We at MLuxe often learn from and link to the popular green-design and sustainability blog Inhabitat. It’s a great resource for anyone looking to make his or her home a little more earth-friendly without sacrificing style or cutting-edge technology. Because Inhabitat is such a popular resource on the Web, Marvin Windows is excited to partner with the site to produce an upcoming series of interviews with a great lineup of green-home experts.

The series will include interviews with interior designer Zem Joaquin, architect and author Sarah Susanka, energy-efficiency expert David Johnston and Marvin Windows product planner Christine Marvin. Last week, the series kicked off with a great list of tips on “greening your home” from architect Eric Corey Freed. From the article:

Greening your home can provide numerous financial, health and environmental benefits; from making your air healthier, to cutting down your energy bill, to lowering your carbon footprint. Most people like the idea of “greening” their home, but many are daunted by complex technical information and don’t where to begin. Happily, eco architect and green building expert Eric Corey Freed has stepped in to distill the process of greening your home into 5 easy steps: increasing insulation, get a thermostat, conserve water through smart technology, overhaul your roof and upgrade your lighting. We sat down with this organicARCHITECT to take notes on his 5 steps to a greener home – read on for the full scoop!

image courtesy of Inhabitat

We live an a world with an astonishing amount of food choices. You can eat an apple, or pick up a ready-to-heat apple “pie” at the gas station, for example. As we get further and further from our food sources, and even from the simple act of home cooking, it gets harder to know what in your food is, well, food. Nutrition experts may argue over the healthiest things to eat, but one thing is pretty clear: overly processed food isn’t good for you or the planet.

For help in making healthy (and perhaps by extension, green) food choices, Darya Pino, Ph.D, made a humorous flow chart at Summer Tomato to help you figure out if what you’re shopping for is food. It’s tongue-in-cheek, but it does make you think. Take a look, have a chuckle and make healthy and green food shopping choices!

We spoke to designers, architects, builders and others in the home and fashion industries. As we had those conversations, some topics kept cropping up.

So, here’s what the experts are talking about: the top trends for 2011 in home building and design.

Trend #1: New Life for Old Materials

It’s more than merely recycling. It’s finding ways to turn substance into style — by taking raw material from one source and repurposing it in a completely unexpected way.

From metal tiles made of reclaimed airplane parts to countertops and wall panels made of recycled glass bottles, these innovative reworkings are adding creative flair – and sustainable substance — to homes across America.

Trend #2: Designing For Yourself
Americans are staying longer in their homes. With that comes a desire to make their homes fit their lifestyle. People aren’t designing a home to be as bland as possible for the next buyer – they’re designing it for themselves, to be lived in to the fullest.

In keeping with this, architects and designers say there’s a new definition of value. It’s not about the lowest price.

It’s about quality, durability and getting the style and the performance you want from the products in your home, whether that’s a sofa or a picture window.

Trend #3: Natural Materials
If it sprouted from the earth, designers are finding a way to use it in homes.

Flooring is one area where you might find a surprising substance under your feet – like palm, for example. How about wallcoverings made of banana trees? Ceiling tiles of jute? And while not as exotic as these other materials, sustainably grown pine can be found in window frames and other structural elements.

These products deliver beauty and durability along with their eco-friendly origins. The use of natural materials is still in its infancy in mainstream housing – but expect to see them more and more in the future.

Trend #4: Trad-Mod
As the name suggests, these are traditional elements with a modern twist – a little sleeker, a little surprising. Examples include streamlined living and dining room sets, silk chandeliers and casement windows that simulate the look of a classic double hung.

Trend #5: Relaxed Outdoor Living
Forget the elaborate outdoor kitchens of a few years ago. Outdoor living is still important to American homeowners, but they’re going for a more relaxed, low-key version. Think fireplaces and fire pits, comfortable outdoor seating and dining areas, interesting lighting and simple counter space.

And to connect indoors and out, energy-efficient patio doors – either sliding or swinging — are a must.

