When planning a greener living space I always opt for salvage and re-use first, unless the salvaged product will end up using so much more energy that it becomes less green than it's newer counterpart in just a short period of time. Other times, I pour painful amounts of cash into the absolute best low toxicity, ethically produced products, but sometimes, an item will sneak in the door through sheer excellent design and appropriate fit to the space. Such is the case with the Breville Smart Oven, and the Karlaby futon couch from Ikea.
A convection-toaster oven on steroids, the Breville is loved by tiny-housers for being small, but just big enough to cook most of what you'd use a normal oven for. Being smaller it naturally saves on energy which is always good, but what I wasn't expecting was just how well it cooks just about anything you put in it. Perfect fish, chicken, pies, and ribs, the Breville is honestly the best kitchen appliance I've ever owned. I'm still not thrilled about shopping at Best Buy, but there isn't exactly a mom and pop shop selling kick-ass tiny convection ovens.
A convection-toaster oven on steroids, the Breville is loved by tiny-housers for being small, but just big enough to cook most of what you'd use a normal oven for. Being smaller it naturally saves on energy which is always good, but what I wasn't expecting was just how well it cooks just about anything you put in it. Perfect fish, chicken, pies, and ribs, the Breville is honestly the best kitchen appliance I've ever owned. I'm still not thrilled about shopping at Best Buy, but there isn't exactly a mom and pop shop selling kick-ass tiny convection ovens.
The Karlaby Futon couch from Ikea came from my need to solve a design problem. I needed a sitting area in the front that turned into a bed. Something that would fit cleanly over the existing water tank, and not interfere with it when folding out. Always frustrated with the weight and clunkyness of conventional futons, the light steel frame, and laminated wood of the Karlaby has an easy clean mechanism that requires a minimum of wrestling to transform into bed mode. I had to cut the rear legs off and raise the whole thing two inches up on blocks to get it to clear the tank, but that actually improved the sitting height and potential storage underneath. I could have done something different with a large investment in time, money, and custom carpentry, but in the end the Karlaby was a near perfect fit for the space, and with time consuming projects like the shower pan in the mix, sometimes it's nice to do things the easy way.
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