Inside Country Living's House of the Year

Country Living's 2010 House of the Year isn't just green -- It's full of ideas and charm.

For their 2010 House of the Year project, Country Living magazine teamed up with New World Home, channeled their eco-friendliest design resources and set their sights on Manhattan's World Financial Center. The result: A 1,600 square-foot prefab cottage called "Hudson" (after its riverside setting) open for public viewing through June 18th.

This year's home marks a trio of firsts for the House of the Year -- its New York City locale, its green focus (it has also been dubbed "Home Green Home") and its real estate potential (with an option for visitors to purchase the same model on view, anywhere across the country).

After touring the 2 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and 1,100 square-foot wrap-around porch, I chatted with Country Living's style and market director Natalie Warady about how the home's country aesthetic, eco-friendly furnishings and easy glamour could come together so seamlessly. Here are her tips on going green (and staying stylish) with any decor.

1. Embrace antiques.
Many new construction homes like this one tend to be modern and short on character, but Warady and the design team were able to infuse charm into the space by scouring flea markets and antique dealers for items. Their finds were sprinkled throughout the house, including a mirror spotted at the Brimfield Antique Show in Massachusetts and put to work in the second-floor powder room, and a vintage wallpaper from Second Hand Rose covering the walls in the dreamy walk-in closet. Other items were either inspired by or crafted from antique pieces, like the master bathroom's claw-foot tub and the dining room table from Terrain, which was handmade from recycled antique elm wood doors.

Looking for antiquing tips? Check out Flea Marketing 101.

2. Buy items locally.
One way to reduce your carbon footprint when it comes to home design is by cutting down on the resources needed to get a single item into your home. The Country Living team did it by choosing vendors like North Carolina's Hickory Chair, who employs local woodworkers, and a New England-based rug company, whose floor coverings are hand woven and colored with vegetable dyes, to help outfit the living room.

Our writer describes her experience with the "slow home" movement.

3. Use something you already own.
You know the charge: Reduce, reuse, recycle. And recycle they did when they tapped one of Warady's favorite design resources, Chairloom, to reupholster old chairs for the bedrooms using fresh (and fab) new fabrics. The team also purchased a dresser from Furnish Green, which took on a new life as the vanity in the master bath (below).

Not sure how to reuse old pieces? The Stir has a few ideas.


4. Be artful and experiment.
One of the most stunning features of the home's design is a gallery of framed prints lining the stairway up to the second floor (below). The impressive collection, it turns out, was created using pages from an old book of illustrations and inexpensive frames from IKEA.

Want to decorate your walls on the cheap? The Frisky has you covered.


The same ingenuity was employed to give the dining room chairs a special feel -- their faux-suede coverings were embellished with a hydrangea design on the back, by stencil artist Carol Kemery (below).


5. Buy things you truly love and have them forever.
"This is a great way to be green," Warady says. And we couldn't agree more.

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