Green Space: It's a win win

Green design can be beautiful, and designers Vasi Ypsilanti and Margreet Cevasco proved the point when they chose earth-friendly products for a showhouse in Long Island, New York. "You don't have to compromise on quality and good design because a product is green," Vasi says. Even if only a handful of products in a building project are from sustainable sources that's a start, she adds. "If 70 percent of the products are green, what a difference that makes in how you live and in what manufacturers produce." Vasi and Margreet designed the kitchen, a wine room, and a breakfast room in a designer showhouse at Caumsett State Historic Park in Long Island.

Eco-kind products in the kitchen include:

• A solid bamboo floor, made from fast-growing, renewable bamboo plants; Natural Cork (800/404-2675).
• Solar-reducing woven shades made from reeds, grasses, and bamboo that filter natural light to keep a room cooler; Hunter Douglas (800/937-7895; hunterdouglas.com).
• A recycled stainless table that was in the house previously. Its sleek lines inspired the room's mix of traditional and modern elements.
• Painted concrete floor tiles, which are air-not kiln-dried and require less energy to make. The tiles also absorb and radiate heat, pleasantly warming the room.

Photographs by Elizabeth Glasgow
Text by Amy Elbert

Design:
Kitchen designer: Vasi Ypsilantis, CKD, The Breakfast Room Ltd., 1492 Northern Blvd., Manhasset, NY 11030; 516/365-8500, thebreakfastroom.com.
Interior designer: Margreet Cevasco, Margreet Cevasco Design, Sea Cliff, NY; 516/656-4690; and Manhasset, NY; 516/365-8518, cdxodesign.com.

Sources:
Flooring (Handscraped Bamboo, color, Apricot #605CH1): Natural Cork, 800/404-2675.
Painted concrete tiles: available through The Powder Room, 516/365-5577.
Stainless-steel table: original to home.
Shades (Provenance woven wood shades; fabric, "Tahiti''; color, "Straw Hut''): Hunter Douglas Window Fashions, 800/937-7895, hunterdouglas.com. Available through Goldcoast Window, 516/609-0328.
Wall paint ("Bamboo Shoot'' #SW7733, Harmony interior latex); ceiling paint ("Alabaster'' #SW7008, Harmony interior latex); trim paint ("Alabaster'' #SW7008 Proclassic water-based): The Sherwin-Williams Co., 800/382-6567, sherwinwilliams.com.
Black countertops on sink cabinetry (honed Black Absolute granite): Renaissance Marble Works Inc., 516/326-3288.
Cabinetry holding sinks; hanging light fixture: The Breakfast Room Ltd., 516/365-8500. Sinks (New England Series #WCUD-3718R and #WCUD-3718L); faucets (Metrohaus Series #WHLX78559, polished chrome): Whitehaus Collection, 800/527-6690, whitehauscollection.com.