Irene Turner "Little Bits of Beauty™"

With a growing awareness of the environment, many consumers are starting to invest in more environmentally-friendly bathroom features.  Designer bathrooms, which use stylish eco-friendly products, prove that green doesn’t mean frumpy.

Universal design

Refers to making your home convenient, efficient, and safe for family members of all ages. Designing for accessibility and ergonomic efficiency supports the tenants of green building as it makes your home “people-friendly.”  Includes such things as:

• no curb showers
• room for wheel chair access
• grab bars (that don’t have to look institutional anymore!)
• wheelchair access sink

Floors

• Bamboo
• Reclaimed Wood
• Re-cyled Tile
• Marmoluem—Pretty, inexpensive, and durable. This is made from some of the most sustainable materials ever offered (linseed oil, wood flour, rosin, limestone, and jute.) It now comes in a whole new line of fantastic colors. It’s warm, and feels good on the feet.

Countertops & Tile

• Enviromode is  a new surface made from pre-consumer Kohler toilets, tubs and sinks. It brings the ancient craft of Terrazzo into the 21st century by combining a choice of epoxy resin or cementitious binder with crushed, recycled porcelain chips.glass tiles made of recycled glass.
• Vetrazzo or Ice Stone for counter tops.
• re-cycled glass for bold, colorful and graphic designs!

Energy

• Insulating your water heater and lowering the thermostat to 120 degrees makes a difference in the amount of energy used to heat your water
• Energy efficient lighting

Water

• The idea that the bathroom should be a relaxing sanctuary has resulted in showers with lots of jets, huge shower heads on horizontal arms and double showers for couples to enjoy together. Although this sounds like a contradiction of the water saving ethos, all new showerheads on the market are required to have a water-efficiency rating.   And of course low-flow showerhead can reduce water consumption by 30%
• A grey water converter…saves the water used from the shower or bath to a collection container and can be used for watering your garden
• If your bathroom’s toilet has been updated since 1994, when a federal mandate was issued, then you have a “low-flow toilet” that uses 1.6 gallons per flush; before that, a toilet might flush 3.5 gallons each time you hit the handle. So if you haven’t replaced your toilet in the last 15 years or so, that’s definitely job one; if you have, here are some other options that’ll save even more water.
• Eco Bath Systemby designer Jang Woo Seok, is a new concept that combines the functions of a sink and toilet bowl. Drawing inspiration from the natural flow of water on earth, the Eco Bath System accumulates the water used to wash your hands and reuses it to clean the toilet. This inspirational design satisfies the consumers in terms of efficiency as well as design.

Did You Know?

• 21% of household water use comes from the shower
• 26% of household water use comes from flushing the toilet
• The average American uses 80 to 100 gallons of water a day. The rest of the world, on average, uses 2.5 gallons