About a month ago, we purchased our first home. We are on a tight budget but we absolutely knew the walls had to be changed. When we moved in, most of the walls were various shades of blue, horribly painted on top of each other– with badly painted black trim. With our limited budget, we made the largest and most used room (our living/dining combo) our priority to paint.

One of the things I hated about painting- and why I had never painted our previous homes- is the smell. That horrible chemical smell lingers long after the paint is applied and gives me awful headaches. I didn’t know what caused that smell but it couldn’t be good for you! I was on a mission to find a paint that would be a little less smelly. So that is what I googled, and found out that it is the VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, that are responsible for paint odors. There are a variety of low-to-no VOC paints on the market today, so my next mission was to find which would work best for my family. I noticed one “zero VOC” paint in store, but the first thing I noticed when I picked it up was the Proposition 65 warning label. Not for me! So back to the internet I went. One name that kept popping up was Colorhouse.

There are several things that really captured my attention with Colorhouse:

1. Limited color shades. This might sound like a negative thing to some, but they curated a collection of 128 colors that they knew would work. I was skeptical at first, but I realized every color I had considered was in there. It took the stress of choosing the exact shade off of my shoulders because they had done all of the hard work.

2. Excellent customer service. Inquiries were answered efficiently and courteously. They also have a team of Color Nerds standing by offering free color help! They will offer a free color consultation to help you decide what color will best fit your room’s needs.

3. Dedicated. For 10 years, Colorhouse has been offering great paint that is safe for their customers and the planet. This is one of the main reasons I chose Colorhouse over other companies. Things like no VOC,  HAPs-free, and LEED Compliant aren’t just buzzwords- they are standards! This sealed the deal for me. Colorhouse wasn’t just another brand cashing in on what was trendy, creating another line to appeal to those concerned about personal and environmental health but failing to change their actual products. Colorhouse is the real deal, and that’s why I became a customer.

4: Now the true test: how does it perform? I’m happy to say that this paint applied flawlessly! It was a one-coat deal, with no primer needed.

We changed our room from a light blue to a cool medium gray called Stone .07 in eggshell finish in one afternoon.  Because this is an almost 30 year old home, we did need to re-drywall a few places, especially surrounding windows and doors, where the humidity and moisture had pulled up several coats of paint. We did not fully remove the awful 1980s texture (because who has time for that?!), but we did sand all of the surfaces to help the paint adhere better. We thought we would need two coats, but were pleasantly surprised by how one coat did the job. Best of all, the smell was practically nonexistent. My mom is especially sensitive to chemicals; she can’t be around perfumes, scented lotions, candles, etc. without getting sick. Well, she was able to eat at the dining room table while the walls around her were painted!

My favorite part? You can’t tell during the daylight, but we added in a packet of sparkle to our dining room wall. But when the lights turn down, the accent wall sparkles!