This Airy Tribeca Apartment Was Redesigned With Sustainability in Mind

I wholeheartedly believe in changing, updating, and rearranging your home until your environment feels and looks exactly the way you need it to support your lifestyle and goals. But is that always a healthy choice for the environment as a whole? Is redesigning or remodeling your home an eco-friendly practice? The answer is, of course, varied and complicated. But one New York-based interior designer is aiming to make designing home more sustainable.

“Sustainability has been considered trendy lately, but it’s not the color palette or design aesthetics that make it eco-friendly,” says Laura Baross, the founder and designer of sustainable design practice, Design w Care. “Green building initiatives go back to the ’90s, and there are LEED, WELL, or Passive House certifications that offer guidance for design professionals when designing buildings. But even though these certifications provide complex solutions, the guidelines seem rather distant from homeowners and/or businesses that are looking for design upgrades made in sustainable manners. This is where Design w Care comes in, simplifying the task. Implementing the mindset of a person that makes all the effort to reduce impact in their private life and introducing that same mentality into interior design.”

It was exactly this kind of mindset transformation—living a more minimal lifestyle and a desire to lower household waste—that motivated Alec and Liina, professors of Linguistics and Psychology and the directors of the Neuroscience of Language Lab at NYU, to work with Laura to declutter and redesign their home in Tribeca. A main goal was to be as low impact as possible and to keep much of the existing furniture. To brighten up the space and create a calming feel with new wall colors. To add back in only what is absolutely necessary. It was a perfect project to practice Design w Care’s ethos of “Refuse, Reduce, Reuse.”

“Alec and Liina have lived in their apartment for over 10 years so they owned a good amount of furniture and decor items. Instead of tossing old furniture items and replacing them with new pieces we refused to send them to the landfill and kept the majority of the items. What wasn’t functional anymore got donated to their students and what needed a little face lift got re-upholstered or styled with a new throw covering the old fabrics, thus reducing the amount of new resources that would be needed for brand new items. Getting creative with DIYs or re-used vintage items is always appreciated when addressing sustainability!”

This design approach fit in with the sustainability goals Liina had been implementing. “For the last three months I have been enthusiastically working to reduce the waste created by our household, largely inspired by Laura Baross!” says Liina. “In the middle of this transformation, I am getting a lot of joy especially from my collection of bulk foods in mason jars and using baking soda for many functions both in the kitchen and the bathroom. I am loving how this lifestyle reduces clutter (which I hate), saves a lot of money, and is good for the planet!”

Glance between the “before” and “after” photos of Liina and Alec’s home and you won’t see a tremendously huge difference. The major changes in this home’s redesign are experienced in the serene atmosphere created by streamlining a minimal decor style. And in the details (easier to focus on with fewer “things”), which emphasize craftsmanship and the beauty of natural materials. And because they worked to reuse as many existing furniture and decor pieces as possible, as well as avoid buying as few new items as they could, they were able to reduce the amount of package waste that often accumulates during a redesign.

“The amount of packaging that comes with brand new items always breaks my heart,” Laura confesses. “Many times when purchasing appliances or heavy furniture pieces they arrive protected with styrofoam. Cardboard boxes and even plastic wraps are at least recyclable—I always try to collect the plastic bag inserts and drop it off at a local grocery store that offers recycling.” Wasteful packing is also a reason why Laura suggests that if you do buy something new, buy from a smaller business. “One of the benefits of buying from smaller/sustainable brands, for example on Etsy, is that we can have a conversation and ask them to ship plastic free. When sourcing from larger furniture platforms, this request gets lost.” And of course, she reminds us that “locally sourced secondhand items come free of packaging.”

For those currently on or about to embark on sustainable redesigning journeys, Laura suggests taking your time, if you are able to. “Don’t rush into purchasing everything at once. Set your goals, make a list of items that you’re looking for, and then keep your eyes open,” she recommends. And before you embark on a costly (financially or environmentally) redesign, examine your motivations. “Take in consideration whether your desire to remodel is driven by boredom/social media or your actual needs for a more functional space,” Laura cautions. “If you’re only looking for a quick change, I suggest moving things around to please your senses with a new layout.”

My Style: Eclectic; Scandinavian with Middle Eastern influences. I am from Finland but my husband and I also spend a lot of time in Abu Dhabi as we have a lab in NYU Abu Dhabi.

Inspiration: Travel. Coziness. I love a home with a warm feeling, one that relaxes a guest immediately when they walk in (and us too of course).

Favorite Element: Our high ceilings.

Biggest Challenge: Our windows. They need to be replaced but this is extremely hard to do. 

Proudest DIY: I enjoy photography immensely and have a collection of Mixtiles of many of my favorite shots from our travels and NYC. I run every morning and shoot the same frame each morning for a year (@tribecamorningrunner on Instagram). A lot of my pictures are from my runs and I’ve printed a lot of them for our home.

Biggest Indulgence: Our current renovation. 🙂 

Best Advice: As often as possible, seek to have experiences that make you feel small in the context of the universe. This puts problems into perspective. It could be nature, it could be listening to a podcast about something much bigger than you, it could appreciating something that has a long history (like the Brooklyn Bridge).    

• All BENJAMIN MOORE 
• Mountain Peak White | OC-121
• Sail Cloth | OC-142
• Ipanema | AF-245
• Amsterdam | AF-550

• Existing Furniture — Sofa, Dining Table & Chairs, Piano, Art, Plants
• Pillows & Couch Cover— SandSnowLinen
• Shelves — CB2
• Existing Upholstered Low Stools — Stitchroom
• Curtains — SandSnowLinen
• Accent Brick Wall – Brick It (Antique Ivory)
• Table Linen – Caroline Z Hurley
• 3 Pendants – Mush Lume
• Pampas Grass – Luxe

• Bed — ​CB2 – arrived package free just with a movers blanket
• Bedding — Coyuchi 
• Lamp — Lost & Found
• Blanket — Caroline Z Hurley
• Upholstered Curtains — Stitchroom
• Shelves — CB2
• Rug — Caroline Z Hurley
• Closet — Existing closet refinished with BM Mountain Peak White

• Existing Furniture — Bed, Chest of Drawers, Loveseat, Side tables
• Curtains — SandSnowLinen
• Love Seat Cover — SandSnowLinen
• Bedding — Coyuchi

Thanks Liina, Alec, and Laura!

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