From Motifs to Materials, for Amenity Home, Sustainability is the Standard

By Milena Damjanov
May 2, 2011

Kristina De Corpo (l) and Nicole Chiala (r), the thirty-something partners behind the home furnishings line Amenity Home, launched their business in 2004 with a simple concept: “We started with the idea of creating a lifestyle brand that offered beautiful and well-designed solutions for sustainable living,” says interior designer De Corpo.

The home furnishing design entrepreneurs began by designing duvet covers printed with nature-inspired motifs and made with eco-friendly dyes, but soon expanded to a full line of eco friendly bedding manufactured exclusively from organic cotton. Next came modern pillows featuring sustainable fibers like hemp and linen, followed by the introduction of an eco friendly nursery collection—a natural outgrowth after they both had children—which now offers green interior design products from pillows with forest animals designs to small, wooden environmentally friendly accessories like bowls and rattles crafted from woods certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). “Everything we’ve done from 2006 on has been conscious, responsible manufacturing,” explains De Corpo. “We’ve thought more about how we’re doing it versus the profit” [behind it].

Amenity Home

Amenity Home Deer Floor Pillow, Hemp Dog Bed

Amenity Home also launched an eco friendly furniture collection built from reclaimed wood—mostly 100-year-old Douglas fir—taken from Los Angeles area demolition sites. And last fall the green design team shifted their focus ever so slightly by working with artisans from South America who use all-natural materials such as minimally-processed alpaca. “Those are wonderful stories all in themselves,” says Chiala of the craftsmen they collaborate with. She describes the concept of the new line as taking a modern approach to old-world skill sets like weaving, knitting and crocheting.

Despite the deep focus on environmental sustainability, form and function figure prominently for these two former graphic designers. Hallmarks of Amenity Home’s interior designs include minimalist patterns and shapes, and a palette inspired by nature. De Corpo says that as a result, their eco friendly products aren’t just beautiful; “they’re something that you’re going to want to have for a long time.” Nicole Chiala adds, "We’re designing things that we feel we resonate with. There is a lot of emotion that goes into the design of each piece.”

Amenity Home

Alpaca Throw Blanket Ash Grey Brown, Fern Cream Peacock Hemp Cotton Placemat

Muir, their line of eco friendly furniture, is a perfect example of Amenity Home's philosophy and aesthetic. Minimalist and timeless in its simplicity, the designer furniture includes pieces such a trestle-like dining table paired with benches and a clever wood coat rack that also functions as a mail holder. “You don’t tire of it because it is so simple,” says De Corpo. The new home furnishings collection, made by artisans in Bolivia and Peru, is similarly easy and familiar. A piece which includes what De Corpo calls a “modern interpretation of the afghan,” is a personal favorite.

After working separately in branding (De Corpo) and publishing (Chiala), the two friends, who met in college, say it was easy to focus on home decor trends. “Both of us love our homes, love the objects in our homes,” says Chiala.

Today, Amenity Home operates mainly through its retail website (there’s also a showroom in downtown L.A.), making it easily accessible to Amenity Home’s many followers, who are mostly centered in California, the Pacific Northwest and major cities like Chicago and New York. Meanwhile, the two friends and interior designers continue to live close to each other, De Corpo in Silverlake and Chiala in Los Feliz. Naturally, their houses are outfitted with their own products. “A big point of the company was to create things we love,” explains De Corpo. “When you think of what you really want in your own life and in your home and the way you live, it becomes personal and much more meaningful.”

Curious to see how their keen eye for sustainable design applied to the world of eBay online auctions, we asked De Corpo and Chiala to share some recent eBay picks: