High Point Market Fall 2008: McKay creates Pure line of 'healthy furniture'

Collection has 4 sections: Earth, Fire, Water and Air

Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, October 23, 2008

HIGH POINT - When interior designer and television host Ami McKay finished an eco-friendly and healthy home and couldn't find furniture to put in it, she designed her own line and named it Pure.

"I realized that if I'm having to struggle, there are probably a lot of people who can't find healthy furniture as well," she said. "I was designing a whole house and making sure the kitchen cabinets were not off-gassing formaldehyde and that I was using low-flush toilets.

We're putting everything in the home that is healthy and we don't have furniture that is healthy?"

McKay, who designs the line and has it made in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she lives, is introducing Pure at the High Point Market Fall 2008 in Suites at Market Square, M-1211-1215. It consists of a dozen pieces, mostly upholstery, and a couple of tables.

Healthy furniture for McKay means using the most environmentally clean and non-toxic materials possible.

That includes biodegradable latex, organic cotton batting, kapok for stuffing, jute and latex webbing, certified sustainable wood, non-toxic glues and OEXO-Tex certified wool and linen fabrics.

The materials make the pieces a little pricier, with the Sedge sofa, for instance, retailing for C$5,520.

McKay owns a residential and contract design firm and was one of two lead designers for British Columbia Home & Garden's celebrated Home in the Dome project, visited by 80,000 people who walked through a water-themed house made of concrete. She also is part of "Makeover Wish," a HGTV television series that rewards British Columbia heroes with a $25,000 home makeover.

The Pure collection has four groupings - Earth, Fire, Water and Air - with pieces that use plain but colorful fabrics, jazzed up with hand-embroidered designs providing an arty look.

But providing a safe place to sit is paramount. Materials posing a health risk are "heartbreaking," she said.

"Most of us aren't even aware of what we are absorbing every time we sit on a sofa," she said. "I want to get rid of that in homes. I want to do so much more even down the road."