child’s room with colorful, imagi- native furniture is easier than you might imagine and can also help protect the environment. Manufacturers are making it easier to inject a splash of bright color into children’s furniture. For example, South Shore Indus- tries offers Painted Home, a collection of children’s bedroom fur- niture inspired by the furniture styles of the Eastern Seaboard and the colors and textures of a summerholiday. “We are knownfor colorful furniture,” said Nathalie Spooner, design manager for South Shore, which now creates furniture in a multitude of colors. “We offer blue furniture for boys and yellow for girls, with a dark red color option for both. You can see the color of the ‘wood’ through the blue and yellow paintbrush strokes, so it looks like old furniture that’s been painted.” Like their other collections, this one is made with durable, Composite Panel Association (CPA)-certified EPP particleboard and Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF). EPP, which stands for Environ- mentally Preferable Product, is an environmental designation that indicates the products are made of 100 percent recycled or recovered fiber content. This helps to extend natural resources and diverts mil- a ll ae This attractive children’s furniture is painted bright colors and is made from environmentally friendly materials. lions of tons of wood waste. The EPP trademarkalso certi- fies that product emissions meet or surpass rigorous American National Standards Institute (ANSDstandards. The reason particleboard and MDF get such a good rating is that they’re essentially recycled. Manufacturers of particle- board, MDFand hardboard gener- ate chunks of board trim, reject panels and other wood particles andfiber. Over 50 percent of these residuals are recycled back into the board. Architects and designers who are looking for environmentally friendly products specify EPP products. For more information on CPA and EPP certification, visit www.pbmdf.com.
