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BuildingGreen – The Ultimate Green Design Resource

0 comments By Cameron Filed in Interior Design, Sustainability February 9th, 2011 @ 10:38 am

BuildingGreen is one of the most comprehensive building and design resources in the world. By providing architects, builders, designers, policy makers, environmentalists, and average consumers with a breadth of green building information for over twenty years, BuildingGreen has become a library of all things related to the green building industry. BuildingGreen is well respected, and professionals can fulfil continuing education requirements for both the American Institute of Architects and the U.S. Green Building Council (LEED Credential Maintenance) by taking quizzes on some of BuildingGreen’s articles. This Vermont-based company serves as a third party reviewer of green building materials, procedures, and policies.  And while a great deal of their material is available by subscription only, there are still many free resources for green building novices.


Without a subscription, viewers still have access to Environmental Building News, Blog articles, the summaries of Green Building Case Studies, and the BuildingGreen Calendar of Events. The calendar is one of my favorite features of BuildingGreen. It includes classes, workshops, conferences, and networking events spanning the country. Occasionally checking the calendar keeps me up-to-date on all the happenings in the green building community and gives me a heads up on events I might be interested in attending. Plus, the calendar is free online. There are various levels of paid subscriptions, but with a full subscription, members can access the entire library of green product reviews and ratings, entitled GreenSpec. GreenSpec is frequently updated with reviews of new products and gives accurate information on whether or not a given product lives up to its claims of being sustainable. GreenSpec includes hundreds of materials: from furniture, to roofing, to area rugs.

Paying Subscribers can also read more specific reports and analysis of completed green building projects under the “case studies” portion of the website. However, some libraries and non profit organizations provide the general public with free full access to the GreenBuilding subscription-only material. For example, Bostonians can head to the NEXUS Green Building Resource Center in Downtown Crossing, Boston and log onto BuildingGreen free of charge!

Merida’s Acronym Dictionary

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design, Sustainability December 2nd, 2010 @ 4:41 pm


Acronyms are widely used by green building professionals and they can be very useful to know. However, since there are so many abbreviations for different things, it can be hard to keep them all straight. After doing some writing about Merida’s fabulous new Pure line of area rugs, I realized I was frequently using terms like VOCs, IAQ, and CRF, and that casual readers might not know what these acronyms mean – plus all of these letters were getting jumbled in my head, so I decided to make a little acronym dictionary. Here is a list of some acronyms that are especially good to know while reading the MeridaHome blog:

CFCs – Clorofluorocarbons, developed in the 1930′s, are compounds contributed to depleting the earth’s ozone.  They are non-toxic, non-reactive with other chemicals and non-flammable, so they were widely used in household and commercial applications until it was discovered in the 1970′s that the chlorine component of them was harmful to the ozone.

CRI – Carpet and Rug Institute, a nonprofit trade organization that represents over 95% of carpets and rugs made in the USA. The CRI creates standards and policies for the rug industry, and recognizes the safest and most environmentally friendly rugs with their Green Label Plus Certification.

EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, the branch of the federal government that sets and enforces environmental regulations.

FSC – Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization promoting sustainable forestry across all relevant industries. The purpose of the council is to set forest management standards and develop public awareness.

IAQ - Indoor Air Quality, a term referring to standards of air within a structure. A variety of chemicals and particulates can create poor IAQ. Examples of factors that affect IAQ include: radon, VOCs, asbestos, and mold.  Many natural fiber rugs, including our Pure Rug Collection, can actually help improve IAQ.

LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green building certification system with criteria set by the USGBC. LEED sets measurable criteria for standards in sustainable design and is an internationally used certification process. Points are assigned to sustainable aspects and achievements of an architectural project and points are tallied to assign the finished product a rating of: certified, silver, gold, or platinum.

USGBC - U.S. Green  Building Council, a non-profit trade organization that promotes environmentally sustainable building practices by setting industry standards through education, public awareness campaigns, and awarding LEED certification.

VOCs – Volatile Organic Compounds, refers to fairly ubiquitous chemical compounds that are emitted as vapors and can be hazardous to human health. VOCs are a particular concern for IAQ because on average, VOCs are 5 times higher indoors than outdoors. Some examples of VOCs include: CFCs, styrene, nitrogen oxides, benzene, and formaldehyde.

