Is That Sofa Vegan? Chloe Bullock on Sustainable Interior Design
Vegan and ethical living goes beyond what's on our plates.
Picture this: you’re sitting in a café on a Sunday afternoon, flipping through the menu. There’s plenty of vegan options, so you opt for an oat-milk latte and a slice of egg-free cake. The café prides itself on being vegan-friendly, and perhaps even offsets its greenhouse-gas emissions and donates to charities. But what about the the sofa you’re sitting on - is it leather? That comfy throw, is that made from wool? Animal-derived ingredients and animal testing can also lurk in the least likely places, such as the paint on the walls. Interior design has for a long time been the last frontier of cruelty-free living. One innovative designer has made it her mission to allow businesses to ensure their interiors are as ethical as they are beautiful: Chloe Bullock of Materialise Interiors, whose book Sustainable Interior Design was recently released.
A recent winner of the Compassionate Designer award in the PETA Homeware Awards, Chloe went into retail design after having studied furniture design in Nottingham. As part of her foundation degree, she studied interior design. “During the course, we really got into materials, we learned about timbers - it was more industrial design. From there, I graduated into a recession, but I was lucky to get a job as a junior designer.”
Due to the recession, Chloe found herself jobless again in eighteen months, which would turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Based in Brighton (where I also live!), she found herself in the birthplace of The Body Shop - the iconic ethical beauty chain where Chloe ended up working as a retail designer. “I grew up with The Body Shop - it was where all my friends got their ears pierced, it was just up the road. It was also where I learned about ethical issues such as animal testing.” Taking her career into her own hands, Chloe sent a handwritten note to founder Anita Roddick asking to work for the company, which led to a ten-year career as the chain’s furniture and retail designer. “I learned all about lighting and materials. I also learned about animal products, and avoiding things such as PVC and formaldehyde, checking that timber was certified and things like that.”
At the time, Chloe was vegetarian…sort of. “As soon as I could buy my own food, I was vegetarian, but I ate fish sometimes. I was one of those!” (so was I. For many years.) Her grandparents were fishmongers, and Chloe only went vegan six years ago. What tipped her over the edge was taking ethical design expert Deborah Di Mare’s Vegan Interior Design course. “I hadn’t thought of things like down, feathers…many things we’d use in a home. Once I linked everything together, it seemed so easy to stop the few things I was still doing. I just wished I’d done it sooner!”. A sentiment echoed by many vegans.
The course enabled Chloe to become the UK’s first certified vegan interior designer, and she’s worked with a number of vegan-friendly businesses. “Throughout the Vegan Interior Design course, we watched PETA investigations the whole time. It’s so hard to watch but it also validates it. You’re not just told about the theory of these things, they are shown to you.” The whole course was actually developed with the help of PETA US, and is heavily geared towards animal ethics.
Has Chloe ever felt she had to compromise her vegan ideals when working with a client? “It can be tricky. You’re dealing with people who haven’t seen all these investigations and aren’t aware of the animal abuse that goes on in our industry. So you have to step back and look at it from their point of view.” But there are times when, unexpectedly, the client takes your side. “Recently there was a project where a stakeholder told me that they didn’t want fabric on a seating area, with the client responding, ‘well, we’re not having leather,’”, Chloe recalls. “Before I’d tactfully gotten my words together to say that, he’d said it for me! I think I’ve probably educated a lot of my clients on platforms such as LinkedIn on why I’m staying away from leather, toxic chemicals, and damaging materials.”
Bringing up these issues with clients isn’t always a breeze. “I wouldn’t say that I’m an argumentative person, and I don’t really like to challenge people too much. But I’ve found myself in situations where I have to inform clients about why the things they’ve always had aren’t great.” Chloe does find that clients are often open to being educated - at times, it’s one of the reasons why they choose to work with her in the first place. “It’s about breaking the mindset of ‘this is how we’ve always done it’, not only in terms of materials but also processes. Many people in my industry go on and on about how materials derived from animals are ‘natural’ - but if you use fossil fuels to refine them, then they really aren’t that natural. Often, people haven’t taken the time to properly understand the materials.”
