Experimenting with furniture

As with many people in lockdown, we had to get some extra kit in the house to make it workable for two of us working basically full time and home schooling. Furniture is often a bid expense, and can have a big environmental footprint as well.

So determined to think about how to do home office upgrades in an eco-friendly way, we looked at several options - from supporting small suppliers (socially good, but sourcing of materials can be variable) to looking at second hand and freecycle furniture (a favourite of ours!).

But I thought I'd do something special for my wife's office as she's been hauling some LONG hours and I wanted her working environment to be enjoyable and beautiful.

In the end I went for a top and some legs, separately.

We got some offcut kitchen worktop from a local (wholesale) supplier - so avoiding waste there whilst getting some good quality surface. We'd looked at reclaimed wood, but for a working desk, I didn't want to risk an internet delivery of something very uneven or warped as we were buying in the height of covid and with no way to check quality before delivery. It did need some oiling (we used linseed) to protect it from the heavy use it'll be seeing!

For the legs, I used Tiptoe - a French company specialising in sustainable design, and they sell these great table and desk legs, which easily bolt onto whatever table top you've decided on. The legs are made of steel (so already recycled) and made in Europe. The downside was that Brexit kicked in and we ended up waiting a few months for the delivery, but it was still worth it.

Key considerations for us were: durability, materials (quality offcut wood and steel is a good combo for these) and distance. Sourced within Europe was OK - could have been better. We didn't end up supporting local or small/artisan suppliers which was another angle we could have taken.

Here's the final look:

You might also notice a red drawer cabinet that's about 40 years old, (seriously well made bit of kit) and some Ikea furniture that's lasted 10 years so far: we're definitely making the most out of the furniture that we have!

What big purchases did you make in lockdown, and did you manage to be eco-friendly?