Smart Home graduates to next level

Posted March 12, 2010 10:00 pm

By Deborah Donovan

Carol Schalla learned the Midwest has caught up with the green lifestyle when she redesigned the decor for the Smart Home at the Museum of Science & Industry.

The senior home editor of Midwest Living, Schalla also found many - not all - of the home's furnishings at the type of mass merchandise stores where her readers really shop.

"Green" has come a long way in the last few years, said Ann Rashford, director of temporary exhibits at the museum. When the Smart Home opened in 2008, many of the products came from the West Coast, but green is so mainstream today that Schalla found furniture and accessories from vendors in Chicago and throughout the Midwest.

"We intended the Smart Home to run for one year," said Rashford, "but the public has fallen in love with the home." In the first two years 200,000 people toured the house - 18 at a time on 20-minute guided tours.

"People can understand it," she explained. "They want to be responsible and make informed decisions about the environment. This home teaches them about things like no-VOC paint and light bulbs and getting a library card instead of always buying books." (VOC stands for volatile organic compounds.)

The house is scheduled to close Jan. 9, 2011, but Rashford skirted the question of whether there could be yet another year under the photovoltaic film and roof garden.

Visitors will immediately notice the concrete and oak dining room table. Keelin Kennedy of Barefoot Design in Chicago designed it with the wood from a bur oak tree that stood on the museum's property before the Columbian Exposition, held in 1893 on these very grounds. When a 2009 summer storm knocked down the tree, it left a hole in the grove east of the house, said Rashford.

Terry Karpowicz in Chicago used more of the wood to fashion a coffee table for the living room.

(The real tables from the venerable bur oak are not in the rooms yet because the wood is being cured. However, they will look like the ones that are there, and the three stumps that create Karpowicz' coffee table in the family room and the headboard on the master bed are the real thing).

The pair of white chandeliers twinkling above the dining room table are hickory branches and twigs from Deanna Wish Designs in New Castle, Pa. They are available natural or painted with any color from Benjamin Moore and they use energy-efficient light bulbs, of course.

Schalla's earthy and natural theme continues in the living room, which features two couches from Lee Industries, Inc. The white cotton fabric covers cushions made from soy and pillows with recycled fiber filling. Even the springs are recycled steel. Lee furniture is available from Crate & Barrel, Honquest Fine Furnishings, Scentimental Gardens and Toms-Price.

Schalla found the wool rug that you call frisé, not shag, and at least one of the sofa pillows at West Elm.

Most of the art Schalla chose for the home is large, close-up photographs of leaves or trees from Two Hawks Studio in Wausau, Wis.

"I wanted to make a point," she said. "People should realize earth's beauty. We pass by every day and don't even think about it.

In the living room three photographs of prairie grass are framed in long panels on the wall - another tribute to the natural beauty of the Midwest.

In the kitchen the sparkly light Moroccan Sand countertop from Gilasi is 85 percent recycled material, mostly glass. Some of it is oven doors that cannot be recycled through most methods because they are coated. It is made in Chicago and available several places, including The Countertop Factory in Addison.

On the second floor, the nursery has some exciting touches.

Huge National Geographic photos on wall murals from art.com highlight concerns about global warming. A baby harp seal sleeps on one wall, and a polar bear baby plays with its mother on another.

A white faux bois lamp that Haitians made of papier-mâché from recycled cement bags is from Stray Dog Designs, as is a Stump stool or bedside table. The Hiya bed and dresser are bamboo from Grow Modern Kids in Chicago.

In the adjacent office the recyclable steel desk base from Room & Board is topped with PaperStone, which is made of 100 percent post-consumer recycled office paper.

Bagasse Sugar Cane copier paper from Ecopaper of California looks and feels like regular paper but is made from sugar cane waste.

Vintage metal barrister bookcases are from Room Service Chicago, and CB2's cute little sparkly containers are made from juice boxes.

One of Schalla's splurges was wallpaper from Robert Redding Design in the master bath. It is made with real magnolia leaves.

Visitors can spend as much time as they wish in the garden and garage, both full of "green" features.

The house will be featured in the September-October edition of Midwest Living magazine.

In two years, 200,000 people visited the Smart Home. J.B. Spector/Museum

If you go

What: The Smart Home: Green + Wired, a modular home on the grounds of the Museum of Science and Industry.

Where: 57th and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago

When: Tickets with specified entry times are required and advance purchase is recommended. Times change and are available on the Web site, <a href="http://msichicago.org" target="new">msichicago.org</a>.

Admission: $25 for adults, $24 for seniors and $15 for children ages 3-11; includes admission to museum.

Call: (773) 684-1414 or <a href="http://msichicago.org" target="new">msichicago.org</a>.

On DIY Network: The garage, with features like an EZ Bio-Diesel System that converts cooking oil into auto fuel with glycerin left over to make soap, will be featured on Garage Mahal on the DIY Network. It will air at 8:30 p.m. April 23 and be rerun at 8:30 p.m. May 7.

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