Clean Smelling Paint

James is so good at reminding me of things. Some time ago he told me I should really write about our interior house paint, suggesting that it may have really been the first instance for my interest in health and ecology making a significant change in something that we bought. He's probably right.
We moved into our house about two years ago now. When we moved in, everything was painted the same light cream color, almost white but not quite. And I am a lover of color in my home. So I quickly went to work picking out swatches of color and posing them next to our furniture, artwork, and curtains to see if it would complement them. But I also looked a little into what type of paint that we should buy. I had heard or read recently about how the inside air of homes is often much more polluted than outside air, between 2 and 5 times more. Funnily enough, my memory was saying that it was nearer ten or fifteen times--what does this say about my home's stuffy air?! Glad I looked that up. Among the major contributors to indoor air pollution: paint.

Thus, before I bought gallons of stuff to slather all over our walls, I checked our options. Sadly, of course, the cheapest paints were high polluters. They not only contribute to poor air quality, but they also are more toxic for the environment in their production and when they have to be thrown away. Yet there were a number of companies that had begun to sell more lung-friendly options for just a little higher than their traditional lines. Home Depot has Freshaire paint, which has mostly soft toned colors. Kelly Moore had Enviro Cote (which I think I read was often used for hospitals--that means awesome colors, baby!). Then there's Mystic Paint, which I have only seen online.

In the end, we opted for Benjamin Moore Natura paint, which is a no-VOC paint that comes in most colors that the company offers. I loved that I was able to choose colors just as vibrant and rich (not an option with all the lines), but healthier for us. It was a bit more than BM's regular paints, but cheaper than their AURA paint, which I remember reading was the one that Obama used to paint a government building.

The amazing thing was that when we had a painting party and rolled it rapidly onto our walls, our house was not filled with fumes. Nobody got a paint headache, and in fact, we almost forgot that we were using a product that is typically odorous. Naturally we could smell something, but it just smelled clean. People commented on it.
Two years later, I'm so glad we did it. We spent more money, but it is not a frequent purchase, so I think that the long-term gain of healthier home air is completely worth it. Touch-up painting is not a big deal smell-wise; it doesn't make me feel the need to air out the house for a week. I feel confident that the paint on our walls, at least, is not putting toxic substances into our lungs. I'm hoping to redo our baseboard and window trim painting this year, and I'm planning to buy the same kind.
We also tried one Freshaire paint for our master bath, which we planned in a more sedate color palette We have liked it, too, though I think it required more coats to look as complete.
At some point we'll have to repaint our exterior... I wonder how the more environmentally friendly exterior paints stack up?