Green Paints Look Great in any Color!

So what is a Green paint anyway?  To explain what Green paints are requires explaining the problem with most paints on the market today.  These non-Green paints contain substances call Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).  VOCs are chemical compounds that “off gas” at room temperature.  Many of the gasses created by these VOCs are suspected to cause certain cancers, including leukemia, as well as respiratory problems such as asthma. 

According to the EPA VOCs can be found in “lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, building materials and furnishings, office equipment such as copiers and printers, correction fluids and carbonless copy paper, graphics and craft materials, including glues and adhesives, permanent markers, and photographic solutions.”  Wow, if you’re thinking that’s everything but the kitchen sink, you’re right. Look out for the glue used to attach the kitchen sink to your counter top, though.

Green Savers tested two lines of VOC free paints purchased from Greenable, a green product supply store in Philadelphia.  We used no VOC products from Mythic Paints and YOLO Color house.  We chose the YOLO flat interior and the Mythic semi-gloss interior.

Both product lines came in a variety of colors and sheens.  Retailers like Greenable can mix them while you wait.   Both paints went on smoothly and covered well.  Like most retail paints, both were advertised to cover 400 sq. ft per gallon and exceeded that coverage in our tests.  The paints looked great after drying and covered the previously painted surfaces without a second coat.

“These paints are flying off of the shelves”, said Angelo Anastasio, co-owner of Greenable. “Most of the conventional low/no VOC products can only be tinted in lighter colors because the pigments used are still standard. When using a lot of pigment, the paint can no longer be considered low-VOC legally because of the added VOC content. We use a Zero VOC tinting system that enables us to make dark colors, even black!” You can find Greenable at 126 Market St. in Philadelphia, or on the web at www.greenable.net.

We invited some objective noses in after painting to see if they could smell that “new paint smell” that’s typical of retail paints (the smell of VOCs).  Our test subjects all stated no odor was present and agreed with us that the freshly painted rooms looked great.
 
The cost of these Green paints was around $40 per gallon, which is almost twice as much as typical premium paint. Considering the health effects and how infrequently we purchase paint, we'll be buying these paints for our future projects as well.

Watch for future Green Savers articles on other low/no VOC home products.  If you've had any experiences with these products, good or bad, please drop us a line at info@yourgreensavers.com.