Chloe enjoys working with recycled materials such as discarded fishing nets and PET, but her preferred materials are regenerative - but their availability remains an issue. “It’s difficult as often these materials aren’t there to use yet. My intention and the reality don’t always marry up.” There’s also the fact that many innovative new-generation materials have been around for such a short time that it’s not clear how they will perform in the long run. “You’d need clients to be willing to take on that risk. It’s difficult that it's such early days. There is a chance that it might not work.” Other favourite materials include mycelium-based leathers and plastic-free leather Mirum from Natural Fiber Welding, which Chloe can’t wait to see in her industry.
Ethical interior design also involves details which most people haven’t considered, such as paints. Aside from sometimes involving animal-derived materials such as casein and beeswax, paint can also be tested on animals under the REACH regulation in the EU. “Chemicals that are used for human consumption have to be tested, and there is a whole area where if these ingredients are commonly used, historical animal testing data can be measured against - but if there is a new combination of ingredients, new animal tests have to be used. It’s not an easy area, and there isn’t a lot of knowledge about it.”
Overall in her work, Chloe aims to breathe new life into existing materials and items. “I’m kind of anti-new. I want to look into and use what’s already here. Using a material that has a story connected to it. Things like office furniture - why are we buying it new when there are all these offices being emptied out, with used furniture that’s beautiful quality? Anything that can be upcycled - we should explore that as a layer, before getting into the new.” This is, once again, an area where Chloe and her clients can clash. “I find myself saying sometimes that we don’t really need to start over from scratch here - but clients want the new, they want the overhaul. I’m lucky that I don’t have this mismatch a lot, but sometimes I’ve had situations where I’ve said that I want to keep something in the space and the reaction is ‘why would you want to do that?’”.
While more awareness is needed, businesses are becoming more enlightened: Chloe is overjoyed when prospective clients seek her out due to her ethics. “Clients are educating me sometimes! I’ve worked for a lot of lovely vegan businesses, which of course are my dream clients.” These include the head offices of Purezza, the UK’s first vegan pizzeria, and the award-winning NordVegan restaurant in Oslo. She also remembers working with orange peel-based materials for Real Patisserie. But as for her perfect project, Chloe believes it’s still ahead of her. Vegan interior design is still a relatively unexplored area. “People are still not understanding it. ‘What do you mean, vegan design? I’m not going to eat the interiors.’”. Her dream client? A sustainable and ethically minded hotel. “I’d love to demonstrate ways to replace animal-derived products in that kind of setting.”
Chloe’s advice to future budding interior designers? “Be inquisitive. Ask a lot of questions. If enough of us keep asking ‘is it sustainable? Is it certified'?’ then that demand will prompt change. Our supply chains are designed to keep giving us what we’ve always had, so I always encourage people to ask for transparency.”
Three tips
I ask my interview guests for three things they would recommend to Kind of Wild readers - it can be anything at all, connected to veganism or not. Only rule: it can’t be their own products.
“Follow Overshoot Day for the Earth and for your country. It’s a real eye-opener. They have a footprint calculator to measure your personal footprint as well.”
“Don’t leave it late to start a pension, and when you do ask for transparency in regards to where your pension is invested. And if you don’t get that transparency, use an ethical pension adviser to find the best one for you, so you don’t unwittingly support animal agriculture, fossil fuels, weapons…the list goes on.”
“My husband Paul and I have done some great holidays by rail and the Man At Seat 61 website by Mark Smith give great tips and detailed advice.”
Chloe Bullock is part of Vegan Business Tribe’s Interior Design Sessions, starting 14th May. Her book Sustainable Interior Design is out now. You can find our more about Chloe, her work, and vegan interior design at Materialise Interiors.
Great post. I'm so glad that plant-based, sustainably-minded designers exist and businesses use their services. Also, we will be moving soon and doing some renovations, so I will be more mindful of what products we buy. I want to put up some wallpaper in some areas - I'll check twice to make sure it's vegan!
I did not expect PAINT to possibly not be Vegan… This interview and post was great! It would be cool to see an even deeper dive on some of the materials mentioned like Mycelium leather and how/where it’s used :)