Safe for you

Sustainable for your planet

    About Natural Built Home

 

 

Natural Built Home was founded as a one-stop shop for the safest and most sustainable building and finishing materials. Our mission is to make eco-friendly products accessible to everyone: homeowners, contractors, architects, and designers.  The first showroom opened in Minneapolis on Earth Day in 2006.  We are staffed with professional interior designers and installation professionals ready to help with home improvements projects of all sizes. 

Natural Built Home continues to seek out the best environmentally-friendly building products, focusing on factors of sustainability, recycled content, low to no toxicity, and locally or American made. We value quality, durability, and affordability. The NBH team works hard to spread the green building message through local expos, the Eco-Experience at the Minnesota State Fair and by speaking to community organizations and businesses.  We continue to encourage the use of products that are sustainable for our planet, safe for our health and beautiful for our homes. 

Natural Built Home is a proud member of the US Green Building Council, Do It Green-Minnesota, the Builders Association of the Twin Cities, the Builder’s Association of Minneapolis, and the National Association of Home Builders.

Let's meet the Natural Built Home Team . . .

 

Lynne Jensen Nelson President While growing up on a farm in MN Lynne developed her love of nature and learned from her mother (an incredibly creative woman) to use what was available to make things as attractive as possible. There is such beauty in giving something a second life, a second chance to be useful. When the time was right, Lynne packed up her extensive experience in residential new construction, remodeling and interior design and brought it to the “green side” at Natural Built Home. “Everyday is an adventure! My goal is to make this a studio where anyone can go to be inspired by beautiful, affordable, sustainable, non-toxic, and (whenever possible) local interior design items and building materials.” Favorite Eco Friendly Building Product: So tough to pick just one! Based on her love for all things sparkly, the items that first catch her eye are the recycled copper sinks, recycled glass counter tops, and recycled glass tiles. Personal Motto: Leave everything better than you found it. Angela Leeder, Eco Design Advisor, Counter Top Specialist Angela has a passion for interior design that started when she would people watch as a child. It is because of this that she started to explore how a space can affect people psychologically, emotionally, and physically. She followed her passion to the University of Minnesota where she studied interior design and architecture. Her education enforced the importance and necessity of using sustainable and healthy building materials in our physical environments. Angela's primary focus at Natural Built Home is recycled and sustainable counter tops. However as one of the senior designers on the team, she has developed an extensive knowledge on virtually all of the products featured in the store. Favorite Eco Friendly Building Product: Angela really enjoys working with the PaperStone counter tops. She is amazed by the fact they are able to take a used material and reuse it in a way most would never think possible. Personal Motto: Some people look for a beautiful place. Others make a place beautiful. Valerie Hill, Eco Design Intern, Color Specialist Valerie brings a diverse set of experiences to Natural Built Home. Studying Commercial Art /Color Theory at UW-Superior led to work as a courtroom artist then to newspaper layout and eventually graphic design. Learning to sew at her mother’s knee led to sample making for Target and the Singer Home Sewing Library which led to work as a carpenter for Black and Decker’s how-to series. She then spent a decade as a seamstress at The Minnesota Opera and Guthrie Theater. After waving the last kid off to college she worked as a color consultant for a local paint company. Valerie recently went back to college to learn more about space planning/architectural drafting and completed three internships focusing on different aspects of home building/remodeling. At Natural Built Home Store she continues to learn more about sustainable and eco-friendly building products. Favorite Eco Friendly Building Product: After installing Marmoleum many years ago in her home, she can confidently say it wears like iron and still looks beautiful even after three children, their tricycles, ice skates, nail polish and assorted car parts making it one of her favorite products to recommend. Personal Motto: Life is a great big canvas and you should throw all the paint on it you can! Danny Kaye Liz Anderson Operations Coordinator Liz grew up in the wonderful city of Minneapolis and then attended Luther College, 20 minutes south of the Minnesota border. After receiving her B.A. in Fine Art, a volunteer program took her out to Seattle Washington where she worked with Habitat for Humanity of East King County on their construction staff for four years. When the opportunity came up to move back to MN and fix up a home that had been in the family since it was built by her great-grandfather she took it. During her time at Natural Built Home she has held roles as a Design Associate and Flooring Specialist. Her current position as Operations Coordinator has her spending time behind the scenes making sure everything runs smoothly. Favorite Eco Friendly Building Product: Liz is an especially big fan of Element Surfaces. She loves that it's made in Minneapolis because she has met the guys who craft it and each piece is unique, made to last and stunning. Personal Motto: How should spring bring forth a garden on hard stone? Become earth, that you may grow flowers of many colors. For you have been heart-breaking rock. Once, for the sake of experiment, be earth! -Rumi Jaime Quarve Eco Design Advisor, Cabinetry Specialist Jaime’s number one priority at Natural Built Home is to present clients with the finest in local cabinetry and help them create a healthy home that’s functional and capitalizes on every inch of space available. The art of carpentry is a passion that stems from the family cabinetry business. She learned a great deal working beside her father and grandfather. Jaime knows the importance of creating a healthy home environment. She adamantly feels that it is her duty to act and design accordingly. “My heart gravitates to products that are safe for people and sustainable for the planet.” You can see this attention and care in every kitchen and bath space that she designs. Favorite Eco Friendly Building Product: Nuxite counter tops! They are a revolutionary bio-composite, known for its beauty, warmth, and durability. Personal Motto: What we do in life echos in eternity.

 


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Natural Built Home in the News:
Best GREEN Counter Tops - September 2009 Print E-mail

mwh-logo.gifNatural Built Home Voted "Best Green Counter Tops" by Midwest Home Magazine!

Check out the September 2009 issue of Midwest Home to see the Best of the Twin Cities.  They voted our Element Surfaces recycled glass counters the  "Best Green Countertop"  Element is locally made and the standard palette of 14-colors  combines beautiful glass with color.  Natural Built Home also offers custom blends of this product  so you can have one-of-a-kind kitchen or vanity tops.  Click HERE to learn more about this  maintenance-free counter or visit our store to see this beautiful counter top in person.

Midwest Home pic Sep09.jpg
 
It's Ecohouse! It's new! If you're thinking you saw it all last year, think again. Print E-mail

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By KAREN YOUSO, Star Tribune

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/homegarden/56358742.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUHPYDiaK7DU9PhDcULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and see the house that you can live in for free. That's right, free.

Electric bill? Forget about it. Gas bill? It never shows up.

We're talking about a net zero house here. Energy used in the house is made by the house. Operational costs are a big, fat zero. And the beautiful fittings inside the house, they're made with Mother Nature in mind.

If you're thinking you saw it all last year, think again.

"This is the biggest and best Ecohouse so far," said Rachel Maloney, owner of Natural Built Home and veteran of the fair's past four Ecohouses.

Click Here to Read More and See the Video
 
KSTP Video Coverage of the NetZero House at the Fair Print E-mail

 
WCCO - Eco-Friendly House at Fair Generates Its Own Power Print E-mail


 
Got Worms? Print E-mail

StarTribune.com

The Riff: Got worms?

Last weekend's Living Green Expo offered more than just a guilt trip and a few one-liners.

By Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

Last update: May 9, 2009 - 11:53 PM

".... In other poop news, one of the biggest attractions at the expo was the dual flush toilet set up on a pedestal by Minneapolis store Natural Built Home, with a sign that read, "Flush Me." You would've thought people were getting their free giant slot-machine pull at Caesar's Palace, judging by how many stood there waiting and watching the miracle of low-flow plumbing......"

 
 
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