Debbie Thompson remembers a moment 15 years ago just after she had started working as winemaker at Simonsig Wine Estate, located outside of Capetown in the sumptuous Stellenbosch region of South Africa.  “Someone asked me to handle a group wine tasting,” she says, “so there I was before 200 people – me, a real greenhorn, before a roomful of elderly wine aficionados.  Everything I said about the wines, the vineyards and terroir was met by a sea of stony faces.

Being eco-friendly doesn't just have to be about soncerving water and energy. You can incorporate green design into your wallcoverings with pretty papers made of natural materials like cork, bark, recycled paper and more.

Tahoe in starlight, paper, by Hartmann & Forbes, available at KDR Designer Showrooms and The Great Cover Up.

Lakeshore, cork with metallic, by Hartmann & Forbes, available at The Great Cover Up.

Located just outside of Troy, IL, on land that previously housed a 6.3-acre dairy farm in St. Jacob, IL, is the area’s first residential wind turbine. The turbine is actually just one of a slew of energy efficient design strategies showcased in this new 3,800-square-foot home and 4,750-square-foot barn and recreational space.

For Dr. Deb Carlin, her University City home was love at first sight. “I felt the history, life, love and people who had lived her before,” she explains. Carlin purchased the brick home in 1993, and prior to her purchase, it had been passed down through several generations of the Graeff family.

Washington University Olin Business School and Bauer Hall, St. Louis, MO
Photography courtesy of Olin Business School.

A year after her husband’s death, Jacquelynn Richmond decided it was time to carry out the couple’s plan to install hardwood floors throughout the main level of their family home. Trading carpet and vinyl for bamboo was fairly straightforward — but, given the kitchen’s configuration, replacing the floors ultimately meant remodeling the entire kitchen, which hadn’t been touched since the ‘80s and had the ubiquitous built-in desk to prove it.