Trend #6: Energy Efficiency and Sustainability
No list of home trends would be complete without these topics – and they only get more important every year. The largest annual study of American homebuying preferences, by AVID Ratings, found that four of the top 10 desired home features involve energy efficiency. So, alongside such features as walk-in closets and kitchen islands, American homebuyers want:

• Energy-efficient windows
• Energy-efficient appliances
• High-efficiency insulation

Sustainability includes conserving water, maximizing natural heat and light, and using low-VOC materials (volatile organic compounds). Quality and durability are also part of the sustainability picture. Well-built, high quality home products last longer — and don’t end up in landfills.

Many thanks to the experts who shared their 2011 predictions. Special thanks to

Christine L. Albertsson AIA, CID, NCARB, Albertsson Hansen Architecture, Ltd.

Kurt Gough, A-AIA, Shelter Architecture

Susan Nackers Ludwig, Residential Architect

In honor of our last post of 2010, we’ve decided to round up our most popular posts ever. Below are the top 10. Enjoy and we will see you next year for more great home living information! Thanks for reading this year.

• Built Around You: Laundry in a Closet
• Remodeling Using ‘Quality Over Quantity’
• Unusual homes: Cool conversions
• How To: Grow Tomatoes Upside Down
• Space-saving ideas for small spaces
• Built Around You: Stylish Bathroom Overhaul
• Small on Space, Big on Style
• New Uses for Old Windows
• Amazing Windows Created By Amazing Artists
• myMarvin Architect’s Challenge: Lake Cottage

Christmas is over and now it’s time to take down all those decorations and get ride of everything holiday. But how do you do that in an environmentally friendly manner? Our blogger friends have some tips to help you out.

Now that the presents are unwrapped, something has to be done with all the wrapping paper and bows. But what? If you are into reusing things, save them. It’s easy to use bows again. Wrapping paper is a little trickier, but if you are an expert wrapper, open presents carefully and save the paper, reuse is an option. Store it away and when you buy a gift, look for a similarly sized piece of wrapping paper.

If you are like most of us though, you have eagerly ripped off the paper to get to your gift. The Daily Green has some tips for disposing of it wisely. Here are a few:

• 25%: That’s the amount that most people’s trash increases at Christmas. That’s huge. Make recycling a priority at this time of year.
• Have a bag ready to collect all the wrappings. This way it is easier to bring to the recycling bin.

And what about the Christmas tree? For many households, it is what defines Christmas decorating.  PickYourOwnChristmasTree.org offers a handy guide to local recycling as well as some ideas of what else to do with the tannenbaum. For instance, you can make your tree into mulch, use it in a private fish pond for food, put it in your backyard as a natural tree house, or, if you have a living Christmas tree, plant it in your own backyard.

May all your Christmases be green!

Photo courtesy of alancleaver_2000 on Flickr

It’s that time of year when we maybe get a little introspective and start to take stock of how the last year has gone. Did we lose that weight we wanted? Read all those books? Finally get on board with this whole Twitter thing we’ve been hearing about?

Since home is, for many people, an important extension of self, Apartment Therapy recently featured five home resolutions they’ll be keeping in the next year. Great ideas, and it inspired us to think about what resolutions we want to do, home-wise. Here goes:

• Organizing: We’re going to rid ourselves of extraneous paper and shred old bills, as appropriate. We’ll also be organizing our closets and not just shoving the mess into there. New closet organizers, boxes and bins may also be pressed into use.
• Cooking: Eating out and supporting local restaurants is great, but cooking at home not only saves money, but allows you unprecedented control of the food you put into your body. Plus, you can flex your culinary muscles and become known for sparkling hosting and fabulous dinner parties.
• Curb appealing: With all the zeal over interior decorating, it’s easy to forget the home’s exterior. No more! This year, we will be painting, repairing, refreshing and landscaping to make our houses the envy of the neighborhood. New walkway? Flowerbeds? Our only limit is our imaginations!
• Greening: We want to make this year the greenest ever. So we’ll be looking at ways to make our homes — and our lives — more energy efficient. We’re going to try to re-use stuff more, evaluate whether we really need something and think of ways to buy locally as needed.
• Learning: We’re going to attempt to pick up some sort of DIY skill this year. Whether that means something like learning some home repair basics, or a softer skill like making our own throw pillows, we’ll be doing it for ourselves.

