We’ve talked about bamboo before and its multiple uses–flooring, building, even clothing! And now: sinks. Yes, you can have a beautiful bamboo sink in your kitchen.

Charles and Hudson recently blogged about the rising usage of bamboo sinks. According to Charles and Hudson, the sinks have a laminated coating, so they can be used like any other sink. Plus they come in the option of over-and under-mounted.

What do you think? Is this a stylish green alternative? Or is the idea of a wood (actually, technically grass) sink just too weird?

Image courtesy of Charles and Hudson

Now that the fire pit has become a standard for backyard recreation, consumers are benefiting from a burgeoning range of choices. When it comes to entertaining guests, nothing beats the warm glow of a fire on a cool summer night. The question is which fire pit is right for your home?

Homeowners can settle for a simple portable fire pit that wheels away when the winter months come, or turn it into a full-on landscaping project. Either way, when done right, a fire pit creates a perfect centerpiece for your backyard.

Here are some fire pit concepts that will leave you reaching for the chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers:

I love the woodpile and storage system. This is a great layout for sprucing up a corner space. The stone benches are a great touch, too, but be considerate of the distance from the fire. The nice thing about non-stationary seating is you can move forward and back as necessary. If you’ve got a large backyard to fill, consider an isolated fire pit area away from the home.

Gas fire pits generally allow for more unique design options. Another upside is avoiding the mess of firewood altogether. This design, with its simple, clean lines, works well with an understated back porch. Gas fire pits are generally easier to contain, so go gas if you’ve got awnings and trees to consider.

The range of options may seem overwhelming, but a fire pit is more than just an accessory – it’s an opportunity.

A fire pit area looks best when it appears to be a natural extension of the house. If you’re already considering a landscaping project, a fire pit can help shape the design and create an inviting common space. Just be sure to provide ample space around the fire for passersby.

Photos courtesy of Eichler Homes, Patio Planet, and Ask the Landscape Guy

While perusing Remodelista, we came across this little gadget: the Soda Stream Pure Sparkling Water Maker. Basically, you can make your own sparkling water at home.

It certainly is an unusual kitchen gadget, and so we must ask: genius or useless? On the one hand, as the manufacturer points out, there’s a certain green aspect to this: no more using up cans and bottles of soda water (it comes with two bottles). And it doesn’t even require electrical power! All you do is fill the machine with tap water and begin pumping.

And yet, unless you and your family are huge sparkling water fans, how much will this really be used? Perhaps if you are having a party, it might come in handy for serving your guests drinks. But at $149.95, it might take a lot of bottles and cans to make up this cost.

Let us know in the comments: Would you spend money on this, or is it another kitchen gadget with limited usage?

Photo courtesy of Williams-Sonoma

There’s been a lot of ink spilled lately about alternative energy on a macroeconomic scale. But what about ways you can use these new forms personally?

It seems like every other cornfield now has been given over to wind energy. No doubt these massive structures can provide great benefit to companies and cities. If you wanted to experiment however, it was a little difficult. But now there are some options.

Looking similar, though on a smaller scale than the average wind turbine, the Proven Energy 2.5 kW 300 V Wind Turbine Grid Tie can be used for personal energy usage. As Luxury Housing Trends points out, it’s not cheap, but the company’s promise of their product powering a three-bedroom house (minus heat) might make it worthwhile over the long run.

For an wind energy option that provides less power but is small enough to go on the roof of your house, check out our recent profile of the WindTronics wind turbine, which was on display at this year’s International Builders Show.

Also via Luxury Housing Trends, we have a new option for solar power. It’s an easy, low-maintenance kit. According to the site, the Sunforce 39626 160-Watt High-Efficiency Polycrystalline Solar Power Kit has “weatherproof solar cells…made with an aluminum frame and tempered glass coverings to ensure that they’re durable enough to withstand the elements. This kit comes with two 80-watt polycrystalline solar panels, a 200-watt power inverts, a 30-amp digital charge controller, a voltage tester and a wiring kit with mount accessories included.”

Have you thought of using wind energy, solar power or other forms of alternative energy in your home?

Photo courtesy of nualabugeye on Flickr

A recent piece from AOL’s DIY Life blog shares news of three “game-changing” green technology products. Among the most interesting are a set of smart grid-enabled appliances that give users all sorts of details about energy consumption and some ways to control and reduce energy use — and, therefore, the amount spent to run those appliances.

The basic idea is that electricity costs more when increased demand — from, say, loads of air conditioner use on a steamy afternoon — puts more strain on the electrical grid. Smart grid-enabled appliances can help reduce peak-time use, reduce environmental impact and save you money. For example, “The smart-grid refrigerator delays the defrost cycle from occurring during peak hours, when it goes into energy saving mode. According to GE, one participant’s energy-efficiency efforts with refrigerator usage over 10 weekdays showed over a 20% reduction of energy used during peak hours.”

