Danny Seo: Encouraging an Eco-Friendly Lifestyle

By Catherine McConnell
(From the NKBA's Profiles Magazine)

Danny Seo has made himself into America's leading lifestyle authority on modern, eco-friendly living. "My kitchen reflects the way I buy my groceries," said Seo. "The conscious-style kitchen is a place where you can get dishes sparkling clean, whip up a wild mushroom risotto just like your favorite restaurant does, and make stove s'mores on a cold winter night. It's a place not only built with eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient appliances, but it marries functionality with great looks, too."

Through his books, website, various magazine editorials, television appearances, inspirational lectures (including a past presentation at K/BIS), and catalog of home goods, Seo continues to share his creative ideas. He also works as an eco-stylist.

Seo's lifestyle book, Conscious Style Home, chronicles his renovation of his parents' Green Hills, Pennsylvania home using easy-to-find, eco-friendly materials. In the book, he explained of bathrooms in general, "Bathrooms are also changing with the times. More of us view our bathrooms as places to refresh before the day begins or as at-home spas perfect for re-energizing after a long day at the office; we are discovering that these rooms can be places of relaxation. But even a jar of hemp moisturizer sitting in the medicine cabinet can't make up for the havoc most bathrooms wreak on the earth: gallons of wasted water, beauty products with layers of silly packaging, and toxic chemicals used to keep sinks and showers scum free."

Of the renovation project, he continued, "I decided to renovate just one bathroom during the three-month project. I let my parents choose: the first floor bathroom was selected, 'since guests will be able to see it,' my mother explained. The smoky blue tile and dark red wallpaper didn't conjure up serenity; I could already imagine clear recycled glass tiles, a vintage stainless-steel medicine cabinet, and oversize ceramic sink with real nickel fixtures. It would be a challenge, granted, but a good kind of challenge that would give me a lifetime's worth of knowledge."

Seo lives on a Christmas tree farm outside Reading, Pennsylvania in a restored 1832 farmhouse decorated with what he calls "youthful country" using eco-friendly materials. It's also the design inspiration for his catalog of items for the home that include bedding, decorative accessories, pet products and garden implements.

Seo's eco-sensibility coupled with an eye for good simplistic design proved a successful combination as revealed in the photos found in the book. Seo said in the book, "The best designed bathrooms are the ones approached with a workhorse attitude. No color-coordinated towels, potpourri, or scented soaps, only simple and utilitarian design, as if directly from the set of Gattaca."

As one reads through his book, you realize that less means more, especially if you can fix that leaking faucet to conserve water or choose a vintage, but water-efficient fixture. Cabinet manufacturers may cringe at the paragraph in the book that suggests, "Don't install a cabinet-like vanity with drawers. This is a clutter magnet for piles of beauty supplies, magazines, and anything else that you can fit in there. Leave the dressers for the bedroom and choose a freestanding sink. Your bathroom should be a restful place, free of distraction, stocked with the bare essentials."

Seo sums up that simplicity, coupled with his passion for environmentally-friendly materials and methods, with a phrase: "Simply green."