Maharam Wallcoverings and Textiles
by on 12.21.04
Maharam’s introduced a great set of classic Textiles of the 20th Century designed by such mid-century giants as Charles and Ray Eames, Verner Panton, and Arne Jacobsen. Unfortunately, most of the fabrics aren’t particularly environmentally friendly. This wallpaper by Alexander Girard, on the other hand, is made of cellulose and polyester instead of PVC. How do we know? Because Maharam’s website marks any green product as “reduced environmental impact” and gives details of what makes it eco-friendly. If you’re looking for a more natural texture for the walls than this graphic print, the search function will let you specify those requirements as well letting you pick only reduced environmental impact papers. And the Virtual Library...
...has a binder with the company’s full range of green textiles and wallcoverings so you can pick out curtains and upholstery and the whole lot.
It’s all part of Maharam’s continuing campaign for sustainability—they want to be the ones to supply fabric for LEED building. They’re ISO 14001 certified and have a policy to make their environmental marketing clear and non-misleading. “Generic environmental claims, such as ‘environmentally safe,’ ‘non-toxic,’ ‘green,’ ‘biodegradable,’ or ‘sustainable’ should not be made,” their policy report says, preferring claims about specific attributes like fiber content and VOC emissions.
Like the Knoll textiles we told you about, Maharam is only available to the trade, so you’ll need the helping hand of an interior designer. ::maharam [by KK]
