Eco Furniture – Wood in Beds

Continuing the Top Banana themes of helping the environment whilst pulling Britain out of recession we enjoyed reading this feature about choosing eco furniture, in particular beds. The main principle behind eco furniture is that the wood used is from a sustainable source – idealy Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved.

In some cases it can be argued that the use of oak to make furniture in the UK has environmental benefits – the distance that large heavy furniture like dining tables and beds is transported is vastly reduced if the wooden furniture is made from UK oak and sold locally.

Using one of the many carbon calculators available online it is calculated that transortation of even small items of wooden furniture considerable add to the greenhouse gasses.

A larger piece of wooden furniture sucha s beds would clearly have even more detrimental effect on the environment and we are writing to furniture sellers to ask them to include information about the transportation of their goods and details about the sustainability of the wood used.

Can traditional woods such as oak, ash and beech be considered ecologically sound? They make beautiful beds but can you really sleep easy?

For more suggestions about where to buy eco furniture Top Banana suggests visiting forums such as tree hugger or Shiver me Timbers

Furniture – a dining table for any room.

Home Furniture – Dining Tables

by Elena Price

Few people are fortunate to have a seperate Dining Room in their home so here Top Banana takes a look at the problems of choosing furniture good enough to eat off – a dining table.

A dining table is the most important piece of furniture that you will buy for your dining room (or the part of the kitchen or living room in which you eat your meals), so it’s worth taking some time to work out exactly what type of table will suit your home, in terms of both practicality and style. Here are some hints and tips on finding a dining table which is the right size and shape for your family and home.

Size is important

The first thing that you’ll need to decide upon when looking for a new dining funriture is the size of table that you want. This will depend upon where you want to place your new dining table and the number of people that you want to be able to seat around it. It’s important to make sure that everyone will have enough room between them in order to be comfortable and that there is enough space around the table for them to be able to get up and sit down easily. Ideally, each place should be about 24 inches – 32 inches wide so that people don’t feel cramped, and your table should be about 80 inches from the nearest wall, unit or other piece of furniture.

Even if you only have a small family and aren’t likely to be cooking meals for a group of people, it’s worth considering whether or not anyone in your family is likely to use it for other purposes, such as studying or crafts activities. If so, you may need a larger table than you first thought.

If you don’t have much room but would like to invite guests to dinner occasionally, you might want to consider buying an extendable dining room table. However, make sure that you measure up carefully to ensure that the table will fit when it’s fully extended.

Got Wood?

Increasingly important these days is the choice of wood used to make your table. Whether you choose an oak dining table or cheaper pine furniture make sure it is form Forest Stewardship Council appproved sustainable sources,

Shape – Curvy or Straight

Dining room tables are available in a range of different shapes and, in order to find the right table for your home, you’ll need to consider how you are likely to use it, as well as what shape of table will fit in with the style and the other furniture in your home.

Rectangular dining tables, for example, look good if your dining room is fairly formal in style and are most suited to long rooms. Round dining tables are great for family homes, as the design makes it easy for everyone to talk to each other. They are most suitable for use in large rooms, but they can look good in alcove-type spaces.

However, make sure that your new dining room table’s shape will work with any other furniture in your room before making your decision. A good way of doing this is to cut out a template from paper and lay it on the floor, as this will enable you to envisage what your new table will look like, as well as seeing whether or not it would fit in different positions in your dining room.
Many retailers allow you to order furniture, including dining tables, online, which means that your new piece of furniture will be delivered directly to your door, which is particularly convenient when you are buying large items.

British Flowers for Springtime. Charity Flowers

Buy British > > Flowers

The first in Top Banana’s Save Britain Campaign explains how we can all add a little cheer to our lives and welcome Spring by supporting British Farmers and choosing to buy British Flowers.

As well as buying British you can even support charities and get added value from the gift of giving flowers – for example Charity Flowers you will also be helping up to 170 UK charities.

Charity Flowers is the UK’s only flowers by post service to be wholly-owned by a major national charity.  Age Concern.

British Flowers

By Elena Price

Buying British flowers is a great way to support the troubled British economy and is also a more eco-friendly choice than buying flowers grown overseas.

Foreign Flowers

Many of the cut flowers that we find in florists and supermarkets are grown abroad, in countries such as Holland and even as far away as Kenya. However, by buying British flowers rather than imported flowers, we can help to support our own commercial flower-growers, something that it is particularly important in the current financial climate.

Helping the environment

Buying British flowers is also better for the environment than buying imported flowers, as the flowers don’t need to be transported as far.  Flowers grown abroad are flown into the UK. As air travel is believed to make a significant contribution to carbon emissions, which experts believe to be one of the factors that cause climate change, it makes sense to try and buy our cut flowers from closer to home if we can.

The other advantage of buying British flowers is that they don’t take as long to transport as imported foreign flowers and are likely to be fresher and to last longer, making them better value for money.

Britain has an excellent flower-farming industry and some parts of the UK have gained great reputations for producing beautiful, sweet-smelling blooms. One of the primary regions for flower-growing in the UK is the Isles of Scilly.

The proximity of the Gulf Stream means that the Isles of Scilly benefit from warmer winters than the rest of the UK and rarely experience frost or snow, whilst also having slightly cooler summers than the rest of the country, making them the perfect location for flower farms.

Flower Farming in Britain

Flower farming first began on the Isles of Scilly during the late nineteenth century and flowers quickly became one of the islands’ main exports. During World War II, the industry began to suffer, as it became much more difficult to transport the flowers to the mainland, but Winston Churchill is said to have intervened in order to ensure that the flower farmers had access to fuel and transport after having been sent a bouquet of flowers from a flower farmer in the Isles of Scilly whilst he was in hospital. Since then, the Isles of Scilly flower industry has grown and is vital to the local economy. Flower farms on the islands are still very much family businesses, with many of them having been handed down through the generations.

The flower farms on the Isles of Scilly are best-known for growing narcissi. More than 25 varieties of narcissi (a genus of flower that includes daffodils and jonquils) are grown on the islands. Narcissi are usually white, yellow,  peach or pink and many varieties are scented.

Top Banana tips

• Flowers will benefit from fresh water every day.
• A small amount of sugar disolved inthe water will help the blooms open for longer.