There’s something very cool about moving into a house that’s been renovated almost exactly to your own taste. In my case, barely any changes have to be made (except for taking down this metallic Star Trek-like orb hovering over the dining room table, which aside from looking completely out of place also emits a disturbing red glow).
Most of the walls have been painted inoffensive neutral tones, which is nice, but I do like me a bit of colour, otherwise I start to feel like I’m in a mental institution. Normally, I’d just make my way to Canadian Tire and go through all the pain swatches until I found something good. But this time, I’m going to make sure I get a brand that’s low in VOCs (or, even better, has none whatsoever).
As this site explains, indoor air is three times more polluted than outdoor air, and the main cause of this is the toxins found in paints and finishes. If you opt, instead of regular paint, to use one that’s made from natural ingredients or is at least low in VOCs, it means less harm to the people living in the house, as well as all the rivers and streams that end up carrying paint (I’ll be washing my brushes as little as possible, of course, and won’t pour any unused paint down the drain — Toronto has scheduled Environment Days when you can drop off hazardous waste like this, then officials take it to the appropriate disposal site).
Treehugger has a list of affordable low-VOC paint brands, so I think I’ll try browsing around a bit before committing to a brand. Anyone have any recommendations?
Image from Green Living Ideas
It’s been my DREAM to have a house I can paint the colors I want! And I never knew that about paint or the air inside versus outside! Thanks for the info.
“pain swatches”
I love this typo, because that’s what picking out paint colours was for me – pain. I don’t have the decorating eye
Check out the mistinted tins at your paint shop as well to see if there’s anything there you’d like – you’ll be saving something from the landfill and not creating more paint unecessarily
Hahaha, oops!! Wrote this one in a bit of a hurry… it is kinda funny, though, so I think I’ll leave it instead of editing it…
I’ve used Benjamin Moore Eco-Spec, and it goes on nicely and covers well. They have a new line out called Aura, which is low VOC and self-priming (eliminating the need to buy/apply a separate primer). It’s pricey but I think once you factor in the price of buying primer it kind of evens out.
We’ve used AFM Safecoat to paint a bathroom and our son’s nursery. We had custom colours mixed both times, and have been very pleased with the results. It depends on the colour, but we were surprised to learn that it is often the pigment that adds the “voc” and so lighter colours are often better.
After using a few different eco-brands my girlfriend and I have settled on Yolo. We experienced many other brands, such as Safe-Coat, bubbling on the wall, especially when applied via spray.
They have a great selection of “real” earth tones. Enjoy.
http://www.yolocolorhouse.com/
How do you clean the brushes & rollers without rinsing them off? I’ve always wondered this, because I’ve heard that you’re not supposed to get paint in the drains, but I don’t know what the alternative is.
I don’t know about paints, but I have a suggestion for the paint brushes: If you’re stopping for a while, but plan to paint more with the same brush and the same color, wrap it in plastic wrap (if you have any!) and stick it in the freezer. It’s still wet when it defrosts!
We’re using Bio Paint
http://www.bioproducts.com.au
no VOCs, working great so far, looks gorgeous.
Plus, for colours you have a base tin and then little pigment tins, so you can mix yourown colours – they have charts that show percentages to use.
But I guess you don’t want to ship paint from Australia!
We’re using the Benjamin Moore ecospec and it looks great on the walls. As I recall, when we bought it, it was even cheaper than the regular stuff. A strange, but welcome bonus!
Farrow & Ball offers low-VOC water-based paints. I had my apt painted by my landlord paint my walls a horrendous color, and to add to that, I couldn’t even sleep in the place for about a week because of the fumes. (Plus, it’s a bachelor.) I re-painted it with Farrow & Ball. Zero smell. It’s pretty expensive, but completely worth it.
I have experience with the no VOC paint. The best one, also the most expensive $46 a can, is at Rona. It is like butter, the least expensive is CIL and you can get it for about $30 a can at Home Despot, maybe other places too. So but here it the kicker thing the lady at HD told me, as soon as you add colour to noVOC paint it is nolonger noVOC it is low VOC. So my tiny shot of whatever makes my almost white walls, not quite white screwed it all up. So serious colour may be difficult, but I would ask the RONA people as that paint seemed more sophisticated.
I just painted with aura. I loved it. low voc, pricy, covered beautifully and any benji moore colors can be mixed into aura
Regards to Aura Paint.
This paint is not for the faint of heart, or horrible painters.
Liked:
-coverage. hides very well, although I needed two coats to get rid of the horrible yellow on the wall. Only one coat needed on white walls.
-very low smell. Usually I get a migraine from painting, but this time I did not. My girlfriend popped in while I was painting, and described the smell as clean.
-nice colour pallette. virtually any colour can be mixed, without the fear of adding a horrendous amount of VOC’s back into the paint.
-no need for primer. i didnt even sand my walls, just started painting, and it adhered very well. be careful with plaster walls though. i was told it doesnt do well on plaster.
-i like that its BM paint. go to their website and read about their commintment to the environment. Plus, BM was one of the first lines of low VOC paint.
-service is almost always excellent at a small paint store, and the sales associate knew what she was talking about.
Disliked:
-spreadability/blending. very unforgiving of mistakes. this paint dries very quickly, and gets tacky in a short amount of time. I recommend starting in less seen corners to get used to the feel of this paint. Too much paint on your roller also hinders your paint job, as it tends to clump.
-price. the cost of this paint is extremely high. but, without the need for primer in most cases, it almost evens out. not quite, but almost. cost me $69 a gallon. but, in my opinion, even though i didnt like forking over that much cash for one can of paint, the cost of my families health just to have pretty coloured walls and save a penny using regular paint, it was well worth the money.
All in all, I would use this paint again for sure. Especially for colour, as although it is still just low VOC, adding colour doesnt change the level any, as with a no VOC paint, it would make the % much higher after adding the tint. I’m doing my trim in white, so I am going to try the RONA paint, as it claims it is ) zero VOC. Kinda iffy on the brands with teflon in it, as teflon is also quite harmful for you.