When thinking of ways to make your home more eco-friendly, the pantry and cleaning products are often some of the more obvious places to start. But, did you know that your bedroom is filled with environmentally-friendly opportunities as well?
Yes, where you sleep and what you sleep on can be transformed into a green paradise.
Traditional bedding items are often packed with chemicals and dyes, and many also cause a lot of waste and pollution. There are a few organic and eco-friendly companies out there, but sometimes it feels good to craft things yourself (and save some money).
We’re going to go over how you can make your sleeping space as healthy and eco-friendly as you are. These DIY projects will require some crafty sewing skills, so being comfortable with a sewing machine is a plus. Here are 8 DIY Bedding alternatives for your eco-friendly home.
1. Sleeping Pillows
One easy way to make your bed greener is to create pillows out of buckwheat hulls or wool batting. Buckwheat is a firmer pillow material, but makes for a great filling that is also supportive.
This guide from Wellness Mama shows you how to make a buckwheat pillow. Creating a pillow with wool filling is not much different. If you are new to sewing, pillows make a perfect beginner project – they are pretty simple and easy to put together, and pillowcases can hide mistakes.
Another great thing about making your own pillows is that you can add your own scents, like lavender or chamomile, so you can have a great smelling pillow throughout the year.
2. Homemade Comforter
While a pillow may be smaller, a comforter is not too much more difficult to make yourself. You can use organic cotton or flax fabric, and fill your homemade comforter with wool or cotton to make it super eco-friendly.
Simply take the fabric, sew it on three sides and fill it with organic wool. Once you’re satisfied with the amount of filling, sew the last edge of the comforter. If you want to get fancy, baffling the comforter will help keep filling in place.
You can also create a duvet by finding fabric that you like and cutting it to be about two or three inches larger than your comforter. Sew three sides shut and attach buttons to the open side. Put your homemade comforter inside your duvet and you’ve got a stylish, personalized bedding set.
3. Bed Skirt
A quick and easy way to hide under bed clutter is to add a bed skirt of your own design. Find a pattern that works for you or create your own and get to work recycling old materials for your bed skirt. Make sure that the pattern you find will cover enough space below your bed to hide any clutter and will look the desired way.
4. Fabric Box Spring Cover
If bed skirts aren’t your style, but your box spring or bed foundation isn’t up to snuff, adding a box spring cover can tie together your bed set. If you have old bedsheets or fabric from another project that you would enjoy using in your room, then you can wrap your box spring with it. If that’s not the case, then find a fabric that you like that is made from an organic fabric like cotton, bamboo, cashmere or hemp.
5. Colorful Shams & Accent Pillows
Eco-friendly doesn’t have to mean boring and bland. You can spice up your bed with cool shams for pillows made from a variety of different complementary fabrics. Old sweaters, tees, or dresses and other fabric scraps can be matched together with buttons and other trims for a neat designer look.
You can use shams with homemade pillows of all sizes, or to revamp old ones. Let your personality and eco-friendliness shine with this project. Use materials that are sustainable and reuse fabric wherever you can.
6. Blankets
Just as with the comforter project mentioned above, making your own blanket is easy to do. Using a sustainable, eco-friendly wool will keep you warm in the winter and it will breathe well in the summer. Wool also wicks away moisture as you sleep, so you’ll stay the same temperature throughout the night.
7. Sheets
Sheets are easy to make at home. You can create your sheets out of an organic fabric that might be harder to find or more expensive at a store. There are many different ways to make a fitted sheet since they’re more challenging to make than a top sheet. You can also reuse fabric that you might have lying around from another project.
8. Headboard
For a bigger project, try restoring an older headboard. Using a vintage headboard can liven up a room and give it a warm feeling. Having one in your room means that you’re not contributing to creating more products, and you have complete control over paints and glues used.
If you can’t find an older headboard to restore, you can make one yourself. Better Homes and Gardens has a comprehensive list of headboard ideas that you can create out of materials that you already have in the house.
You spend a lot of time in your bedroom and when you sleep, your body is in very close proximity to your mattress and bedding for hours. This means where you sleep is an extremely important place to keep green. Making your bedding by hand and out of organic, natural materials will greatly improve your space and your sleeping quality, while also lending a personal touch.
Feature image courtesy of jm3