It’s a completely normal ideal to want your home to be beautiful, due to the amount of time most people spend indoors in modern society. Your home is your sanctuary, the place that offers you some reprieve from the stresses of the outside world, from responsibilities at work, to the inconveniences of rush hour traffic.

However, redecorating your home doesn’t have to be done in a way that is harmful to the environment; in fact, there are several things you can do to reduce the carbon footprint of your home, while still creating the beautiful aesthetic that you desire.

Here are five eco-friendly décor ideas for your home to help inspire you.

Buy refurbished, recycled and second hand furniture

A lot of people are under the misconception that second-hand furniture is always of a substandard quality that wouldn’t be suitable for a modern and stylish home. However, in many cases this absolutely isn’t true, as there are a wide variety of reasons why a person may opt to get rid of their furniture, such as it not being to their individual tastes, because they are downsizing homes, or because they have changed the design of their home in a way in which the furniture no longer suits.

Therefore, if you’re willing to overlook the fact that the items have been preloved, you can find a number of cost effective deals on beautiful furniture, ranging from vintage to modern, that will not only save you money but also help reduce the carbon footprint of your household. There are a wide variety of places that you can buy second hand and refurbished furniture from, such as thrift stores, charity shops, and independent retailers, both instore and online.

Use organic paints

Organic and natural paints are a much healthier and more eco-friendly alternative to typical enamels, which often emit harmful unseen fumes and chemicals which can be hazardous to your wellbeing. Organic paints are much better for allergy sufferers and for those who spent a lot of their time indoors, as they contain much lower percentages of volatile organic chemicals (or VOCs for short). It is possible that eco-friendly paints may require more maintenance, and have fewer ranges of colours available due to the limited resources needed to make them, but if you are committed to bringing down the carbon footprint of your home, this is a great option for the health and wellbeing of both your family and the environment.

Make sustainable energy a feature

The curb appeal of your home is just as important as the interior aesthetic, so if you want to decorate your home in a way that supports the environment, then what better way to showcase that than to make sustainable energy an eye-catching decorative feature in its own right; solar panels from Green Power Technology, with the sleek monochromatic nature of their design, are an aesthetically pleasing yet practical home feature.

Of course, the main benefit of solar panels is that they provide sustainable energy for your house, reducing the amount of money spent on using energy consumption from the national grid. Additionally, there are also some further incentives to solar panels, such as being able to sell money back to your energy supplier if you produce more than your household can use.

Decorate with plants

Not every home décor element has to be professionally manufactured or sourced from renowned designers; in fact, some of the simplest and most beautiful design features are provided by nature. Plants, flowers, and other natural decorative elements, such as rockeries,can create wonderful features within the home, adding depth, natural colour and a vibrant atmosphere to your living space. Due to the wide range of textures, colours, heights and sizes that organic products come in, there are a wide range of different options to choose from to suit your home aesthetic.

Use sustainable materials

If you do decide to buy new elements of décor, the more sustainable materials that you can use in your home, the better. For example, many plastics go through an extensive, costly and environmentally damaging process in order to be manufactured, and so these products should be avoided where possible.

Sustainable wood is one of the better options to choose from for furniture, especially as they tend to be more durable and longer lasting than man-made materials. When choosing the best sustainable products for your home, consider not only how the product was manufactured, but also the shipping process, the impact of sourcing supplies to make the product, the life expectancy of the product, and whether or not it can be recycled or reused in the future.