There you go!  Happy reading!

Behind the Scenes with the This Old House Cast & Crew!

By Whitney Filed in Interior Design November 29th, 2010 @ 2:54 pm

Here at Merida we are proud to announce that we will be featured on the upcoming season of the PBS show “This Old House”. On this season, a local Auburndale house overlooking the Charles River will be transformed from its current non-descript state to a charming home filled with life and personality. Local designer Melissa Gulley was selected amongst fierce competition to take the design reigns and lead the project.

Melissa had a unique vision for each individual room that, while independently very different, came together for an overall unified and succinct look throughout the home. To achieve her vision, Melissa selected three Merida rugs, all of which were designed and brought to fruition in our Fall River, MA manufacturing facility.

Conceptual Pieces

Prepping for the first scene

For the living room Melissa selected our Viewpoint Aventura wool rug in custom colors. Our Viewpoint collection features a small weave that allows for intricate patterns and is very durable. Click here to view the playful patterns in our Viewpoint Kids Collection.

In the adjacent sunroom Melissa went for a softer tufted wool rug since she envisioned the family sitting and laying on it. Melissa selected our Solar pattern and custom colored it to match the colors in the drapery. The team of This Old House got to see the rug in production on the tufting machine during their visit. Be sure to check out our tufted wool rugs.

This Old House Checking out their Rug Being Made

Merida's John Carvalho Making His Big Debut

Solar Rug in Production

For the bedroom Melissa wanted to create a very relaxing, spa like feel so she went with light and airy colors. For the rug, she selected our Cable Sweater Rug in cream to open up the space and make it peaceful. During filming we demonstrated how our skilled craftsmen hand back the Sweater rugs.

We are happy that the This Old House team is helping us share the story about our Fall River manufacturing facility and the custom capabilities that we have. It was fun to get a glimpse of the behind the scenes action and to see how much goes into taping a 6-minute segment!

Be sure to tune in to This Old House this January to watch our very own John Carvalho shine with the cast!

Filming the Sweater Rug Loom

Filming the Backing Process

Filming the Edge Finishing Process

John Carvalho, Maegan Fee, Kevin O'Connor, Whitney Palmedo, Melissa Gulley

ECOstructures for Green Building in Massachusetts

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design, Sustainability, Uncategorized September 14th, 2010 @ 10:01 am

While flipping through an issue of DESIGN New England (Which is a wonderful interior design and architecture magazine — check out our mention on page 72 of this month’s issue!), I noticed an intriguing ad for a Norfolk, MA-based contracting company called ECOstructures. Drawn by the fact that the company was both local and possibly environmentally conscious, I decided to check it out.

ECOstructures does both interior and exterior home building and focuses on the balance between form, function, and sustainability. They are designing homes for the future by incorporating relevant and efficient technologies and by using sustainable resources that keep future generations in mind. Furthermore, ECOstructures prides themselves on a high quality of work that is long-lasting. ECOstructures brings green building expertise to construction and renovation projects and helps clients see reduced energy use and a lower overall carbon footprint both during the construction of the home, and within the finished product.

To find out more about ECOstructures, you can visit their website at http://www.ecostructures.com. While portions of the website are still under construction, the “Green Technology” page provides some great resources for homeowners, architects, and builders. Included is a great list of “Green Links” that provides a succinct description of each online green building resource. I added their list of links to “my favorites” because they all look like relevant, helpful, and reputable resources. The website also includes a section on “green history” that gives a great summary of green building starting in the 1800’s and through to today.

 Ecostructures has a small family-owned vibe and they admit that most of their business comes from referrals. So while they are not yet very well known, the photos of the work speak for themselves:

Blue Avocado Bags

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design Tagged with , , , July 30th, 2010 @ 10:37 am

We all know that we should use reusable shopping bags at the grocery store and when out running errands, but sometimes it can be difficult to remember to bring them with us.  If you do forget, it is always better to ask for paper than plastic, but I recently found something that will help me remember to bring reusable bags every time I shop: Blue Avocado bags. Reusable grocery bags don’t need to be boring mesh-like bags with the logo of the convenience store or grocery store where they were purchased; Blue Avocado provides a stylish fun alternative. Blue Avocado bags come in all shapes and sizes and can easily be folded down to fit inside any purse for unplanned errands or impulse buys. The bags are cute and come in a variety of colorful designs. In fact the bags have been praised in some major style and living magazines, such as Real Simple, InStyle, and Parade.


