Welcome to the companion site for our new book, “Dreaming Green Eco-Fabulous Homes Designed to Inspire”. Just five years ago, when our family began a top-to-bottom green renovation of a Manhattan brownstone, it seemed like a completely radical decision. Even though I’m in media and always up on the latest studies and trends, and Paul is an architect, earth-friendly design never seemed like a viable option for us. As city dwellers, it was something we associated with hippie living – picturing far-out houses with roofs made from soda cans, wind generators in the back yard and lifeless brown hemp fabrics. It took an emotional meeting at an environmental fundraiser with a couple who built an eco-friendly house after they lost a child to an environmental cancer to make us aware of the link between health and home. As parents of three growing children, we are concerned about the environmental toxins our family is exposed to every day, and we’d introduced organic produce, natural beauty products and homeopathic medicine into our home. However, we didn’t know about the lurking dangers most of us have inside our homes. It was frightening to learn that items we all have such as mattresses, cabinets and rugs, contain toxic chemicals like flame-retardants, formaldehyde, and volatile organic compounds. What’s worse is that those chemicals stay in our homes for years, off-gassing into the air we breathe and causing a host of potential problems that are being linked to diseases such as asthma, cancer and Alzheimer’s.

After that life-changing meeting, Paul and I knew that for the health of our planet and for our children, we had to go completely green. To be completely honest, though, we didn’t know exactly what that would entail; it was literally like stepping into an entirely new world. We can tell you however, that it was one of the smartest and best decisions we ever made.

The homes featured in our book are exceptional. But one day, green building will be the rule and not the exception. We hope you’ll join us in this revolutionary ideal by sharing your ideas and exploring the world of green living as we all learn how to live more healthy lives.

- Lisa Sharkey and Paul Gleicher

You can read more about our green townhouse plus 16 more urban, suburban and rural green homes in our book, “Dreaming Green”

On sale Now. You can order your copy here:

There are hundreds of green tips and ideas in our book, “Dreaming Green Eco Fabulous Homes Designed to Inspire”

On sale now. You can order your copy here:

Green tip of the week #1:

Did you know that most mattresses contain formaldehyde? That’s the stuff they use to preserve pigs brains for your kid’s science class. Are you sure you want to sleep on it too?
When you need a new mattress try something organic and non-toxic. It may cost a little more but since you do spend a third of your life in bed, why not make it a healthy place to catch z’s?

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There are hundreds of green tips and ideas in our book, “Dreaming Green Eco Fabulous Homes Designed to Inspire”

On sale now. You can order your copy here:

Are you living the Green Dream? Have you swapped out your old life for a cleaner, greener one or are you just getting started? No matter how large or small, we want to hear your ideas. Submit your green-living tips with a photo and we’ll publish them right here on DreamingGreenBook.com!

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Dreaming Green is on sale now. You can order your copy here:

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For anyone with eco-friendly ideals as well as a penchant for high style, Dreaming Green showcases seventeen inspiring homes that are at once luxurious, beautiful, and fashioned inside and out with green materials, design, and details.

While renovating their Manhattan brownstone, Lisa Sharkey and LEED-accredited architect Paul Gleicher’s top priority was to create a home that was light on the earth and completely free of the harmful products that are often found in building and decorative supplies. A sophisticated couple who entertain frequently, Sharkey and Gleicher also demanded a home that was beautiful from the basement to the top floor’s sunroom. They sourced stylish and elegant materials, designed small and large spaces for flawless efficiency, and finished the project with responsible yet stunning finds.

Dreaming Green features the Sharkey-Gleicher brownstone as well as sixteen other environmentally responsible, impeccably designed residences that will stir readers to reimagine their homes as places that marry responsibility and beauty. From cities and suburbs to the countryside, Dreaming Green showcases places of myriad sizes, shapes, and styles. Each space, with its floors, gorgeous fabrics, nontoxic paints and finishes, wall coverings, furniture, fixtures, use of recycled materials, and other details, is a treasure for the eye and a gift to the earth. What’s more, Sharkey and Gleicher highlight unseen design elements that conserve resources, such as passive heating and cooling methods and ideas for low-impact building and renovation, among other innovations. The spaces on display here prove that saving the earth never needs to compromise comfort and elegance.

Make yourself at home and lose yourself in:
• An English Tudor-style home in Austin, Texas, that was built from cast earth clay and utilizes a wind-powered energy system. The home is decorated throughout with gorgeous antiquities and salvaged materials.
• An upstate New York eco-farmhouse perfectly situated on a hilltop and designed to catch the breezes from the surrounding Berkshire hills. The owner-architect used local craftspeople-none based more than a mile away-to further the “buy local” ideal.
• An Ann Arbor, Michigan, “sunhome” built to capture the sun’s rays for maximum heating and lighting. The modern marvel is U-shaped to accommodate an eighty-year-old magnolia growing on the property.
• A glamorous southern showplace in Atlanta, Georgia, which the owners christened “Ecomanor.” It hearkens back to the stateliness of an earlier time but is also a model of contemporary energy efficiency and sustainability.

Lavishly photographed, Dreaming Green also boasts an invaluable resource section-a boon to anyone embarking on making a green home, renovating a current residence into one, or just dreaming about doing so. Dreaming Green is both a practical guide and a rich source of inspiration.
About the Author

LISA SHARKEY was Good Morning America’s senior producer and is now senior vice president and director of creative development at HarperCollins. Her husband, LEED-accredited architect PAUL GLEICHER, is the founder and president of Gleicher Design Group, a prestigious architectural and design firm in New York City.

Dreaming Green is on sale now. You can order your copy here: