bridge the gap between the painted and varnished finishes in an unexpected and contemporary way.

For a green color palette combination, add some bright yellow or vibrant orange! In small doses, these tones can act like a citrus burst on the tongue.

Green Furniture as in Environmentally Friendly

As for the environmental angle, the research boffins at Grand View Research are predicting consumer preference for sustainably made and recycled furniture to continue to grow rapidly over the next few years. “Rising awareness among consumers towards sustainable production of furniture products has largely influenced the adoption of eco-friendly furniture in residential spaces. Consumer inclination towards selecting furniture for their homes made from recyclable materials that do not harm the environment and society.”

Why is Environmentally Green Furniture Important?

The issues with standard furniture can be split into three areas

1. When new furniture is being made we are using the planet’s resources. Mostly, when it comes to tables and casegoods, this means wood from forests that aren’t necessarily being replanted as fast as they are depleted. The manufacturing process usually uses fossil fuels to power factory machinery and sometimes creates unclean wastewater as a bi-product. Add in the fuel required to ship your furniture across the world from the locations in which all or some of the components are made, and the tax on the planet gets up there. If you buy vintage, and especially if you buy local, you can avoid this negative impact.

2. Once the new furniture is in your home, you need to be careful about the chemicals that the furniture is dispersing. Called “off-gassing”, this process can leave carcinogenic chemicals such as formaldehyde, chlorinated tris and TCEP in the air that you breathe and the dust your home accumulates. For more on these chemicals, this website is a good resource. These chemicals typically dissipate over the first few months which means that vintage or second hand pieces will be much healthier for your home as they have had plenty of time to rid themselves of these chemicals.

One exception is second-hand foam filled upholstered furniture. If you buy this, make sure that the foam inside has been replaced with a more modern, volatile organic compound (VOC) free version, especially if the foam is disintegrating. In many states and countries, it used to be compulsory to add flame retardant chemicals to upholstered furniture. This was meant well, especially in the days when falling asleep on the couch with a lighted cigarette in your hand seemed to be a frequent occurrence. Perhaps you’re old enough to remember those public service ads from the 80s? Unfortunately, these flame retardants turned out to be carcinogenic so now most states and countries prevent these substances from being added to furniture and insist on flame retardancy being achieved by other means.

Another useful thing to know is that solid wood furniture has far fewer chemicals in it to start with. This is because composite woods or particle board require lots of adhesive to stick the wood particles together. The glue is often the biggest source of undesirable chemicals.

3. When you are finished with your furniture, unless you can resell it or donate it, it will end up in a massive landfill site. I wrote about this issue in my blog post “F-waste Sounds Like a Swear Word But…”. “Fast furniture” is a term for furniture that is made cheaply and not expected to last. These kind of pieces will often break before you would otherwise be done with them. This makes them impossible to resell and even more likely to end up quickly in landfill while you have to purchase a replacement and start the cycle all over again. The obvious way to avoid this is to buy high quality items that will last and that you will love for many, many years to come. If you’re buying vintage or second-hand, and keeping those pieces out of landfill, even more brownie points for you!

What to Look For When Buying New Green Furniture

If you have to buy new furniture it’s important to look for these things:

Certified Sustainable Wood: Look for furniture made from wood that is certified by organizations like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which ensures that the wood is sourced from sustainably managed forests.
Reclaimed Wood: Furniture made from reclaimed wood not only adds character to your home but also reduces the demand for new wood and helps to minimize waste.
Bamboo: Bamboo is a fast-growing and renewable resource that is popular in green furniture manufacturing. It is versatile, durable, and has a minimal environmental impact.

In case it’s not already obvious, you can achieve all of your environmentally healthy and aesthetic goals by looking for vintage or “re-imagined” furniture that is painted green. What a winning combo! And I’m here to help you with that. Take a look through the pieces currently available at FOUND and see if you can find a green furniture piece to adopt (and then brag about!).

Sarah Bashford