A beginner’s guide to sustainable materials for interiors

A couple of years ago we extended our house. We'd had a fire, the kitchen was full of damp, and what started as necessary repair work became something bigger — knocked down walls, new space, an open plan living environment we're genuinely grateful for. But I hadn't anticipated the sheer volume of materials involved – and the waste. The amount of stuff the builders put straight into the skip without a second thought. Watching that unfold — standing in my own home, watching potentially usable, often non-biogradable, sometimes toxic materials disappear into landfill — made me start to see the built environment differently. Not as a finished ‘after photo’ but as an accumulation of material decisions. I realised that most of us, myself included, make those decisions without nearly enough information.