New Year’s resolutions are notoriously difficult to keep, but we believe that if you start small and have a purpose, it can be done. What are your home resolutions? Let us know in the comments.

It’s the little things that count, right? To make the world a better, greener place, we can recycle, take shorter showers and drive less. There are a lot of things manufacturers can do to make sure we have products that make things a little more environmentally friendly (e.g., selling recyclable goods, low-flow showerheads and non-gas guzzlers). But here’s a good, green and simple idea: tube free TP.

Yep, toilet paper without the cardboard tube in the middle. You can still use it in your regular toilet paper holder, but the slightly useless tube isn’t there.

Think it doesn’t make a difference? According to Treehugger, those tubes add up to 160 MILLION pounds of trash per year. Imagine the difference it could make if toilet paper tubes went the way of the dodo!

Image courtesy of elycefeliz on Flickr.

One Project Closer has an awesome post about building, renovating and living in a green home, asking the central question, “How do you measure green?” Here are a few of their benchmarks:

• Water conservation
• Energy efficiency
• Resource efficiency
• Community and site impact
• Indoor environmental quality

The fact is, there’s no one measurement for green. There are a lot of things to consider. Are you just interested in a product’s energy efficiency or is it important how they treat their workers? What if something is made of non-sustainable materials but provides an energy savings over its lifetime? Or what if the “non-green” product lasts longer than the green one? Or if a local product is widely available and the green option needs to be shipped halfway across the world?

Lots to think about! What’s most important to you? What would you like to see as standards for green home products?

Photo courtesy of Stuck in Customs on Flickr

Laundry. It’s the eternal chore — never seems to be done. No matter how many loads, there’s always a mountain of clothing. And let’s not even get started on the folding!

With all the laundry being done out there, it’s no surprise to learn that most of us have room for improvement in this area when it comes to living green. Between using bleaches and hot water and drying every single last item of clothing, we’re due for a laundry overhaul.

Without buying an entire laundry room’s worth of new things, there’s some things you can do immediately:

• Cold water works great for washing! Please note that MayoClinic.com does recommend laundering sheets in hot water to kill dust mites and allergens.
• Hang it up! Buy a clothes line or a a drying rack and use it. In addition to saving money and energy, line drying will help keep your clothes looking great for longer.

If you are ready to make some larger changes, then the most obvious place to start is by looking at replacing your washer and/or dryer. The Green Guide recommends that when shopping for a washing machine, you look at ENERGY STAR ratings, water factor, top loaders vs. front loaders and programmable wash cycles.

For dryers, their recommendations are a little different. They point out that if your washing machine is energy efficient, that will help speed drying time. A good thing to look for however is moisture sensors — clothes get just as dry as you need them. And if you can hang on to your old dryer until 2011, you may have some options. The Green Guide says that “smart dryers” are “green machines…designed to use power only during the electricity grid’s non-peak periods. That reduces overall demand and the emissions from largely coal-fired power plants.”

And for some ratings on washers, visit Re-Nest’s round-up of energy efficient washing machines.

Photo courtesy of aussiegall on Flickr

It’s Gonna Get Ugly
This Old House
Desiring a room makeover? Just be grateful you don’t have one of these rooms in your house! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cringe.

Bathroom Sinks Made from Recycled Rubber Tires
Calfinder
It’s not beyond the prototype stage yet, but some clever designers have found a way to take old tires and turn them into sinks. They look cool and unusual, while being green. An idea whose time has come?

Green Remodeling Tips from Sarah Susanka
Charles and Hudson
We love Sarah Susanka and her vision for remodeling. Here, she shares her tips for green remodeling with Charles and Hudson.

How To Choose A Good Window
Re-Nest
Interesting article about windows from an (relative) “outsiders” perspective. We agree: “One of the first things people look to when designing or renovating a home is good, energy efficient windows.”