OFFICE

We repurposed the house's dining room for an office upon moving in. In 2023, we designed an office layout using a product called "Plyboo" - a plywood made from bamboo - for the desks and the shelves. Plyboo was an ideal product for us since it is Red List Approved (formaldehyde content of less than 1%), it was available as FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified, and it is manufactured only 23 miles from our house, minimizing the carbon footprint from transportation. The product is more expensive than typical plywood, but it is also more beautiful. The shelf brackets were handmade in Canada from raw steel finished with linseed oil instead of toxic coatings and therefore Red List Free.

The light fixture model LA2 is produced by a company called LightArt, one of the rare manufacturers that produces PVC free lighting fixtures. (PVC is considered toxic and cannot be recycled.) The fixture is mainly made from plastic, and LightArt is working toward becoming a "closed loop" manufacturer. This means the company aims to produce high quality, long-lasting products and at the end of their useful life, to accept return of their lighting fixtures with the intention of reusing 100% of those reclaimed materials. We balanced the higher cost of the lighting with a simple desk design incorporating cabinets from IKEA to stay within our budget for the renovation. 

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In 2024 we are planning to replace the existing vinyl flooring with a more natural material (e.g. an adobe floor as shown in the picture). The doors will be replaced with a high-performance fiberglass product.