Mountain Living Blog

Chic style meets sustainability at è bella

In the March/April Green Issue of Mountain Living, we take you behind the scenes of eco-friendly textile company è bella in Boulder, Colorado—a chic and cheery space brimming with pillows and rugs in modern patterns and bold colors. Not only are è bella’s home goods gorgeous, but they’re made of renewable, biodegradable alpaca yarn and can be colored with 100-percent organic dye, all through a low-carbon operation. Founder and visionary Nicole Linton dreams up the designs, then partners with weavers in Peru to manufacture the goods—stimulating their local economy and providing stable work. It’s all good. And green.

Click here to take a look inside the showroom, browse beautiful products and get Nicole Linton’s take on good, green design.

Take an eco-luxe getaway with one of these green travel hotspots

There’s a new generation of mountain resorts that’s making it easy to stay green—even when you’re away from home. Here’s a taste of some of our favorite green destinations throughout the West:

1. Shop at Corky Woods, interior designer Michelle Pauline’s “green” department store in Basalt, Colorado, for everything from chic apparel and body products to housewares and healthy building materials.

2. On Saturdays, stop by the Santa Fe Farmers Market in the Railyard District. Support the efforts of local farmers and food artisans, and pick up edibles from vendors including Shepherd’s Lamb, South Mountain Dairy, Desert Fungi and Sunstar Herbs.

3. Indulge your senses at Mountain Body Spa & Herbal Cosmetic Deli in Park City. One-hundred-percent botanical products include great-smelling lotions, body oils, foam baths, shampoos and soaps. Book a Green Tea Facial, après ski massage or other treatment, too.

4. Reserve a table at Six89 in Carbondale, Colorado, where owner-chef Mark Fischer looks to local farmers, ranchers and food artisans for ingredients for his nationally respected sustainable cuisine. Try the “random acts” tasting menu.

More in the mood for an enchanting resort weekend in Utah or wildlife viewing in Wyoming? Click here for six more ideas, or pick up the March/April Green Issue of Mountain Living for your complete Insider’s Guide to Eco-Luxe Travel.

ML’s March/April Green Issue brings you the secrets of sustainable design

At ML, we’ve come to believe that good design is green design. And so we’re excited to bring you an entire issue full of secrets of sustainable design. Inside its pages, you’ll find high-country hotspots for an eco-luxe getaway, a roundup of home goods that are inspired by nature and made by hand, plus the winners of our Responsible Development Awards in the categories of tourism and residential—true showcases of green design. (The swank spaces in these Colorado hotels will make you swoon, and you’ll love how the cabin in Montana gives old materials a charming and beautiful new use.)

As the smart and stylish places and products featured in this issue prove, a sustainable home (or resort) can be every bit as luxurious and gorgeous and comfortable as a conventional one. After all, it’s good design.

Pick up your copy of the issue, on newsstands now, and visit www.mountainliving.com for Web exclusives from the issue.

This is an interesting look at the tools we used to use to make magazines before PhotoShop and Quark, hey even before computers.

The secrets of sustainable design are revealed in ML’s Green Issue

The March/April 2010 Green Issue of Mountain Living, on newsstands March 2, is full of stories about people living leaner and greener throughout the high country. Such is the case with the Montana couple who helped design the living room pictured above. The chic space is the heart of their modern, handsomely appointed two-bedroom home located within a historic building in Billings, Montana, which they refashioned into stylish, LEED Platinum-certified apartments.

Deftly combining old with new, interior designer Susie Hoffman complemented the room’s original beams and bead-board walls with drum shade pendants from CB2 and Midcentury Modern orange couches from Room & Board. We love the room’s modern, hip appeal, with its mix of fresh colors and industrial-but-soft textures.

Pick up a copy of the issue to read the full story and browse the beautiful photos. You’ll find it on newsstands March 2.

Mountain Living and Colorado Homes & Lifestyles magazines were proud to sponsor the 2009|10 Architects’ Choice Awards for residential design. Presented by the American Institute of Architects, Denver Chapter, the awards annually recognize excellence in housing design.

A panel of judges, which included Mountain Living editor in chief Christine DeOrio, and Colorado Homes & Lifestyles/Mountain Living managing editor Caroline Eberly, considered the following criteria when evaluating each entry:

*Strength of design ideas
*Aesthetic and market appeal
*Sensitivity to existing structures and neighborhood
*Appropriate use of building materials
*Craftsmanship
*Compliance with entry requirements
*Standard-setting for the community
*Success in meeting clients’ goals

This year, five winning projects were selected. Click here to learn all about them.