Another reason to love Blue Avocado is that all of their shopping bags are made from recycled plastic. Not only do these reusable bags prevent more plastic bags from entering the waste stream, they also take some already-used plastic out of the waste stream. 1,000 plastic bags can be replaced by reusable bags per consumer per year, which empowers every individual to have a huge positive impact.


Blue Avocado also provides other tools to help people make a positive impact. They actually have an entire portion of their website titled “Impact”. There you can find a carbon footprint calculator and links to Green Mountain Energy where you can offset your carbon usage. Blue Avocado also has a partnership with Kiva.org, which provides micro-loans to people that need them the most around the globe. Blue Avocado donates 1% of all proceeds to Kiva. This shows that Blue Avocado is not only environmentally sustainable, but socially and ethically sustainable as well. That is reason enough to remember your reusable shopping bags every single time you hit the stores!

Are Your Walls Toxic?

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design, Sustainability Tagged with , July 15th, 2010 @ 10:11 am

Heavy metals are hidden in our homes and can potentially be harmful to our health. However, these harms can easily be avoided if people know what types of toxins are in their homes and where. One of the most hazardous and abundant toxins is lead. Lead is a heavy metal that, if ingested or inhaled, can cause nervous system damage, auditory problems, and is shown to reduce IQ. These effects are more likely to happen to children than adults, so we need to take extra precaution to protect them. However, many people do not know that they are being exposed to lead until it is too late. Lead exposure is a widespread problem in the United States because until 1978, lead was an additive to interior and exterior house paint. Since 1978, when lead based paint was outlawed,  latex has been used as an additive in house paint instead. Modern paint still contains small amounts of lead but is considered safe. However, even if your house has been painted since the late seventies, there could still be traces of lead-based paint in your home. This paint could be crumbling into dust and causing interior air pollution. To prevent exposure to lead, here are the top things everyone needs to know about lead based paint:

a) If your home or apartment was built before 1978 you should assume that there is some amount of lead based paint in your home.

b) Make sure interior and exterior walls are freshly painted and are not chipping.

c) To prevent inhaling lead dust, wipe window sills and other areas where dust accumulates with a wet rag and safely dispose of the rag after use.

d) When renting an apartment make sure you sign the lead paint warning statement and receive the proper literature from your landlord or property manager.

e) Avoid areas of your home that are under renovation and ask contractors about their lead-safe procedures.

f) Wash hands frequently, especially before eating.

g) Don’t let children play in bare soil, especially in close proximity to the home where lead dust could fall.

To read more about being lead-safe and how to prevent children in your community from being exposed to lead, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/tips.htm

Blogs to Inspire

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design July 15th, 2010 @ 9:41 am

As I continue to research more about interior design and look for upcoming trends, I have found blogs quite helpful. Blogs allow individuals, groups, or companies to freely post articles, photos, ideas and more. Over the past few weeks I have found a few blogs particularly interesting and helpful for different reasons.

Design Sponge, http://www.designspongeonline.com, was rated the number 1 design blog in 2009 by PadStyle.com. While, like many other blogs, Design Sponge is rich with photos and new ideas, it goes much further. What I particularly like about Design Sponge is that they created a city by city design guide. Each city guide shows interesting places to shop or eat that will inspire for sure. I looked up my small Boston neighborhood in Design Sponge’s Boston Design Guide and was pleased to see a thorough list of furniture stores and galleries.

Design Green, http://www.interiordesign.net/blog/Design_Green/index.php, a blog on InteriorDesign.net is another fabulous resource. This blog was suggested to me by others at Merida when I expressed an interest to learn more about the relationship between interior design and sustainability. Design Green is great because it is frequently updated and focuses concretely on sustainably built items and related topics. Plus, the articles are short and to the point, so the blog is great to get a quick and informative dose of sustainable design.