Meanwhile, CNet.com’s Green Tech blog says many of these smart-grid gizmos are starting to become more consumer-friendly — which you’d think would have been the idea from the get-go. The photo at right shows just one of these applications, a cell phone running the Web-based PowerMeter application from Google (yes, the search company).

Have you seen any interesting advancements in green tech lately? Have you had any first-hand experiences with smart-grid technology? Let us know in the comments.

Apartment Therapy recently featured some self watering planters — perfect for those of us with irregular schedules or who can’t quite remember that all living things need water! Now, they’re not completely maintenance free — you will have to put water in every so often. But once the water is in, you can sit back and watch your plants grow.

There are quite a few options out there, but our favorite is the Grobal Self-Watering Planter designed by Karim Rashid (see some of his work for the myMarvin project here). The Grobal comes in enough colors to satisfy any decorating scheme and features Rashid’s signature curvy lines. With something as easy as this, there’s no excuse not to try growing something this summer!

Photo courtesy of A + R

Calfinder recently featured these lights, and they are so cool that we had to share them with you.

By tehrani baylis DESIGN(tbD), this light uses a simple jar to create an extraordinarily chic statement piece that is especially perfect for the kitchen. It’s all hand-assembled with durable materials and when you need to change the bulb, you just take off the lid of the jar. What a great way to use an everyday material to make a necessary, yet stylish appliance!

To learn more, please visit tbD’s website.

Photo courtesy of Calfinder.

Wow…that’s all we have to say about this. A 2.4 cubic feet kitchen. Yes, you read that right: 2.4 cubic feet. For a kitchen.

It’s the Superconductor from Avanti and it contains a fridge, sink, two electric burners and two drawers. It even has a nice backsplash. In one tiny bit of space, you can store perishables and other food, cook on a stovetop and even wash dishes. Add in a microwave and a toaster oven, and you could have a complete kitchen that could go in a corner of your house.

The Superconductor could work for a variety of situations: dorm rooms, apartments with roommates, offices, even regular homes that need a little more kitchen power. What an amazing product! Do you think that you could get used to cooking and using such a compact kitchen?

Image courtesy of Avanti.

Have you ever found yourself fumbling for words while trying to describe your vision for what you want your living room to look like? Are you the type who might tear a photo out of a magazine and hold it up to the wall to see how that look might work in your home? Marvin’s “Window Shopping” iPhone app is for you.

The Window Shopping app is a tool to help homeowners plan basic designs for windows and doors, inside and outside the house. After taking a photo of an interior or exterior space that could use an upgrade, the app user can choose from nearly 50 resizable photos of Marvin windows and doors, arrange them over the photo, and save or send the photo to share with friends, family or a local Marvin dealer. Watch a demo video below, or visit www.marvin.com/iphone to see some sample “before and after” photos and to download the app for free.

The app includes interior and exterior views of several Marvin windows, as well as the five unique windows designed by Karim Rashid, Milton Glaser, Sarah Susanka and others as part of the myMarvin project. Users also can choose from an array of entry doors, interior doors and patio doors, offering a full lineup for redesigning the interior or exterior of a home. Window Shopping also includes automatically updating feeds from MLuxe and a special “Green Feed,” a series of articles and resources about energy efficiency and sustainability.

Once a homeowner creates and saves a design idea, a Marvin dealer can bring the design to life by helping personalize windows or doors with the desired hardware, wood choices, colors, energy-efficiency ratings and so on. A dealer-locator tool is built into the app, which makes it easy to turn a homeowner’s design dream into a reality.

We recently wrote a piece titled “Green products or Greenwashed” that shared some resources to help you investigate whether a product that makes claims of environmental friendliness is really as friendly as the manufacturer wants you to think. Cleaning products are one realm that’s full of products carrying eco-friendly claims, but even if a product is actually “green,” there’s another important factor to consider: Does it work?

The Web is full of reviews of these green cleaning products, so a few Google searches will likely help you track down what you’re looking for. You’d probably do well to check out certain well-known and trusted resources for all things “green,” like Inhabitat, Re-Nest and other popular Web sites.

A pair of writers for AssociatedContent.com dug deep into the range of cleaning products offered by Method and Seventh Generation. Remember, too, that “green cleaning products” aren’t limited to eco-friendly brands like Method or Seventh Generation. It can also include items like vinegar or boric acid. Grist.com offers a round-up of cleaners ranging from baking soda to brands like Mrs. Meyer’s.

So while sites like Good Guide can help you determine how environmentally (and socially) responsible a company or product is, it’ll take a bit of extra digging — or just your own trial and error — to determine what will get the job done.