Ecologique: Super-Styling by Kelly LaPlante

Check out what Kelly has to say about the Lexus Hybrid Living Suite she decorated in Washington, D.C.’s Fairmont Hotel.

The fabulous and accomplished Kelly LaPlante’s gorgeous first book, Ecologique, is a breath of fresh air. For several years now, ecofriendly decorating has had a definite aura of cool modernism, as if there was only one way to design a green interior, and that’s with lots of (sustainable wooden) cubes. LaPlante has different ideas. As she writes in the introduction, “Reconsider what you think you know about “the green look” — bamboo flooring, modular furniture, neutral colors, and all other icons of the sustainable design movement. Green is a standard, not a style.”

LaPlante proves that you can foster any style sustainably, by showcasing a pretty wide variety of decorating challenges she has take on over the last few years.

There’s the electric-car driving California politician’s office done up 50′s retro style, (with vintage typewriter to add interest and a houndstooth print rug made from recycled and recyclable carpet tiles), and the themed eco-cottages in Venice Beach gussied up with restored and creatively used antiques, recycled polyester fabric-covered sofas, and art by locals.

And then there’s the celebrity homes; Ally Sheedy’s Manhattan apartment that’s painted with low-VOC coral paint, edged-up with Sheedy’s own guerilla girl poster collection and mellowed out with antiques. Amy Smart’s sunroom is now complete with an organic cotton-covered sofa and vegetable-dyed area rug, and Michael Rappaport’s restored junk-store ‘tombstone chair’ which finishes off his Barton Fink-inspired bedroom.

You have to see these gorgeous spaces to believe them, each unique to the people who live in them, each one compelling in visual presentation but still completely livable.

Ecologique book cover

In LaPlante’s own words, “Ecologique is an invitation to apply a sustainable approach to your own sense of style, and to feel good doing it.” 100% of the books net proceeds benefit Global Green USA and The Blank Theatre in Los Angeles.

Ecoloqgique is available for order at Kelly LaPlante’s website.

decor, decorating, ecofriendly, Furniture, vintage

Starre Vartan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick and author of The Eco-Chick Guide to Life (St. Martin's Press). A problogger and oft-quoted green living expert who has been featured in the NYTimes, Elle, Glamour and Whole Living, she is a contributor to The Huffington Post, Inhabitat, and Hearst's The Daily Green, and is currently editor-at-large for Coco Eco Magazine. An active ecofashionista, she has style edited for Plenty magazine and coordinated runway shows. She splits her time between Connecticut and NYC and calls Sydney, Australia her second home, even though it was her first (as that's where she was born and most of her family resides). When not writing, blogging, or researching her next book, she is trailrunning, trying to cook, or snowboarding.

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One Comment on “Ecologique: Super-Styling by Kelly LaPlante”

Ricky
And then there’s the celebrity homes; Ally Sheedy’s Manhattan apartment that’s painted with low-VOC coral paint, edged-up with Sheedy’s own guerilla girl poster collection and mellowed out with antiques. Amy Smart’s sunroom is now complete with an organic cotton-covered sofa and vegetable-dyed area rug, and Michael Rappaport’s restored junk-store ‘tombstone chair’ which finishes off his Barton Fink-inspired bedroom.
09/26/08 » 8:25 am »