Has anyone used environmentally friendly paint in their house? What was your experience?

Question

I'm moving into my first house in a few days time. Its the first time I've ever been able to paint my own walls so I'm very excited! I do however remember suffering terrible headaches every time my mum used to paint (emulsion as well as gloss). For this reason, as well as my fear of chemicals and cancer, want to use an environmentally friendly paint, as I understand they don't smell as much due to the lower chemical content.

I'm considering the Little Greene Company, Auro Paints and Ecos Orgainic Paints. Does anyone have any experiences of using these paints? Do they really not smell? Do they cover the wall well? And how well do they last?

Cheers.

Answer 1

I can't vouch for the products you've mentioned, but we did recently paint the guest bedroom with a "green" product from Vista Paints that doesn't emit the high levels of VOCs most paints do.  

The smell isn't an issue, and it covered just fine.  Their products may not be available in your area, but if you've done a bit of research to see what's out there and want to be a bit more conservative in your approach, there are now "green" paints available from a number of the established companies.  We picked Vista because they've been in the community a long while and they were close!

Answer 2

Although I'm not familiar with this particular paint, you can do a tolerance test with it.

Paint a piece of wood and lay it next to your bed at night (on the nightstand is fine) - if you can tolerate it, most likely it will be ok.  

Also, is this paint low-VOC or NO-VOC?  That can make a difference.

See the following page on new construction materials:

http://www.building-your-green-home.com/...

and this one on a healthy house..

http://www.building-your-green-home.com/...

I'm glad you are researching this before you paint.  So much better to be safe (and healthy) than sorry!

Hope this helps.