It’s important to choose a non-toxic paint for any room in your house, but if you’re looking to paint a nursery or a few pieces of baby furniture make sure you choose a natural, odorless, VOC free paint.
In this article we will discuss why it’s so important to choose a quality paint, and what brands are best for painting baby’s room.
In the coming weeks we will be turning our current dining room into a little boy’s bedroom, so I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about this room remodel. Looking into furniture, rugs, art work for the walls, and yes paint.
If you’ve been here for a while you know I try to do as much natural and non toxic as I can….or as the budget will allow. Paint is one of those things that even though is definitely on the pricier side, I would rather not sacrifice in that area for the reasons we will look at below.
What Paint Is Safe For Baby’s Room?
Safest Option Paints For Baby’s Room
Choose paints that are:
- Zero VOC paints. Skip the low-voc paints, as they still have a significant amount of harmful chemicals.
- Water or Milk Based natural paints. Skip oil based paints and using primer.
- APE Free Paints. APE are a group of chemicals called Alkylphenol Ethoxylates that are known to cause harm to hormones.
Conventional paint has been linked to many health problems and can be especially harmful to a new baby or nursing/pregnant women.
Typical household paint has thousands of harmful chemicals that affect the indoor air quality of your home. When the paint dries it releases VOC’s and carcinogens into the air, even just storing a can of paint in your home can be harmful.
Some of the short and long term health effects of using these types of paint include: Throat irritation, dizziness, headaches, itchy eyes, runny nose, and in some cases can even cause organ damage. {source}
What Are Volatile Organic Compounds?
Volatile organic compounds or VOC’s are chemicals used to make paints, pharmaceuticals, and refrigerants. They are emitted gasses into the air that cause harm when breathed in.
VOCs typically are industrial solvents, such as trichloroethylene; fuel oxygenates, such as methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE); or by-products produced by chlorination in water treatment, such as chloroform. VOCs are often components of petroleum fuels, hydraulic fluids, paint thinners, and dry cleaning agents. VOCs are common ground-water contaminants.
United States Environmental Protection Agency
So pretty much nothing we want our little ones breathing into their lungs.
You want to make sure to find a paint with voc levels lower than 5g per liter. You can usually find that information on the label, but if you have questions ask the sales clerk at your paint store to make sure you’re buying a safe paint.
Another factor to consider when choosing a non-toxic paint for baby’s room is the right paint color.
Did you know that darker paint colors add extra harmful chemicals to the paint? So maybe go with a neutral color or traditional pastel shades of colors to create a calming effect for your baby’s nursery.
When Should A Baby’s Room Be Painted?
I tend to be one of those people that would rather be safe than sorry, and always air on the side of caution.
Paint the baby’s room long before your little one’s due date, and make sure to ventilate the room well while painting and after. Open windows and doors to allow the air to circulate. This will allow paint fumes and any toxic chemicals to escape.
If you have an air purifier it would be good to set it up in the room as well.
Young children and pregnant women should stay clear of the painting site until it’s completely dry and aired out. Recruit the help of family and friends or hire professionals to do the job for you if you are expecting or nursing.
Favorite Non-Toxic Paint Brands
1. Real Milk Paint Co.
Real milk paint is a powdered, non toxic paint that you mix with water before you are ready to use.
The real milk Co. is an American family owned small business located in Tennessee. They use only 100% organic natural ingredients.
Their paint is non-toxic, food contact safe, voc free, and biodegradable/compostable. It is child and pet safe, making this a great choice!
2. Lullaby Paint
The Lullaby line is part of the ECOS paints and it is specifically designed for nurseries and kid’s play rooms.
ECOS paints are manufactured in South Carolina, USA.
They are non-toxic, zero voc, water based paints. They have a wide variety of the best nursery paint colors.
We have used the lullaby nursery line in our home to paint a bedroom and pieces of furniture. Although the consistency and wall application of this paint is noticeably different than commercial paints, we were very happy with the end result and application process.
You might be interested to know, ECOS also has an EMR (electromagnetic radiation) shielding paint.
Save This Best Non-Toxic Paint Guide For Reference Later 🙂
3. AFM SafeCoat Paint
AFM Safecoat paint was designed specifically for those with allergies, asthma and chemical sensitivities.
SafeCoat is manufactured in the USA and it is a baby safe paint because
- It’s water based
- It has 0g voc/per liter
- Eco-friendly/non-toxic. It has no formaldehyde, ammonia, crystalline silica, alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs) or ethylene glycol commonly used in paint.
4. Green Planet Paints
Features of green planet paints as stated on their website:
- Plant and mineral based
- Rugged durability
- Mineral colors
- Zero VOC
- USDA Bio-Preferred
- No heavy metal dryers / carcinogens
- No biocides or preservatives
- Easy to apply
- Exceeds all USDA and EPA standards
- Safe for use around children and pets
5. Auro USA (Natural Paint Brand)
Auro USA develops their natural paints in their own facility, the main reason being that they don’t like to compromise on the quality of their products.
Most of the ingredients they use in their paints are either minerals or plants, and a lot of their products are certified vegan.
Auro USA has one of the highest standards for paints used on children’s toys or furniture.
“As one of the first producers, AURO implemented the amended requirements of the EU’s EN 71-3 standard for the toy safety by producing all its paints without cobalt. In this way we have achieved a leap in quality and developed a remedy against the long criticised cobalt, a drying agent that had been regarded as irreplaceable till then.
6. More Great Option Paints For Baby’s Room
The good news is more and more of the better known paint brands also have some pretty good choices these days.
- Sherwin Williams has a zero voc formula that claims to help improve your home’s indoor air quality, by reducing voc levels from other potential sources in your home like carpet and fabrics.
- Benjamin Moore has the Eco-Spec line with zero VOCs and zero emissions, making it another good option for a baby room.
- Rust-olium paints has a milk paint that is Water-based, low VOC, low odor formula and cleans easily with soap and water. This can be another good choice if you need to paint the baby’s crib or other furniture.
I hope this list of safe, non-toxic paint for baby’s room was helpful to you!
Be on the look out for the dining room/little boy’s bedroom remodel coming soon.
This is so helpful! I wish I’d thought of all the toxic things before my babies were born. But you know better, you do better! Saving this for future reference!
I never knew about the options out there. Thanks for sharing. This is great info!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I have always heard to be careful which paints you use, especially when they are near your babies, but wasn’t exactly sure what criteria to look for. The examples of paints you like are really helpful, too.
Yes!! We also make sure to off gas any new furniture that’s going in baby’s room (although we try to just buy second hand so that we don’t have to worry about that). Such a helpful post and a lot of paint colors that i hadn’t heard of before
OOOh how do you off gas furniture? I had never heard that term before but would love to learn more!