Habitually Chic, http://habituallychic.blogspot.com/, is a photo-heavy, visually stimulating blog that makes readers feel ahead of the curve. Habitually Chic is written by New York City interior designer and fashion enthusiast, Heather Clawson. What I particularly love about Habitually Chic is that Clawson has an international, worldly outlook that is also inspired by cutting edge fashion. She also touches on art and architecture in many of her posts, which helps make the blog more complete.

Finally, Apartment Therapy, http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/, is a popular interior design blog and it is easy to understand why. Apartment Therapy is jam-packed with all kinds of quirky decorating ideas. From ‘5 Ways to Display a Pez Collection’ to ‘Storage Suggestions for Slanted Ceiling Space’, it is easy to find an intriguing idea to apply at your home right away. Apartment Therapy shows readers how to re-think and redisplay what they already have in order to bring new life to a lackluster space.

There are plenty of design blogs out there, but if you’re new to the field and are looking for ideas, inspiration, or even to purchase items online, I highly suggest browsing through these blogs.

A Green Guide to Furniture

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design Tagged with , , , , , June 17th, 2010 @ 4:26 pm

1). If buying wooden furniture look for pieces certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Rainforest Alliance to make sure the wood in your furniture was sustainably harvested and is not contributing to deforestation around the world.

2) Look for Bamboo. Bamboo can be made to look like wood and creates beautiful furniture and flooring, but it is not wood at all. Bamboo is a grass which means it grows far more rapidly than trees and is an easily renewable resource.

3) Before buying something brand new, see if there is an already used option to suit your needs. This is not only A LOT cheaper, it prevents lightly used items from building up in landfills. Check out Freecycle and Craigslist for the cheapest used furniture options.

4) Look for Greenguard certified furniture which ensures low toxicity. Don’t forget that some pieces of furniture (not certified) give off VOCs or may even contain lead paint both of which are toxic to humans.

5) Think about the lifespan of an item. When purchasing, look for long term solutions — will you still like that couch 10 years from now? This thought process will help prevent unnecessary waste. If you don’t think you want to have your furniture for the long term, find out if the product is recyclable or biodegradable. (Like MeridaHome’s 100% biodegradable wool rugs).

6) Go local – if an item doesn’t need to be transported very far, it saves a lot of fuel from shipping materials all over the world. Ask local artisans where their materials come from and if they use local materials – commission a piece for your home!

7) Be innovative. Find ways to spice up what you already have. Paint a shelf to suit a different room, reupholster a couch or chair, or sew your own curtains. There are plenty of DIY options when it comes to decorating, and often times, these options are far more green than going out and buying all new furniture.

The Sustainable Furnishings Council

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design, Sustainability Tagged with , , , June 17th, 2010 @ 4:16 pm
MeridaHome, in its quest to deliver the best, most sustainable and beautiful products to consumers, is a member of the Sustainable Furnishings Council (SFC). SFC is a coalition of concerned businesses that, together, are trying to promote sustainable practices. The mission of the council is to try to achieve four goals in the interior design industry:
1) Raise Awareness of Sustainability Issues
2) Assist Companies in Adopting Good Practices
3) To Provide Information and Clarification
4) To Create a Symbol of Assurance for Consumers
The great thing about the four goals that the SFC is working towards is that they are not limited to environmental sustainability. The SFC defines good practices as economic vitality, ecological integrity, and social equity. Which means that member businesses have a well rounded approach towards achieving sustainability. The SFC is broad in its membership as well, including retailers, manufacturers, designers, and distributor, which encourages entire supply chains to be sustainable. This is an idea that we highly value at Merida because it promotes ethical treatment of people, animals, and the environment at all stages of creating, selling, and using a given object (in this case, home furnishings).
The SFC website, http://www.sustainablefurnishings.org/ , is also a great resource for everyday consumers. The site has search buttons so that consumers can find SFC members by business type (i.e.: manufacturer, retailer, and designer).
Within each of those search buttons you can search more specifically for what exactly you need, and you can search by location as well, which makes the process even more user-friendly. In addition, SFC has a resource page so that the public can easily find other types of non-profits like theirs that promote better business practices.

