Establishing Eco Aesthetic In Boston: an Interview with David Sanborn

"There's a little bit of a feel-good factor there, knowing that you're doing your part."

With the green lifestyle ever-growing, entrepreneur David Sanborn brings environmentally friendly to high-end design. David first received his BA in Art History from Tufts University before studying art restoration at the Uffizi in Florence. Upon his return to the States, he explored careers in auction houses before finding his way to the Boston Design Center. As the manager of a showroom, he saw the increasing demand for an exclusively eco-friendly vendor. In 2007 he launched his own Ecomodern showroom.

EcoModern carries many undiscovered products, and is the first place on the East Coast to sell many of these items. His products come from all-natural materials, recycled materials, and even some normally considered waste, such as coconut. Although he carries lines from places such as California and Europe, EcoModern tries to support many local artists and vendors. This way, clients feel better about supporting the local economy, while also receiving LEED certification “bonus points”.

David not only represents upwards of 60 vendors, but also is the head designer for his exclusive furniture line. Between his clientele expanding to the outreaches of India, and TV appearances on Boston’s Chronicle, David still finds time to host various seminars and lectures to help educate people on a green lifestyle. David talks to us about his showroom, his plans for EcoModern, and gives us a sneak peak to another big event coming up in September.

"Ultimately that's our goal, we're here to help our customers get what they want, and do so at a price point that is going to be better than you might find elsewhere."

NSI: So you were doing all this painting stuff, then how did you get into the whole green scene?

D: So let’s see, I was working buying and selling paintings and doing antique shows, basically living like a carnie (laughs). After a while I got a little burned out and wanted a regular job, so someone here in the Design Center offered me a position. So I though oh, ok, that will be good for a while to just hang out and figure out what I want to do next, so that’s what I did: I ran his showroom, and soon realized that I could open my own business here, which was right before the economy collapsed, not ideal timing right? But we’re still here 2 years later and we’re doing ok. Actually we’re expanding; we’re hiring a new architect to be the head of our architectural department. That’s really exciting. Also, we’ve gone from simply supplying products to offering their installation as well, this makes it easier for our clients.

NSI: Would you say that you get a lot of clients who are drawn in by the green aspect?

D: Well, some of our clients, they’re looking for the aesthetic, while some are driven by the moral imperative to use environmentally friendly products given the state of the world. Others are going for the exact same look as another vendor might offer, but getting the environmentally friendly version of that. The wood we use actually has a paper trail you can follow from the day the tree was cut to the day is arrives at your door to show that you’re acting in a responsible, socially and environmentally conscious manner. There’s a little bit of a feel good factor there, knowing that you’re doing your part. Another thing that clients look for when they come to us, such as with the bamboo flooring we have, is not just aesthetics but also price point. Cork and bamboo are relatively inexpensive. Price consciousness is a really big factor these days, people are looking for bargains. Also, the installation service that we’re providing is something that will allow our clients to save money. Ultimately that’s our goal, we’re here to help our customers get what they want, and do so at a price point that is going to be better than you might find elsewhere.

NSI: Doesn’t some of the effort to stay eco-friendly add cost?

D: It does; some of these things are expensive, but that’s something that the consumer might be willing to deal with knowing that they’re not just pillaging forests illegally but they’re acting in a responsible, environmentally friendly way. But that’s always a choice for people. In the long run, you get what you pay for. When you’re offered next-day installation at bargain prices, you’re pretty much guaranteed a nightmare. Dong the job right doesn’t happen instantaneously, there’s a lot of work involved. Not all products are equal, you know, some bamboo is better than others. With our product, you know that it’s good quality, it was harvested in the right way, and that it’s environmentally friendly. Some bamboo isn’t formaldehyde free, even though it might say that it is. With stuff like that you’re asking for trouble.

David tells interior designers: "If it's environmentally friendly and we don't have it, we could probably get it for you."

NSI: You rep a lot of different companies here right?

D: Yeah, I’ve almost lost count at this point. I think we have around 50 or 60 companies now; four different fabric lines, 2 fire place lines, furniture lines, recycled teak furniture, wall covering from contract grade to bizarre and unusual materials, really fancy stuff, a big range. We also make our own product lines; this month’s New England Homemagazine featured our new EcoLux flooring, which is a metallic finished wood. So we do gold, silver and copper leaf finishes on top of bamboo or FSC hardwood or engineered maple wood flooring. We also make our own furniture line. Yeah, if it’s environmentally friendly and we don’t have it, we could probably get it for you. (laughs) Really, The reason for our existence is to make life easier for the customer. A lot of the products that we sell people have never even heard of, most people don’t know that they exist, so we’re really trying to introduce something new to the Boston area, we’re trying to bring a new aesthetic, and a new ideology. Fortunately we have a lot of backing for that from mayor Menino with his “green task force”, and all kinds of new legislation that required all sorts of green attributes in new buildings. We’re seeing what was thought of as a trend, become the norm, something you have to do. Also, your average home-owner is more environmentally conscious today than they were even five years ago, and people are trying to incorporate that into their homes. That’s why we’re here, to help make that possible.

