Brush It On

Are you using green paint? That's “green,” as in ecologically friendly.

Eco-friendly paints are gaining in popularity and presenting an environmentally aware choice to consumers who previously were limited to oil, acrylic, latex and water-based paints. Supporters say they're a healthy alternative to standard ones, and in some cases, are composed of a high percentage of food-grade ingredients.

Chuck Zeikle, owner of Zeke's Paint and Design Center, with nine stores in the Kansas City area, says the chief advantages of using this type of paint include protecting the environment and the user's health. Benefits of such paints, he notes, are reduced toxins in the air, especially important to individuals with allergies or chemical sensitivities; environmental protection by reducing landfill use; resource preservation by preventing groundwater contamination; and low odor during application. Zeke's carries the Benjamin Moore line of low- and zero-VOC products, including Go-Spec, Aura and Gen-X.

Meredith Aronson, founder and president of Green Planet Paints in Patagonia, Ariz., thinks the rise in popularity of eco-friendly paints is because people are looking more at their impact on the environment as well as the health impact of materials they use. She produces a clay paint that is plant- and mineral-based instead of latex paint, which is petroleum-based. Such paint works well in homes where people are concerned about the environment yet don't want to give up functionality or performance.

“It's a high-performance, zero-VOC paint that's robust in application with a neutral palette and a high aesthetic,” Meredith describes. “It's designed for hide-ability, its scrub-ability is high, and the flat has a lower gloss level. We don't cut corners with these paints.”

While many people are using low- and zero-VOC paints today, she points out that the public's perception of such products  is skewed. “When these products were launched 25 years ago, some contractors complained that they didn't work as well as traditional paints, and we're still dealing with that attitude. Consumer perception might be the biggest argument against the paints right now, and cost is another issue because the raw materials for the paint give it a higher cost,” she explains.

But, she continues, “If people had more awareness of what's in paint products they buy, they'd be more selective. If they had access to more information, they'd think differently about paint.”

Another eco-friendly paint is made by the Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company in Groton, Mass. Anne Thibeau, president, says milk paint has long been known by people restoring old houses or early American antiques, but many people are now turning to it because of its green factor. While she can't give an estimate of the growth of such paint in the past few years, she calls the numbers “soaring.”

Paints with harmful chemicals, Anne says, “will someday be a thing of the past because people are demanding the safer alternatives that are available. We hear of more people every day who are getting sick because of the harmful fumes and VOCs found in modern, chemically based paints.”

Milk paint, she points out, is a combination of milk protein (also known as casein) as a binder, lime as a catalyst to dissolve the milk protein, earth pigments and inert fillers such as clay to give the paint body.

“My father developed his formula in powder form in 1974 to keep the paint as natural as the original historic formulas and not to have preservatives added to it. So the user simply adds water to the powder to make paint,” Anne says.

Milk paint was originally a simple, natural homemade paint using locally available materials but fell out of favor when more modern chemically based formulas like latex came about, as well as the invention of the paint can. “If you see milk paint in a can, it's not genuine  but more likely an acrylic or latex paint with milk paint colors or simulated milk paint,” she warns.

The advantages of true milk paint are that it is natural, biodegradable and nontoxic, with almost no odor except for a faint milky or earthy smell when wet, but none when dry. “You can paint your bedroom in the afternoon and sleep in it that night without getting a headache from a nasty odor,” Anne maintains.

Milk paint also is the most durable type of paint, being difficult to remove once it cures, getting harder and harder with time, just like concrete. The downside to its application, though, is that it's not quite as easy as simply opening a can of paint. “You have to mix it, but it's really quite simple, like making chocolate milk, and you can use kitchen mixers and spatulas for mixing,” Anne says.

Milk paint is designed to be used on porous surfaces such as bare wood, raw masonry, traditional plaster and other such surfaces. A compound called Extra-Bond can be mixed in with the first coat of milk paint to help it adhere to nonporous surfaces. Anne's company recently launched a new milk paint line called SafePaint that's been formulated to adhere to wallboard, joint compound and previously painted walls.

Chuck is enthusiastic about the possibilities of eco-friendly paints. He says that architects are regularly specifying more low- and zero-VOC paints for their larger jobs and that states are passing laws requiring their use in certain applications.

“Low- and zero-VOC paints are the wave of the future. I think 90 percent of paint products for interiors and the exterior of structures within the next seven to 10 years will be low- or zero-VOC, which is relatively quick in the paint industry,” he says.