By incorporating antiques or refurbished items into your home, you are creating the ultimate green space -- from organic fabrics to salvaged-wood floors to furniture made of renewable materials from fair-trade countries that don't use child labor. It's also warm and homey, stylish without being cold.

Furnishings can blend new and old: an eye-catching contemporary fixture from Design Within Reach can hang in the dining room while a distressed-wood desk from a local antiques store is tucked beneath the staircase.

Think of local buying when choosing furnishings as well. Just as food has to travel to your local grocer, so does furniture to your local showroom. Local artisans often sell furniture, draperies, pottery and artwork, at a lesser price than a large retail store.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

THE FACTS

Purchasing antiques reduces deforestation for furniture use.