New isn’t always best
Consider beautiful, environmentally friendly recycled timber for your next renovation project, writes Bridie Chetwin-Kelly.
As we become more environmentally aware, renovators and home builders have started to look for more sustainable options. One material that is finding favour is timber. Not for structural uses but for other aspects such as exposed beams, flooring, trims and furniture.
It’s not just for the sake of the environment but it also gives homeowners a chance to think outside the box when furnishing or renovating to make a home that extra bit special.
It’s become increasingly easy to access sustainable woods in New Zealand as well. Many building material companies specialise in reusing wood from buildings that were demolished in the Christchurch earthquakes.
Now a quick Google search away, places such as Zero Energy House, Industrial Design NZ or Whole House Reuse can actually tell you where your timber has come from and how they work to offset any carbon emissions.
So often homeowners are faced with the problem of matching or patching an existing timber floor during additions or renovation. Upcycled timber can be the solution. After all, character homes display personality and warmth and tend not to be filled with the latest looks from catalogues that do the deciding for you.
They usually are filled with family heirlooms, vintage finds, warm wooden features and items that have personal meaning. A queen of upcycling, Sarah Heeringa says there is something to the authenticity of arriving at decisions yourself and really furnishing the places we live from ideas of our own fruition.
Wooden interiors, timber roofs and floors have long been a popular look for homes as well, giving off a heritage or alpine lodge feel, it is one of the more sustainable ways to renovate, decorate or build your house. Especially in the sense of how long it actually lasts for.
Kevin McLeod from the TV show Grand
Designs loves timber for its versatility, and the fact that it’s environmentally smart. As featured on the local version of Grand
Designs NZ, the Coley’s home in Mangawhai combines a lot of these elements to create something homely and beautiful. The house includes timber from a Wellington wharf for beams, bricks from Real Groovy in Auckland’s Queen St and recycled rimu door frames from Whitcoulls in Wellington.
There are many reasons people are on the hunt for good quality second-hand vintage items or looking to upcycle existing materials but above all, most of them have already lasted 50 to 60 years and there is no reason why they won’t last another hundred.