NSI: Do you have any bestsellers?

D: The things that people purchase the most are flooring, countertopsand fireplaces. The things that wow people the most are things like the coconut shell tiles or the sea shell, things that are very beautiful and unique and that catch your eye because you’ve never seen them before. Trying to introduce these things into the Boston market has been difficult. People are drawn to traditional things. What we’re trying to show people is that no matter what your aesthetic is, traditional, transitional, or modern, there are environmentally friendly products out there that will help you achieve the look you want. We have floors that could go into an old 18^th century house in the suburbs, or into an ultra modern penthouse here in the city. The same product can translate from one place to another, it just depend on how you use it.

NSI: I would imagine that it’s difficult for people to separate modern design from eco-friendly design in their minds.

D: Yeah, it is difficult. We get some designers who will think that they shouldn’t use these products when their working on a traditional style home, and we have to say “stop, just look at the product, visualize it in the space and you’ll see that it looks like it belongs there”. At the same time, we also have plenty of stuff for those clients who do want to go completely ultra modern.

NSI: How do you get the word out about your stuff?

D: Well we advertise heavily, we’re active in the community, we do a lot of events and marketing. We’ve found that we’re very fortunate, being involved with environmentally friendly products, and since we’ve become known a little bit, the editors for all the major magazines are always looking to us for updates on what’s new, what’s hot, or what’s the newest eco-friendly product because they know they can call me every week and they’ll always be something new going on. We’re constantly looking for something new. We also work with the designers and ask them what they’ve seen out there, what they’re interested in, and if something out there they think we should look at. We’ve found more than a few leads that way.

NSI: Going back to EcoModern’s own furniture line, is it you that designs it?




D: Yeah, we do furniture design, we customize products that we already sell… for our own line we have a free-edge slab design that we work with, which was recently on an episode of Chronicle. What they are are free-edged slabs of wood that were originally cut for the renovations of the USS Constitution. The leftover wood went to a lumber yard in Cape Cod. We went down to take a look and these amazing, huge slabs of wood were just sitting there. No one was doing anything with them, they were just aging and waiting for someone to do something. That very day we were like oh my god, we have to do something with this stuff. So now at this point we have a variety of tables that we offer made from this wood. We can even do a forty-foot conference table made from one slab of wood, which is pretty amazing.

NSI: So what do you mean by free-edge exactly?

D: It means the natural edge to the wood is an inherent part of the design.

NSI: That sounds beautiful. So, would you say that all of your clients from the Boston area?

D: Well we get clients from all over New England actually, also New York, some from Florida, I actually recently got a call from a guy in India asking about our fireplaces!

NSI: Wow, that’s amazing! So tell me, what does your house look like?

D: Oh boy (laughs), well we have two places, one here in Quincy which is very modern, we have stainless steel countertops and industrial type lighting, definitely towards the modern end of things. Our house on the Cape is much more in the Cape Cod traditional style, a lot of white, cream, silver, we have a 1930s garden carpet. The house is actually from the 30s back when movie stars would come for the summer to perform in the theaters there.

NSI: So what’s next on your agenda?

D: Hmm, taking over the world! (laughs) well, let’s see, what’s next for us… we’re very excited about getting our architect to come work with us. He has 20 years of experience and we can’t wait to have him come and be a part of what we’re doing. Another big thing coming up for us is this fall, we’re doing an event with Lexus, who will be here debuting their new hybrid vehicle, we’ll have a lecture here at the design center, and Lexus will have all of their hybrid cars parked out front, including the new one, and then we’ll have the Boston globe, design new England, and boston.com there as well, And we’re working to get a couple more people involved too. We’re kind of calling it the “Hybrid Living” event because we’ll be talking about being environmentally friendly as a lifestyle, not about particular products, but how it can really become a lifestyle. That will be on September 30^th.

"We're trying to bring a new aesthetic, and a new ideology to interior designers in the Boston area."

EcoModern Design
1 Design Center Place
Suites 543 & 551
Boston, MA
T.617.261.0300
F.617.261.0330