Home Painting: Eliminating Paint Odour

Summary

Step 1: Ventilate your home at least twice a day to limit paint odour

Step 2: Use essential oils to reduce the smell of paint

Step 3: Try “Grandma’s tricks” to get rid of the paint smell

Step 4: Use commercial products if paint odour persists

We often refer to a new smell to indicate paint fumes. Removing paint odour has the potential to reduce a nuisance, but the other negative effects should not be underestimated.

Here’s how to remove paint odour and reduce the associated negative effects.

Paint odour: some introductory info

Paints today have a VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) classification. These are present in nature but also in chemicals and their concentration in built-up areas can be significant. They are therefore found in paint, but also in glues, coatings, floor and wall coverings, furniture, etc.

Part of the paint smell comes from VOCs. While odour nuisance can be limited, it is also necessary to reduce their impact on health. Since 2010, regulations limit VOCs in paints, but this does not imply the emission of VOCs into the air, which is why common-sense rules must be applied first and foremost.

Good to know: since 2012, labelling is mandatory on sanitary decoration products, from A+ to C, with A+ indicating a low emission level and C indicating a high level.

1. Ventilate your home at least twice a day to limit the smell of paint

The ventilation of our dwellings reduces the concentration of VOCs and therefore the smell of the paints:

Ventilate your home every day for at least 10 minutes in the morning and at the end of the day, when the temperature is at its mildest, without forgetting to turn down the heating if necessary.

Open the windows as soon as possible if you recently have a Painting Company/ Painting Contractor applied the paint in your house.

Do not leave children, especially young children, in the painted room, or limit the time they spend there for activities or rest.

2. Use essential oils to reduce the smell of paint

Essential oils have a certain olfactory power. Moreover, they purify and cleanse the atmosphere. Here are different uses of essential oils that can help you reduce the smell of paints:

Pour 20 drops of essential oil per 50 cl in your paint pot. Choose in priority the essential oils of vanilla, lemongrass, clove, cinnamon, pine, thyme and linalool.

Apply a few drops of essential oil on a cotton ball and vacuum it with your vacuum cleaner and/or put 2 drops on the filter of the vacuum cleaner when you pass it to diffuse another fragrance, stronger.

Invest in a diffuser or opt for a pebble placed on the radiator, near a heat source. Diffusing eucalyptus can cleanse your environment.

Mix 25 cl of water, 25 cl of alcohol vinegar and 20 drops of essential oil and spray this mixture into the room and/or on absorbent surfaces.

Place 4 tablespoons of clay in a small bowl, add 10 drops of essential oil of benzoin, bergamot, rosewood, cedar, mint or patchouli…

Boil a liter of milk, fill four bowls, add pine, mint, eucalyptus or ylang-ylang essential oil and place the bowls in the four corners of the room, near the walls.

3. Try “Grandma’s stuff” to get rid of the smell of paint

You can reduce the nuisance of unpleasant odours by using simple products in your pantry and cupboards, for example:

Place several cups with white clay in the bottom and change them every 2 days.

Place activated carbon (not charcoal) in a dish, leave it in place for a week and renew as needed.

Boil one litre of distilled water with citrus peels, especially lemon, then add the juice of 2 lemons. Place this preparation at the centre of the room.

Throw a large bunch of fresh mint into boiling water.

Bring the water to a boil, add onions cut roughly with their peel, wait a few minutes, then turn off the heat and leave the container in the room (be careful, the smell of onion is also strong).

Collect coffee grounds from one or more bowls and place them in the room. Moisten the ground coffee regularly; dry coffee grounds are less effective.

Put cinnamon in a bowl of boiling water on or near the radiator.

Dip a tea towel in a boiling mixture of 50 cl of water, 50 cl of cider vinegar and 10 sticks of cinnamon.

4. Use commercially available products if the paint smell persists

Another possibility is to use commercially available ready-to-use products, for example:

Use odour-absorbent jars (filled with either essential oils or gels): simply open the lid and place the jar in the place to be deodorized.

Spray “odour destroyers” in a spray bottle, but do not forget to protect yourself from the heavy mist with a cloth or a protective mask.

Hang anti-odour tablets made from charcoal plants in the room, from which you will have removed the protection seal beforehand.

Burn Armenian paper regularly, without forgetting to ventilate to limit bad smells.

If residential painting isn’t your cup of tea, and you think you will have a professional better deal with it, you can get in touch with LK Painting Service in Eaglemont, and throughout Melbourne.

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