New Naturals

To add warmth and style to a room, designers today are bringing the outside in. The new naturals are home furnishings made from materials that come straight from nature including coconut fibers, egg shells, bamboo, banana leaves and water hyacinth. Not only are they low maintenance, they're decorative, durable and also mix well with modern furniture. Christian Carlsen shows some of these fabulous pieces:

• New naturals are the materials that have been taken from the earth and put into beautiful objects for the home. Anything from woven vine and bamboo to coconut fiber and water hyacinth can be turned into home decor items.

• What's the allure of these natural materials? It's bringing the outdoors in, which also creates a lot of texture. An interior with these materials invites you to touch it and see what it's all about.

• New naturals are also low maintenance and require only dusting so there's no polishing or waxing.

Before

Designer Charlie Wilson helps homeowner Jamie Chadwick add new naturals to her mismatched living room. Her living room is in dire need of two things, warmth and style. It's a hodge-podge of pieces that don't have any connection to each other. Plus, the room feels stark and cold--not the feelings the owner wants to convey.

After

Natural materials including a sisal rug, sculptural chairs made of banana leaves, rattan cubes that function as a coffee table, a rattan tower that provides storage space for CDs and other trinkets, a rattan tray filled with raw olives and avocados and a bowl made from cracked coconut shells filled with chocolate coffee beans warm the living room up while calming it down at the same time.

rattan screen, rattan media storage, woven tray (Target)
banana leaf chair and ottoman (IKEA)
hyacinth stool (Flotsom & Jetsom)
coconut bowl (Pacific Rim)