Odorless & Eco-Friendly Paint

I'm not sure whether it's due to our full docket of holiday entertaining over the next couple of weeks or pure maternal nesting mode, but I've been tackling a lot of home projects lately. And last weekend, I became obsessed with the need to repaint a console table that, ironically, I last painted when I was pregnant with Laurel. And given that I'm 27 weeks pregnant and Laurel wanted to help paint, finding an odorless, eco-friendly paint was important for this project. Here's how our project turned out:

The first issue was that I wanted color, and I wanted it glossy so the console table really popped (the table is in front of windows in a sitting area that has a neutral modular FLOR rug and a pair of chocolate/blue slipper chairs). I had originally envisioned red, but Laurel was advocating strongly for orange (and so, it turned out, did the people of Twitter when I queried on the topic!). As I stood in front of the paint chips at the hardware store, I admittedly entered into a state of paralysis. I ended up bringing a bunch of swatches home, had a vote session with Jon, Laurel, and my brother-in-law (who was visiting from out of town), and later sent Jon out to get the final choice ("Outrageous Orange"), which he purchased from the Benjamin Moore Natura Zero-VOC Paint collection in semi-gloss. This waterborne paint is eco-friendly and -- they claimed -- virtually odorless.

Despite the claim, for Laurel and my safety, Jon made me promise to step outside after the first coat and come back in to see if I detected paint stink. Laurel and I rolled up our sleeves and started painting and the result was fantastic. The paint was smooth and easy to apply, there was no odor at all, it dried quickly so we could easily see where to apply the second coat, and the semi-gloss finish is gorgeous for this accent piece. We didn't even bother with primer (just painted over an existing matte layer of paint) and it looks beautiful. Wouldn't you agree?

I'm thrilled! We set up our potted Christmas tree on top of the console, and yesterday Laurel and I wrapped and laid out gifts on the top surface and bottom shelf. So festive!

So, if you're looking to do a little interior painting, definitely try the Benjamin Moore Natura collection; at the website you can easily find Benjamin Moore locations near you. I suspect knowing that we can paint safely indoors this winter will lead to some other fun interior projects!