Ever realized that your home feels bland and boring? Or your home feels generic as it lacks uniqueness and personality? A way to bring color in your bland home is to improve its design through home textiles. This is the easiest option to enhance the aesthetic of your home as there is a wide range of options to choose in the market that will suit your aesthetic preference.
Home Textiles and Its Purposes
Home textiles are known as house furnishing. These are usually made from different types of fabrics and clothes that comes from natural and synthetic materials. The usual materials used for producing home textiles are cotton, silk, linen, wool and synthetic fibers.
Home textiles serve different functions such as:
- Decoration
- Privacy measure (e.g. curtains)
- Protection for furniture from sunlight exposure and slows down color deterioration
- Contributes in creating a space conducive for mental wellness
- Providing enhanced comfort and warmth
Types of Home Textile Products
Aside from the various material choices for your home textiles, it also has different product types and each serves a particular purpose which is perfect for beautifying and improving your home experience.
Here are the the common and essential home textile products every household has:
1. Floor Covering
This can be in the form of carpet and rugs. It provides protection on your floor especially from liquid substances that might affect the aesthetic and overall quality for the flooring. Additionally, it provides additional appeal in every home interior.
2. Bedding Sheets and Pillowcases
This type of home textile protects the mattress and pillows. Additionally, it provides a smooth surface for added comfort especially when resting or sleeping on your bed. Choosing the right quality and fabric for your beddings is a must because studies show that sleep quality is improved with right beddings.
A good bedding must be resistant to bacteria and fungi because when beddings are used, there is a highly probability that it is filled with dandruff, sweat and saliva as these are uncontrollably excreted when asleep. If beddings are not bacteria resistant, it may become a breeding ground for germs and fungi which will make it unsuitable for use even if washed thoroughly.
Read Also: Exploring Sustainable Choices for Bedding and Linens
3. Blankets
Blankets are essential especially when sleeping on low temperature. Wrapping a blanket on your body creates a microclimate that keeps you warm and regulates the temperature felt by your body. With the right amount of warmth, it helps you feel cozy and comfortable during your rest.
4. Curtains
Aside from its major role of enhancing the appeal of home spaces, it is often used for light control and privacy. There are different types of curtain and each offers a different degree of light control. Having curtains at home is a perfect example that a home textile can serve both decorative and functional purposes.
5. Table Cloth and Runners
A table is not just a decoration or a platform to showcase decorative ornaments. It is intended to to be a functional furniture especially for placing different stuff, may it be for work or meal purposes. Putting a table cloth or a runner contributes in preserving the overall quality and appeal of your table. Its importance is highly evident in dining tables. A dining table cloth and runner serve as a heat protection from hot dishes and these also help in stain prevention in case of unwanted spillages.
Sustainable Fabric Choices for Your Home Textiles
Surely, a house interior is enhanced through installing home textiles. However, did you know that textile production is one of the major contributors on global pollution? In fact, it is estimated that 20% of water pollution comes from the dyeing and finishing substances applied on textiles. Additionally, these substances intoxicate soil thus degrading its quality.
Like plastics, regular textiles take numerous decades and even centuries to decompose in the landfill. Furthermore, its decomposition process produces greenhouse methane gas which affects the air quality and the ozone layer.
Fortunately, people and companies are seeing the environmental impact of your daily needs and demands. This made a lot of groups to advocate for sustainability movement so the planet can gradually restore its beauty and resources.
This green advocacy caused the existence of sustainable fabrics to the market. So, if you’re looking an alternative to traditional home textiles, it is better to look for textiles made of sustainable fabrics in the market. Here are some of the best choices.
