I don’t know about you but when spring comes, I like to change the colors of the home accents, from the curtains on the walls, to the rugs on the floor. Out go the curtains and area rugs with autumn colors of rust, brown, red, and greens shown, everything dark and gloomy and in come the renewing colors of spring.

Where do you start? I would start in the bedroom, where you generally start your day. Take down the dark colored insulated draperies, pack up the heavy comforter and roll up the dark colored area rug. Use lighter weight fabric with spring colors for your bedding and curtains and add a color coordinated area rug to pull the room together. Bring in the pinks, lavenders, yellows and blues of spring. Surrounding yourself with new colors will put spring in your step before drinking your morning coffee.

Stroll into your living or family room next. Is your area rug the focal point? Do the colors in the flooring coordinate with the fabrics of the
upholstered pieces in the room? Then perhaps, you can exchange the darker colored decorator pillows, and other accents to lighter tones.

Exchange the dark colored area or scatter rug in a lighter shade. If your sofa is a dark solid color and the rug a mixture of many patterns, choose a color that would coordinate and complement both pieces in lighter hues.

An example, your family room has a dark green sofa paired with an oriental rug lying in front with dark and light shades of green, gold, and brown. Currently decorating the sofa, are dark gold and rust colored pillows. How can you use the colors of the sofa and rug to change color?

Option One- Get a cream or celery colored throw to place on the sofa and accent it with pillows with the lighter colors of ivory, peach, celery, light gold, colors that blend with the colors on the rug yet give the room a much lighter feel.

Option Two Make or purchase a slipcover in a fabric color of lighter tones that compliment the rug. Toss on some pillows in the lighter shades and in an instant, your room has been transformed for Spring. Now, walk through the other rooms of your home and see how subtle changes can be made in the other rooms.

Do you have a rug as a runner in the hallway? Change it to a lighter hue. Don’t forget the kitchen! Changing the colors of the potholders, curtains and cotton rag rugs will boost your spirits from spring to autumn. Most of all, when you are changing colors for the seasons, surround yourself with the colors you love.

The American economic climate has come to a critical point where businesses are looking for new ways to reduce, reuse and recycle in order to become more sustainable and less harmful to the environment. Everyone wants to erase their carbon footprints, and many organizations are amerced in current trends of the social responsibility and ethical investment in environmental causes to help do so. Not every business can afford to adopt corporate sustainability programs as quickly as others, but there are many ways to improve sustainability without breaking another bank. Investing in recycled office furniture is a wonderful way to help the environment by conserving natural resources, energy usage, and reducing solid waste stream and pollution.

When you invest in recycled office furniture, fewer raw materials are being used. Remanufacturing conserves energy and overall natural
resources. Office furniture recycling extends the life cycle of resources already in circulation, such as aluminum, steel, plastics, fiber and wood. Recycling uses these resources over and over again to the fullest extent possible. Experts in the industry estimate that for each pound of natural resources used through remanufacturing, five to nine pounds of original raw materials are completely conserved.

When recycled, the products used in office furniture, as well as the natural resources, are diverted from the solid waste stream. It is estimated that 3 million tons of office furniture are discarded each year. Fabrics in panel systems tend to wear out or the colors become outdated. By remanufacturing the furniture, the fabrics can be replaced and updated. The office furniture will be returned to market for a second life cycle. This results in fewer products filling up landfill space and ruining the environment.

Recycling office furniture conserves energy used for labor and manufacturing. The amount of labor and energy required to remanufacture furniture is 85 to 95 percent less than what is required to produce a new product. Since the recycled furniture has already been manufactured, remanufacturing saves an enormous amount of energy required for production. Especially when metals are involved and are kept out of the re-smelting process.

Recycling reduces pollution caused by manufacturing furniture, which initially adds dangerous amounts of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrous oxides, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter into the environment. By reducing the amounts of these contaminants, global warming, acid rain, smog and other forms of air pollution will be reduced.