Often we hear the question: how is furniture ever eco friendly? It’s made of wood! Yes, most furniture, as we all know is made of trees, cut down and shaped to your every desire, if it be a table, a barstool, or any other form of decor. However, eco friendly furniture is showing up in big name companies more and more every day. We all have to remember, it’s not always what it’s made of but how it’s created. The process is just as important as the material.

A recycled wooden table, made from old fence posts, for example is a process that all of us can identify as recycling at its best. Yes, it’s made out of wood but what kind of wood? Are virgin trees being cut down to bring you this table? These are the questions we need to be asking.

Bamboo is becoming more prevalent on a daily basis in furniture stores. Bamboo is an underutilized material that is surprisingly strong and plentiful in comparison to your standard wood.

We’ve seen some pretty creative pieces of eco friendly furniture as of lately that we’re very impressed with. Recycled railroad track parts yield beautiful side tables. Railroad track wood, even 100 years old, has been used as table tops, creating a distressed and vintage look as well as being beautifully sustainable. Reclaimed lumber is becoming increasingly popular with furniture designers and everything from old barn wood, to any other type of building has been discovered in furniture pieces.

Beyond the recycled pieces we’ve come across we’re also amazed by the new materials being used to create furniture pieces today. New types of plywood containing less, or no harmful chemicals are being seen, particularly popular is bamboo plywood which is becoming more available to vendors and designers in many areas.

Next time you’re strolling through a furniture store, ask yourself how that beautiful table got there and make sure to invest in an eco friendly one. You never know, nowadays eco friendly furniture is so beautifully disguised these days you might not be able to tell the difference!