Over at ATNY today, Aaron posted about an interesting New York Times article discussing local and federal laws governing VOCs and insight about various "green" paint products. A niat serendipitous discussion, as we spent a good part of late last evening discussing eco-friendly interior paints with a friend who is moving into her first apartment, She wants to change her plain jane white walls into something more "bright" and "inviting", but without the chemicals and fumes of typical wall paints. So we put together this top ten list of best non-VOC, low-toxic interior house paints for her and you our readers...
According to the EPA, the average home's interior air is three times more polluted than outdoor air (not the case in our home), and interior paints are often prime suspect for the source of this indoor pollution. Volatile organic compounds can slowly off-gas for years after initial application, and thus, manufacturers are now offering "non-toxic" formulas made from natural raw ingredients such as water, milk casein, natural latex, plant oils and resins, plant dyes and essential oils or with formulations containing VOC's in the range of 5 grams/litre or less per can (so technically, these do still contain toxic ingredients; adding a color tint usually brings the VOC level up to 10 grams/liter). Here are 10 interior paints with low-VOC and/or natural ingredients.
[from top left to right]
Benjamin Moore Pristine EcoSpec Paint: contains less than 10 grams of VOC's per liter. Low odor, low VOC, 100% acrylic latex paint that comes in flat, egg-shell and semi gloss. You buy Eco-Spec as a base white and then get it mixed to color, which includes off-whites and neutrals, but does not include the darker and brighter colors.
Bioshield Clay and Casein paints: natural raw ingredient paints; just add water to ready-to-mix powder. Be sure to check out their closeouts section (we like the Mandarin Milk Paint).
Yolo Colorhouse: water-based, Green Seal certified, and zero-VOC paint created by Portland, Oregon-based artists, Janie Young and Virginia Lowe. Available in a palette of 40 hues are specifically designed for interiors and categorized by nature's spectrum of air, grain, leaf, water, stone, clay and the bright hued petal range. Love their packaging!
Harmony Interior Latex: A Good Housekeeping choice, the Harmony line uses sustainable raw materials, like soy and sunflower oil in their formulation to keep solvent content low and VOCs in the zero-VOC range. Advertised as mildew and bacteria resistant.
Green Planet Paints: Soy-based resins with clay formulations and mineral pigments keep this line of paint as organic as your farmer's market produce. We like that disclose all ingredients in their paint formulas right there on the can.
Homestead House Paint Company: a 100% acrylic paint formulated to perform well ontop of existing previous applications and has the appearance of milkpaint.
Dunn-Edwards EcoShield: an MPI Green Performance Standard rated product, the low odor EcoShield line was created initially for use in schools, hospitals, hotels, homes and other closed-ventilation buildings, and is ethylene glycol free.
Devoe Wonder Pure Interior Latex Odor-Free Paints: available in flat, eggshell and semi-gloss, the Devoe Wonder-Pure line is advertised as odour free and can be applied without sanding.
Olympic Premium: A Green Seal Certification "Class A" paint also awarded the Home Safety Council's Commendation Awards for Product Innovation for Consumer Safety.
Anna Sova Latex Wall Paint: the eco-branded Healthy Wall Finish contains 99% food grade ingredients, making this non-VOC paint a good choice for interior with children and pregnant women.
Originally posted by Gregory on AT:LA.
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Why does Farrow & Ball's estate emulsion keep getting overlooked. It has a zero VOC rating, and has a very high pigment base. Amazing product! This Green product has been around for years...long before the green movement took off.
And, why is everyone overlooking C2 Paint's new LoVo??? It knocks every one of these paints of the map as far as performance and color options- using C2 Paint's 16 colorant system, they offering 492 (sometimes complex) colors and can colormatch to ANY- even full-spectrum color- that people require. I actually just colormatched my dog's paw, believe it or not! You can also sample the low-VOC formula in an oversized paint chip 18"x24" or a 16 oz sampler, most brands won't let you even try their low-VOC paint formula!
Green contractor, I think you meant to say C2 LoVo instead on Colori above, since her store in Chicago is called Colori but her main brand of paint is C2's LoVo. Everyone that makes mistakes trying to colormatch with these other brands end up doing it with this product!
I'm very happy with the AFM Safecoat primer and interior (I haven't tried the exterior). They color matched my Benjamin Moore swatch perfectly, and the coverage and quality is fantastic.
I have not tried any of these paints but Consumer Reports compares low VOC paints to traditionals paints and the low VOC paints performed badly.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/home-garden/home-improvement/paints-stains/interior-paint/interior-paints-3-08/overview/interior-paint-ov.htm
Does Benjamin Moore Aura count? It's low-VOC and self-priming -- instead of buying three gallons to do the job (one gallon of primer plus two gallons of paint), one gallon of Aura will do it. Less paint has to be good for the environment, right? If you're really trying to figure out impact and air quality, add up the VOCs from the primer and however many coats of cheaper paint and compare.
We just used it this weekend and were totally amazed with the quality -- one caveat is that it dries really quickly, so always keep a short wet edge and work from there or else you'll have to sand it down and re-paint the dried edges.
Bought the Eco-Shield Casein based milk paint. Really don't recommend it. Very, very poor coverage, and very short life once mixed.
Another little problemo with at least traditional milk paint is that it dries differently from latex paint - it has an almost astringent effect when applied over old latex and will start pulling it off the walls in spots. Really not recommended - better for use on bare wood.
Also consider Unearthed Paints- we (I am the co-founder) just launched a natural paint company that offers a wide range of different paints for a variety of applications.
We disclose ALL of the ingredients we use, which is pretty unusual for a paint company, but it necessary for consumers to be able to verify health and sustainability claims.
what about Murco Wall Products Hypo paint line. www.murcowall.com