Green Wall Treatments: Great Walls
For lovely home décor—without polluted indoor air—deck your walls with less-toxic paints.
July/August 2007
By Carolyn Heinze
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A new line of ayurvedic colors from AFM Safecoat helps homeowners achieve life balance through color.
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Whether you choose wallpaper or a fresh coat of paint, the right wall treatment can make a huge impact in your home—often for little cost. Because they’re such large surfaces, walls are agents of change. And some of the hippest, healthiest alternatives to conventional wall finishes—such as clay plaster and milk paint—have been in use for centuries.
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Conventional paints emit toxic fumes called VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Some VOCs contain carcinogens and neurotoxins such as benzene, formaldehyde, ammonia, toluene and xylene. These substances can cause nose, skin and eye irritation, nausea, respiratory problems, convulsions, nerve damage, and liver and kidney disease. Solvent- and oil-based paints contain a higher level of VOCs (between 32 and 42 percent) compared with latex (or water-based) paints, which contain about 2 to 5 percent, according to The Green Guide.
Natural paints: Paint for the planet
Natural paints are produced from elements found in nature: milk, clay, botanical ingredients, natural oils (such as linseed oil), beeswax, tree resin and mineral pigments. Either water- or oil-based, they’re generally nontoxic, but because they’re made with natural pigments, they usually don’t offer as wide a range of colors as synthetic paints.
“Natural paints require less energy to produce,” says Peter Colburn, a Seattle-based expert on green home products. “Because they’re plant sourced or contain low-impact, mined materials, they have either no or a very low content of petroleum-derived ingredients.”
Favored for porous or unfinished surfaces, VOC-free milk paint is made of casein (milk protein), clay, lime and natural pigments. Most milk paint comes powdered so you can mix it as needed, which reduces waste. (Some premixed varieties contain preservatives.) Whitewash, which only comes in white, is made of lime, water and salt, and it’s great for covering cement, plaster and stucco.
Clay paints—created primarily from water, clay and chalk—give the same aesthetic effect as clay plaster at less cost and can be applied with a brush or roller.
All-natural paints work best in dry areas of the house because of their lower resistance to moisture (avoid bathrooms, laundry rooms and basements). Applying them requires no more care or preparation than conventional products, but they do take longer to dry because they don’t contain petrochemicals that speed the process. As with all paints, you may need to apply additional coats to obtain the desired result.
Low-VOC paints: Like conventional, but better
If you prefer paint with the same appearance and texture as conventional, without the chemical fumes, check your paint store for low- or zero-VOC paint lines. Although made from synthetic ingredients, they pose fewer health risks and don’t exude a headache-inducing smell (caused by outgasing VOCs). These materials are generally water based rather than petrochemical based.
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