Top 10 Twitter Feeds for Green Interior Design

By Cameron Filed in Interior Design, Natural Area Rugs, Sustainability May 21st, 2010 @ 5:13 pm

Since twitter.com was launched in 2006, it has become an instant way for people to receive and share news and ideas. Twitter has achieved staggering popularity and has users that tweet about every topic imaginable. However, twitter now has over 75 million users, so it can be hard to decide what feeds to follow depending on one’s unique interests. MeridaHome tries to focus the feeds they follow into two main areas: sustainability and interior design. Ideally, MeridaHome tries to follow twitter feeds that combine these two topics. Though MeridaHome now reads twitter posts from hundreds of users, there are ten main feeds that stand out because of their subject matter, post quality, and frequency. These are our top 10 Twitter Feed picks for Green Interior Design:

10. @NexusBoston – Though Nexus does not update their feed as often as other twitterers, the quality of their posts is excellent. Nexus Boston is a green building resource center that often hosts green design seminars. Twitter is a great way to find out about Nexus’s events. Their events are usually either free or cheap and are a great way to learn the science behind green living. Since MeridaHome is also based out of Boston, the local flare of NexusBoston’s posts are also appreciated.

9. @GreenGirls – GreenGirls is a blog, complete with videos, that keeps environmental activism fun and fresh. Their mission is green education through pop culture and mass media. They tweet fairly regularly and have accumulated a large band of followers.

8. @Design2Share – Design2Share started as a series of home improvement and decor idea videos on YouTube, but evolved into something more. Design2Share has a great question and answer format in both their videos and on their website, and now, through twitter. @Design2Share is updated frequently and their posts are very user friendly and maintain that “do it yourself” theme that their YouTube series started with. Plus, a lot of their tweets are about deals and freebies. Who doesn’t love that?

7. @CasaSugar – CasaSugar is the Home Decor branch of Sugar Inc. which is a a family of fun and witty editorial blogs directed mainly towards women. Within CasaSugar there is an even more narrowly themed blog about eco- friendly home decor, which means that many of @CasaSugar’s tweets relate directly to sustainable home lifestyle.

6. @GreenLivingIdea – the tweet feed certainly lives up to its name. Updated frequently, @GreenLivingIdea posts news articles, how-to articles, ideas, and pretty much everything that has to do with sustainability. The feed has over 9,000 followers which is a testament to their content rich posts. GreenLivingIdea’s website claims to be the most comprehensive green living website out there. The website is part of a broader network called Simple Earth Media that is a new media company with a green twist.

5. @HouseandHome – The MeridaHome twitter feed ends up re-tweeting posts from @HouseandHome quite a bit. It is actually the feed for Canadian House and Home Magazine. Their tweets have a professional demeanor and have links to helpful articles on a variety of home improvement and decor topics, many of which touch upon sustainability.

4.  @GreenYourDecor – Tweets from the fabulous sustainable design blogger Jennae Peterson. Her blog focuses on green interior design products and materials, and she has even highlighted MeridaHome area rugs in some of her tweets and blog posts. It is a great way to learn about different products and where to get them for your own home.

3. @GreenHouseTips – Full of facts, this twitter feed gives you the statistics, measurements, policies, and news about chemicals in your home. @GreenHouseTips is not affiliated with a blog or any large online community, which means their focus is making information available via twitter, and they do a great job.

2. @HomeRecycler – This twitter feed goes way beyond recycling. Relating directly to green interior design, the Merida team finds the @HomeRecycler tweets relevent and interesting. The feed is writen by Lorenz Schilling, the president of a California based non-profit organization called The Deconstruction and Reuse Network. The goal of the organization is to promote the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle by educating homeowners, building industry professionals, and civic leaders. Their twitter feed is a great step in achieving this mission.

1. @TreeHugger – its no secret that Treehugger.com is the best, most comprehensive source for eco-minded news of all kinds. The treehugger blog has basically become the number one stop for environmental headlines, and through their twitter feed, treehugger brings their juicy current headlines right to you. Like their blog, Treehugger’s twitter feed delivers lots of news as its happening. No green twitter list is complete without Treehugger.

For more fun twitter posts, make sure to follow us @MeridaHome

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