Happy Earth Day!

Photo: Patrick Cline for Rubie Green

Happy Earth Day to my friends in all corners of the world! I wanted to share something fun and green with you today, so I decided to give you a little sneak peek of my new apartment! As a few of you have already guessed, I had been working with domino magazine (sniff) on an eco-friendly makeover of my little Spanish Harlem home, but after they folded I decided to continue the project on my own, with a much lower budget of course. I'd love to show you the whole thing, but for now I have to wait just a tad longer. Let's just say I've got a few tricks up my sleeve ;)

The inspiration for my new home was the J.K. Capri, but in a sort of 'J.K. meets twenty something Manhattan gal' kind of way ;) When I visited the hotel last summer I was seriously taken by the tranquil color palette and the sophisticated layering of art, photography, books and accessories. If you haven't seen the photos from my original post, click here. It's honestly my favorite post of all time, and I cannot think of a single space that makes me more happy.

To get the J.K. look in an eco-friendly way, I chose Benjamin Moore's new Natura paint which has zero VOC's and is completely odorless! I was thrilled when the line was recently released because it's a great example of how powerful the green movement has become. Just two years ago when I was working on the green issue of domino, we were literally unable to find conventional paints without VOC's! Many forward thinking brands at the time had offered low VOC options, but it wasn't until recently that these new zero emission paints have become widely available. I chose a soft grey for my living room called Silver Half Dollar, and a navy for my office called Kensington Blue. Both look stunning paired with white moldings and furniture and colorful accessories, as is the case in the J.K. below.

Lastly I wanted to send a warm thank you to all my readers and Rubie Green fans in Australia! I continue to be absolutely blown away by the overwhelmingly positive response I have received from down under, and I am working hard to find a way to ship our bedding to you in the future. In the meantime, thank you thank you thank you for your support and your incredible enthusiasm, and a very special thanks to Home Beautiful for including me in the Eco-Chic section of the May issue :) Go green!