Vegan Furniture Trends
Vegan food, vegan clothing, vegan make-up and even vegan energy. The past decade has seen a surge in veganism, and with it the positive impact it carries on sustainability and animal welfare. But what about vegan furniture? Yes, your furniture can also be vegan.
As the co-founder of a business built firmly on the principles of the circular economy, and having previously run a specialist dietary food labelling service, my interest in ethical economies, ethical shopping and ethical living was fast-tracked. Along with this came an awareness of Veganism and my Vegan friends, family members and colleagues unflinching desire to live a more sustainable lifestyle. A lifestyle that was kinder to animal life, as well as our own.
So what are the trends we should be looking for when shopping for Vegan Furniture?
1. Look out for 100% recycled materials
This might sound obvious. However, it is not always easy to find the right materials (to match your home or office decor and interior design) that can be easily and responsibly purchased. When purchasing second-hand items, we recommend that you look for those which are marked as being made from 100% recycled materials. This typically means that the items being purchased will have been designed with the lowest environmental impact – fewer pollutants produced during the manufacturing process.
2. Furniture made from Natural Fabric
In line with my first point above, the fabrics chosen can have a direct impact on the animal-friendliness of an item. So you’ll want to avoid the obvious materials that either require animals in production or animal by-products such as real leather, but also fabrics such as silk, suede, fur, wool, and cashmere.
Instead, consider the following which should be more animal kind:
- Raw Cotton
- Linen
- Velveteen
- Hemp
- Calico
- Muslin
- Faux Leather
Faux Leather can be a tricky one, so we’ll cover what to look for here in a future article.
3. Buy Local and Hunt Vintage
Achieving true sustainability comes with many variables. As a Vegan you will quite rightly be concerned with animal cruelty and ensuring animal kindness at all times. There is also the wider environmental context as well and ensuring that we are protecting our planet for all creatures. And with that, we need to consider what our furniture is made of, where it comes from, who it’s being purchased from and what the delivery process is. Transporting goods long distances, for example, i.e via air or road naturally comes with CO2 implications so we strongly advocate, where possible, to buy from local second-hand or vintage dealers which helps reduce CO2 emissions and has the added impact of supporting the local economy.
Hunt Vintage are on a mission to bring together the best vintage (and second-hand) items from the UK’s local vintage dealers, so please feel free to browse our site for the latest vintage furniture items, learn more about our partners and let us know if you have any feedback as we develop our offering – we would love to connect and learn about your specific requirements.