1. Piña Fibers
Who would have thought that pineapple leaves can be turned into fabrics? Leaves from pineapple is considered a byproduct that can undergo another process to turn it into a fabric material suitable for textiles. This was developed by Dr. Carmen Hijose in her pursuit of finding an alternative to leather. Furthermore, the production process is believed to be harmless procedure which also produces another byproduct that can be repurposed as fertilizer or biofuel. These characteristics of pineapple fiber makes it the most sustainable fabric choice among other alternatives. However, its availability and pricing might pose a challenge because it is exported internationally for a special finishing procedure.
2. Linen
A linen fabric may become a sustainable choice not dyed during the production process. Linens are made from flax plant fiber which is easy to grow especially in areas with temperate climates such as East Asian countries. Nevertheless, the common use of linen is on clothing fabrics because of the comfort it gives due to its its light and airy nature. This quality also makes it suitable for creating aesthetically pleasing yet comfortable bedding sheets and pillowcases.
Despite its good qualities, it can be costly to produce so expect that its prices are not on the low-budget side. Additionally, it is easy to get wrinkled so it must be taken with great care and caution when using and storing in cabinets.
3. Bamboo
Aside from using bamboos as a furniture material, its fibers can be turned in fabrics which is appropriate as a clothing or home textile material. Bamboos are highly renewable as it is easy to grow as evidenced by its estimated 3 feet growth per day. Despite its rapid growth, the major environment concerns for manufacturing this fabric type are the energy costs and chemicals to make it feasible as a fabric material. Nevertheless, its renewable characteristic makes it a more viable option than cottons which are considered unsustainable due to its processing methods and difficulty on growing this crop through organic means.
4. Abacca
This natural fabric material is native to the Philippines. In fact, it is considered as the strongest natural fiber in the world. Aside from its durability, it is easy to grow making it a sustainable choice of material for your home textiles. However, the downside of this fabric material is its focus of production—table cloth and runner.
5. Reclaimed Fabric
It is inevitable to produce excess or scrap outputs in production. This is highly evident in textile industry. Fortunately, a lot of companies are now concerned with the state of our planet. With this, the scrap fabrics from production are now repurposed for creating sustainable textiles. This scraps and excess are called reclaimed fabrics. It is labelled as reclaimed because instead of dumping such in the landfills, it is being reclaimed and repurposed for a new project.
6. Recycled Polyester
Scrap fabrics, plastics and polyester can be recycled to produce recycled polyesters. Normally, regular polyesters are non-biodegradable. These are synthetic fibers which are technically made with natural materials but non-renewable in nature. Moreover, synthetic polyesters are one of the most difficult waste to decompose similar with plastics. It may take several decades to decay. Thanks to recycled polyester being popularized, approximately 45% of the harmful industrial waste from the production process of regular polyesters will be eliminated. On top of that, even though it is made of recycled fabrics and plastics, it retains its durability with less environmental impact.
Completing a Sustainable Lifestyle with Eco-Friendly Home Textiles
Most of the items we use daily have an environmental impact that we can visibly see and feel through climate change. Over the years, the people have neglected the planet by depleting its resources and not caring for its condition. Fortunately, eco-friendly movements are being popularized as an attempt to prevent the progress and restore the living condition of the Earth. The biggest and simplest way to support the eco-friendly movement is through adopting a sustainable lifestyle. If each person tries to shift into an eco-friendly way of living, Earth’s condition would surely show improvements.
Clothing and home textiles are one of the biggest contributors in land pollution as the regular fabric materials used take decades to decompose. However, these things are considered as needs in every individual’s life. Thus, it is better to shift on sustainable fabric choices for your clothing and home textiles to help in creating a livable Earth for the succeeding generations.
Shifting to sustainable home textile options is perfect with Bria Homes. We support a sustainable living through providing high-quality yet affordable house and lot models. In addition, we promote eco-friendly solutions in maintaining our communities and the well-being of our homeowners through Sentro.
At Bria Homes, we aim to offer our quality yet affordable house and lot packages closer to every Filipino family. To learn more about our offers, you may contact us in our social media platforms or book an appointment for a virtual tour of our houses.
Written by Steven Hernandez
