Having landed in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon for this year’s Dwell on Design conference, the West Coast’s big home design show, I thought it would only be appropriate to feature a green design item with distinctly L.A. origins — even though I spotted said item this past May at ICFF, the East Coast’s big design show. And then there’s the fact that the firm responsible for this remarkable work of green design, the always fabulous Grain Design, isn’t even based in L.A. but in Bainbridge Island, Wash. But whatever, it’s still eco-inventive and has Southern Californian roots.

 

Called Spool, this visually arresting modular system allows users to get creative and build structures — table bases, screens, partitions, etc. — using recycled cardboard microfiber spools salvaged from the Los Angeles apparel industry and 100 percent post-consumer chipboard connectors.

 

According to the folks at Grain Design, each spool “has a random graphic pattern that indicates which type of fiber they once held.” Each Spool building kit includes 240 recycled spools and 520 connectors that can build a structure about 55” H x 40”W x 7” D. At the end of its life, the whole shebang can be recycled. 

 

As mentioned, unlike most Grain Design products — including the also new Bound Wall Mirror and the previously-mentioned-on-MNN Ty Recyclable Shower Curtain and Electric Love ring — Spool is a product of Southern California, not the Pacific Northwest but the always ecologically and socially conscious design firm has partnered with a nonprofit that sources cast-off manufacturing materials to help give them a useful, second life.

 

Grain Design's Spool kits are available over at the Grain online shop for $199. Like what you see? Be sure to keep up with the latest news from Grain Design over at the firm's blog.