Making homes green, and beautiful

It is disguised as a modern and chic home with the look of an art gallery, exhibiting glass sculptures, paintings, and a canyon for a backdrop.

But inside the walls of this stylish Pasadena abode is an eco-friendly structure with all the works.

Kristina Urbana Spencer, interior designer and owner of the Pasadena-based Setting the Stage Interior Design, specializes in healthy, environmentally friendly remodeling and design. She used her own small home as an experimental studio.

"My home became my experience," she said. "A house is almost like a living organism. I really love making houses green that perform well and are beautiful."

It took about seven months to remodel her house, which she presents as an example of a home that is sustainable, allergen-free, attractive, and comfortable.

"For a long time, green was not necessarily beautiful," Spencer said. "Your choice was hemp, hemp, and hemp. With the explosion of truly green products, you have much more variety."

Among these products: Mythic paint, a nontoxic, zero Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paint that is very low in odor, and zebra granite or stone tile, which is easy to keep clean, she said.

Spencer's house was one of the first in her town to use Regreen guidelines on renovating a home to be environmentally clean.

She hid most of the house wiring and all of the small energy-efficient appliances behind durable, formaldehyde-free kitchen cupboards that she designed.

The recyclable wood floors have a water-based sealer on them to divert water.

The house has a nontoxic denim-cloth insulation in the ceiling, dual-flush toilets, an electric stove, and a hot-on-demand no-waste water system operated by "hot" and "cold" buttons.

She installed four water filters to clean out microorganisms and recirculate the water throughout the home.

On her walls Spencer used American clay earth plaster, which contains no toxins; it also helps moderate the temperature and repels dirt.

To provide heat in the living room, Spencer put in a natural-gas fireplace that looks like a jewelry box with crushed colored glass. It is about 40 percent more efficient than a wood-burning fireplace and creates no soot, smog or smoke, she said.

The living spaces throughout the house are clutter-free. That means less dust and more room for people.

"Part of Regreen is looking at the space and being more flexible as to how you use it," Spencer said. "Make a space for people and use every inch you have in the house."

The Spencers have one TV and several rooms for family activities. Spencer says she doesn't want family members to sequester themselves in their own isolated spaces.

Most materials used in the house had to be as healthy, chemical-free, and nontoxic as possible. Her husband, Jeff, is highly sensitive to chemicals, and her sister has had asthma her entire life.

"Being chemically sensitive is a lifestyle, and more and more people are like that," Spencer said. "I think in a few more years, everyone is going to be allergic or reactive to something because we're exposed to so many chemicals."

Not everyone reacts to the toxic chemicals used in everyday building materials, furnishings, and packaging, but the exposure is harmful just the same, she said.

"If you don't react [to chemicals now], you don't really realize how much trouble it causes," she said.

Her quest for an allergen-free environment and more healthy, clean space extends outdoors. She landscaped with only female plants, which don't spread pollen. All the plants are drought-tolerant, which cuts down on water use.

There is a steel cactus sculpture in the middle of the lead-free, recyclable synthetic grass yard. Most of the concrete she used in the landscape is made from 40 percent fly ash, or burnt ash, which tends to wind up in the trash.

"Instead of sending it to a landfill, I made a patio with it," Spencer said.

Above her patio are solar panels, which feed electricity into her home. They also provide shade, which can keep the area cooler.

Spencer collects rainwater in two 57-gallon containers. She said all of her water-saving strategies save about 65,000 gallons a year.

"What I do is ahead of the curve," Spencer said about green design. "But people's minds are open now. People are saying, 'She did it, let's take a look at it.' "

Having working for 22 years as a registered nurse in the chronic unit of a Los Angeles respiratory hospital, she is well-versed in the body, health, and disease.

Spencer left nursing and went back to school for a bachelor's degree in interior design from Cal State Northridge, graduating in 2006.

Her nursing background and passion for design led to her specialty.

"It was just such a natural fit," she said. "Green designing lets me do my nursing in a different kind of way."

Spencer, whose primary business is staging homes for sale, says remodeling a home is still very costly, but those who take it on can get their money back over the years in lower utility bills and maintenance costs.

"I love not being tied down to a big house with a lot of maintenance," she said. "My money can go into other things, like my family."

Spencer has been sharing her green insights for several years. She appeared on an episode of Planet Green's Greenovate, a how-to green-house series, in 2008. She speaks about residential remodeling from an interior-design perspective for the area chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers.

She also is designing a space in this year's Pasadena Showcase House of Design where she can demonstrate her skills with green ideas.

"I'm so busy, but I'm ever so committed now to providing environments that are healthy," she said.

There are some easy things we can all do to approach green living, she said. Take short showers, use less electricity, and replace the refrigerator, the biggest energy hog in every home, with an Energy Star brand.

"Your finger turning off that light switch has a profound effect" on the planet, Spencer said. "Green is a consciousness, it's a lifestyle. If you want to go deeper, call me, hire me, and the rest will be history."