Photo credit: Nkuku
Fill your home with ethical, conscious homewares that will bring both you and the planet joy.
Sustainability begins at home, and while you might already be working on reducing your food waste, mimimising single-use plastic, and dressing more ethically, your home interior choices could be another simple way to incorporate a little greener living – and also some unique interior style.
Accessorising your home with second-hand, antique or upcycled furniture and picking up handmade homewares on your travels are all great ways to add some personal colour and character without harming the planet, with each item carrying a unique story that you can relish telling your admiring guests. But there will of course be times that you might want or need to buy something new, and there are a multitude of ethical homeware stores that offer beautiful interior accessories – from wool throws, to handwoven baskets and everything in between.
If you’re decorating or renovating your home and want your interior decor to reflect your values, here are some of our favourite ethical homeware brands to inspire you:
Nkuku
Devon-based Nkuku works closely with artisans all over the world to create beautiful handcrafted home and lifestyle products, using natural and recycled materials. Transparancy is a key focus for Nkuku (read the stories of some of the artisans they work with on the Nkuku website), as is trading fairly to provide the artisans with the opportunity to build a future, and operating as sustainably as possible through continual evaluation and improvement. If you’re ever in Totnes, Devon, pay a visit to their beautiful lifestyle store and café for some serious interior inspo.
Eco-Age loves: Nkuku’s beautiful recycled glassware and braided hemp rugs.
Aerende
Social enterprise Aerende‘s carefully crafted products and gifts for your home are all made in the UK by people facing social challenges. Find handmade pottery, organic cotton and linen textiles, and sustainably sourced wooden products, such as chopping boards and spatulas.
Eco-Age loves: Aerende’s handmade pottery plates, bowls and mugs, created by makers living at The Grange in Gloucestershire – a residential community for adults with learning disabilities.
The Basket Room
The Basket Room works with artisans and weaving cooperatives in Africa to create handwoven, decorative storage baskets for the home in a range of colours and patterns. Working closely with the weavers, each fair trade, hand woven basket is created exclusively by one weaver – read their stories on The Basket Room site.
Eco-Age loves: The Basket Room’s colourful laundry baskets, hand woven in Kenya using local sisal grass.
Shleep
Shleep‘s naturally luxurious Austrailian merino wool bedding is hypo-allergenic, anti-bacterial, breathable and moisture-removing to help you get the best night’s sleep. Merino wool bedding has been proven to help you get to sustained deep sleep 25% faster and more effectively than anything else – and as it is also very durable and long-lasting, you can enjoy your new bedding (and the extra sleep that comes with it) for years to come.
Eco-Age loves: The Shleep System set of pillows, pillow cases, duvets and fitted sheet.
Made Anew
Bristol-based Made Anew’s collection of minimal modern furniture is handcrafted from upcycled and reclaimed materials. Discover wooden wine boxes transformed into ottomans, and tables made from reclaimed timber, all handmade in Bristol.
Eco-Age loves: Made Anew‘s reclaimed wood blanket chests and ottomans.
Myakka
Myakka‘s beautiful ethical and fairtrade furniture, including sustainable wood furniture and handmade textiles, will add an eclectic look to your home. Myakka works closely with suppliers in India, Vietnam and Thailand to negotiate fair and proper prices for the furniture, paying as each shipment sets sail to avoid delays. Myakka also supports a range of community projects around the world and has established a sheesham replanting programme to secure future sheesham timber supplies.
Eco-Age loves: Myakka’s handmade, fair trade rainbow round rugs, braided from fabric remnants interwoven with jute braiding, are GoodWeave certified. GoodWeave is a charity working to stop child labour in the carpet and rug industry in countries such as India and Nepal.
Kalinko
Burma-based Kalinko works directly with Burma’s talented artisans to create handcrafted homewares for homes all over the world, cutting out the middle man so all purchase costs go straight to the people that make each piece. The average family in Burma is 4.2 people with an average household income of $300 a month. For adequate nutrition, healthcare and education, they need $750. Kalinko launched in 2016 with a mission of closing this gap for 500 families by November 2021 and are now working with almost 100 families.
Eco-Age loves: Kalinko’s rattan lampshades handwoven in Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta.
Hemghar
Hemghar’s collection of vintage and hand knotted rugs from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran will become the focal point of any room. Each rug is unique, created using high quality wool and natural vegetable dyes. We love!
Eco-Age Loves: Hemghar‘s collection of vintage overdyed Persian rugs, which have been carefully restored and overdyed with natural dyes to create a beautifully distressed and unique finish.
If you’re renovating your home and are looking to do so as sustainably as possible, see our step by step guide for tips.
Keep your home sparkling clean with our favourite eco-friendly cleaning products.
Inspired? Browse our full catalogue of recommended brands.