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Green Your Home
Small ways to be kind to the planet and yourself
Isn't it ironic: Natural materials — clay, earth, rock — used for generations before the plastics revolution of the last century are now making a comeback as "green.'' Lucky for us they are, as I found out when I decided to redo my home in an eco-friendly fashion. Improving your living space and going green at the same time can be as easy as painting a room with nontoxic clay paint or upgrading with any number of natural and recycled materials now available. The feel-good factor is unmatched and you won't (necessarily) break the bank.
Walls
When I decided to spruce up my living room with color, I was thrilled to find out that many big-name paint companies — including Dunn-Edwards, Benjamin Moore, and Sherwin-Williams – now offer green lines of flat and semi-gloss interior paints with low or zero levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), those smelly, gaseous pollutants in solvents, paints, pesticides, cleaners, glues, and adhesives.
But I quickly learned that the most eco-friendly paints from the big manufacturers are only available in whites and pastels. "If you want color, you'll have to settle for paints with low [but not zero] VOCs," says environmental designer Gigi Brown. "Eventually, they'll figure out how to get the color in."
I didn't want to wait. At Originate, a Tucson green building materials showroom, I found gorgeous colors with zero VOCs made by Green Planet Paints. This small company based in Patagonia, Arizona, uses only soy-based resin, clay, and mineral pigments to create a vivid, earthy matte palette for its interior wall paints (warning: the website does not do these colors justice). After experimenting (highly recommended) with clay paints in $4 sample jars, I settled on "Membrillo," a lovely terracotta, which instantly warmed up the room and brought out my white sectional like never before. One lovely and unexpected side-effect: The walls vary in color from a cinnamon-infused Mexican chocolate in the morning to a rosy pink in the evening, probably because the heavy matte finish absorbs rather than reflects color. The look and feel of the room is rich, breathable, and organic.
Walls
When I decided to spruce up my living room with color, I was thrilled to find out that many big-name paint companies — including Dunn-Edwards, Benjamin Moore, and Sherwin-Williams – now offer green lines of flat and semi-gloss interior paints with low or zero levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), those smelly, gaseous pollutants in solvents, paints, pesticides, cleaners, glues, and adhesives.
But I quickly learned that the most eco-friendly paints from the big manufacturers are only available in whites and pastels. "If you want color, you'll have to settle for paints with low [but not zero] VOCs," says environmental designer Gigi Brown. "Eventually, they'll figure out how to get the color in."
I didn't want to wait. At Originate, a Tucson green building materials showroom, I found gorgeous colors with zero VOCs made by Green Planet Paints. This small company based in Patagonia, Arizona, uses only soy-based resin, clay, and mineral pigments to create a vivid, earthy matte palette for its interior wall paints (warning: the website does not do these colors justice). After experimenting (highly recommended) with clay paints in $4 sample jars, I settled on "Membrillo," a lovely terracotta, which instantly warmed up the room and brought out my white sectional like never before. One lovely and unexpected side-effect: The walls vary in color from a cinnamon-infused Mexican chocolate in the morning to a rosy pink in the evening, probably because the heavy matte finish absorbs rather than reflects color. The look and feel of the room is rich, breathable, and organic.
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18:47 EST, 14.Nov.07