One of the biggest wake up calls for me on my journey to creating a healthy life for my family was learning about indoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution is basically breathable toxins that originate from materials found in your home. When I first read about it I remember wearily eyeing the contents of our loft and for a moment considering moving us all into a tent in the wilderness. Seriously, it's an option I consider. Often.
With all of the studies and talk about toxins and chemicals, indoor air pollution can feel like the last straw. But since I'd already eliminated chemical cleaning products, I was able to narrow it down to one major issue: paint. Even water-based latex paints have fumes and continue to emit VOCs for years after the paint has dried. So I decided that for all future painting projects I would use VOC-free paints.
Quiet home Paints is a line of paints created by the beautiful mother-daughter team Lisa and Andi. Quiet Home paints are Zero-VOC, non-toxic, non-allergenic and organic. Quiet Home was originally designed for use in the nursery, but expanded to offer palettes for the entire home. In addition to making life healthier, they make life easier by offering a gorgeous selection of designer colors with inspiring names like "Vintage Tux" and "Whisper". The colors are organized into palettes that make it easy to select complimentary colors (a big plus for color dummies like myself). They also have an awesome blog where they post lots of pin-worthy nursery photos and show you how to "get the look".
Since we are co-sleepers, I decided to repaint our bedroom in Whisper. As usual I poured the paint and put my roller to work. After a few minutes it dawned on me that there was no smell at all. Not even a hint. It was as if I were painting water onto the walls. It was easy to apply and produced a high quality, even coat. It dried quickly, cleaned up easily with water, and even the drips on our wood floors peeled off easily. I felt no hesitations about having Alexandria & Max nearby, and sleeping in the room that night it was as if it had never been painted.
GIVEAWAY & COUPON CODE:
Quiet Home Paints is giving away a gallon of paint in the color of your choice and a quart of an accent color of your choice! To enter, visit Quiet Home Paints then leave a comment on this post telling us the shades you'd like to win. For an additional entry you can tweet "Visit bonbon mini + enter to win zero-VOC, organic Quiet Home Paint by @quietnursery ! http://bit.ly/gGCLD4" and leave a second comment linking to your tweet. Giveaway ends on 5/30. You can also use code BONBON20 for 20% off on the Quiet Home Paints website.
[Artwork by Coral & Tusk]
Here is a before and after of our bed (made by the mister). When we rearranged recently, these lovely screws were made visible, but with a little spackle & 2 coats of Quiet Home they were gone.
5-Minute Door Makeover:
To make our loft feel light & airy, we keep the walls white and incorporate pops of color here and there. Painting a door edge is a simple way to do just that. All you need is a Quiet Home sample pot in your favorite color (I used Torn Skirt), painter's tape, and about 5 minutes. This is so simple it probably doesn't require a how-to, but here goes...








