A Guide to Being Sustainable at Home and in Life

“Gittemarie is creator that not only provides helpful tips on living a zero-waste and vegan lifestyle, but also articulates it in way that is approachable.” —Jhánneu Roberts (@Jhanneu)

#1 New Release in Upcycling & Repurposing

Reshape your conventional habits, purchases, and recipes with these simple yet effective zero-waste alternatives!

Eco-friendly living made simple. As a lifestyle guide and an introduction to sustainable living, Sustainable Badass shows you why and how to minimize your consumption while effortlessly making your habits greener. Each page has practical tips, tools and important facts about plastic pollution, overconsumption, and the climate crisis. From small changes such as pre-cycling and purchasing items with minimum to no packaging, to eliminating plastic entirely; this book empowers you to be a sustainable badass by making effortless planet-positive choices in your everyday life.

Know the cause, be the change. Gittemarie Johansen, sustainability blogger and speaker, teaches you the way to a greener, more simple and happier life by implementing self sustainable living principles, all while putting the power into your hands as the consumer to speak up and demand change for our planet.

Be sustainable at home.Sustainable Badass encourages you with some effortless principles on the best sustainable home goods. Enjoy this holistic and accessible approach to creating a self sustainable home and lifestyle, that is easy to implement, and fundamental to saving our planet.

Inside, you’ll find:

• A guide to being intentionally sustainable at home 
• Effortless and intentional steps to withdraw from consumerism
• All the knowledge you need to live a sustainable life at home and with others

If you liked Simply Living Well, Live Green, or Attainable Sustainable, you’ll love Sustainable Badass.

The extrovert of interior design and the definition of 'more is more', maximalism is an exuberant celebration of pattern, colour and texture that deliberately clash. Its roots lie in 1930s Hollywood Regency style, Rococo and Neoclassicism, as well as Greek, Egyptian and Asian styles.

With a historical overview of the decor, and illustrated with examples of notable interiors and key elements of lighting, furniture, colour palette, texture and textile, the book offers practical advice on how to recreate the look in your own home.

Developed out of the aesthetic philosophy of cha-no-yu (the tea ceremony) in fifteenth-century Japan, wabi sabi is an aesthetic that finds beauty in things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.

Taken from the Japanese words wabi, which translates to less is more, and sabi, which means attentive melancholy, wabi sabi refers to an awareness of the transient nature of earthly things and a corresponding pleasure in the things that bear the mark of this impermanence. As much a state of mind—an awareness of the things around us and an acceptance of our surroundings—as it is a design style, wabi sabi begs us to appreciate the pure beauty of life—a chipped vase, a quiet rainy day, the impermanence of all things. Presenting itself as an alternative to today's fast-paced, mass-produced, neon-lighted world, wabi sabi reminds us to slow down and take comfort in the natural beauty around us.

In addition to presenting the philosophy of wabi-sabi, this book includes how-to design advice—so that a transformation of body, mind, and home can emerge.

Chapters include:

• History: The Development of Wabi Sabi
• Culture: Wabi Sabi and the Japanese Character
• Art: Defining Aesthetics
• Design: Creating Expressions with Wabi Sabi Materials
• Spirit: The Universal Spirit of Wabi Sabi

A rare glimpse into Korean hanok, Inside the Korean House takes readers on an unprecedented tour through the modern interiors of twelve magnificent tradional homes.

Amidst the glass-and-steel skyscrapers and luxury apartments of modern-day Seoul, traditional Korean houses known as hanok survive and play a surprisingly important role. Inside the Korean House showcases 12 very special hanok that have been selected to reflect the style-conscious Korea of today, a country where traditional values are still highly respected.

While the exteriors of these homes are indistinguishable from the traditional hanok of the past, the interiors have been adapted to keep up with the times. Traditional stone, wood and clay are still the basic materials used, and the houses make full use of natural elements such as wind and sunlight based on the principles of baesanimsu—which position the hanok in harmony with the forces of nature and the geography of their sites.

The hanok in this book all have unique stories that are told from the point of view of their owners, many of whom are well-known architects, designers and business leaders. The book provides an unparalleled look at the lifestyle of contemporary Koreans who are leading the world now in terms of design, fashion and innovation.

"This book is full of ideas for floral designs with a tropical twist to create for a variety of occasions…you're sure to be inspired!" —Garden & Landscape Design Magazine

Decorating with Flowers celebrates the latest trends in contemporary floral design with a tropical twist. Featuring inspired table settings and installations, this extraordinary flower arranging book will encourage you to create your own unforgettable floral creations.

In this book, ten designers and artists share the ideas and insights behind their floral arrangements—each of which is shown in detailed photos—making this an excellent guide for interior decorators, florists, event planners and homeowners looking to add some pizzazz to a space.

Featuring over 300 color photographs, Decorating with Flowers has something for everyone—from glamorous Flemish flower arrangements to modern Sogetsu ikebana styles, and modular flower sculptures created to enhance minimalist, contemporary spaces.

Japanese homes speak to the soul and provide a contemplative environment from which to experience the world.

Japan Style offers rare glimpses into twenty exquisite traditional homes in Japan. The lavish photographs in this volume demonstrate how Japanese design achieves a timeless tranquility using a few very simple, natural elements.

Wood is the preferred building material since it is considered a "living" material; the country's Shinto and Zen Buddhist roots have inculcated a deep respect for nature. The houses in this book are a wonderful reminder that there are alternatives to "big is beautiful"—and that neither timelessness nor modernity has to be about using cold steel, glass and concrete.

The wabi-sabi ideal, translated loosely by Frank Lloyd Wright as a "rusticity and simplicity that borders on loneliness," is considered the epitome of sophistication in Japanese interior design. The houses in this book invite us to rethink the wisdom of our hurried modern lifestyle and return to a simpler, slower life.

The quintessential Japanese aesthetic can be seen in a 100-year-old minka farmhouse, an old merchant's machiya townhouse in Kyoto, a sprawling country Samurai villa, and in a modern seaside cottage. This book offers insights for architects and homeowners alike by providing inspiring and surprising alternatives, relevant to the design of homes anywhere in the world today.