Topanga Messenger
VOL.32 NO.24
12/4/2008-12/17/2008

Green Home Store Opens

By Sage Knight

"I'm a wood person," Cherie Indictor says with a friendly smile, when asked to share her favorite thing about Topanga's new eco-friendly furniture store, a veritable wooden-art gallery, where 95 percent of the merchandise is wood. And beautiful.

PHOTO BY SAGE KNIGHT
Cherie Indictor, store manager of Topanga's new eco-friendly furniture store, Green Home, provides sustainable wood products to canyon residents.

Walking in the door you are surrounded by the natural beauty and artistic forms of furniture and sculpture made from sustainably grown and harvested, as well as reclaimed, wood. One piece, a Thai teak table is simply pre-owned, a very sustainable harvesting practice. Across the room hangs a montage of circles, made from slices of an old tree stump, and at the entrance stands an "old wood lamp," an organic six-foot illuminated structure built from found wood.

Most of the pieces come from Thailand and are tropical hardwoods or sustainably grown. Hanging tags sport exotic wood names: a Jackfruit free edge slab bench, a Thai Copper Pod wood base with a glass-top dining table, a richly grained Tamarind bench, a Makha sofa table and a sculpture whose tag simply reads "Tropical Vine."

There are also woods that can be found locally, like acacia and palm. An elegant free-standing eucalyptus screen by Indictor's desk is made from long thin trunks arranged in a lovely thatched pattern.

The pieces are exquisite to both the eye and the hand, and the benches are surprisingly comfortable for sitting.

The store is owned by This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , managed by Indictor and stocked by a third-party importer who is a founding member of the Sustainable Furniture Council whose wife is from Thailand.

In the second room you can peruse Indian art, decor and furniture, including tables, hutches, nesting-turned wooden bowls, Buddhas and a couple of quirky marionettes along with a life-sized wooden chip donkey who stands gazing out the window, catching the attention of passersby.

There is something for budgets ranging from moderate to extravagant, with prices starting at $25 for palm candle holders and peaking at $3,500 for a gorgeous bronze Ganesh, which sold within days of the store's opening.

Green Home opened its doors on October 11 and will celebrate with an Opening Reception on Friday, December 5 from 6 to 8 p.m., where "wood people" and those willing to be converted are welcome. The store is located at 120 N. Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Suite 111, next to Coyote Club in Pine Tree Circle and is open 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sunday, (310) 455-9300.