The Budget Ecoist- Eco Living on a Budget

 

About once a year, we get a jones to paint the living room, but we rarely follow through on my terra cotta-tinged dreams because, frankly, the smell of paint makes us want to vomit. And it's hard to justify picking up a gallon of something that, when it's tossed, can pollute 250,000 gallons of water.

So you can imagine that our hearts' are beating a little faster thanks to the new crop of Green Seal paints that let you have your organic vegan cake and eat it, too. They come in gorgeous colors and don't have scary ingredients like benzene and formaldehyde, which have been shown to trigger asthma and allergies. Good picks include:

Anna Sova
American Clay
Real Milk Paint
Yolo Colorhouse
Bioshield
And yes, some of these are more expensive than a standard gallon of paint, but if that's got you bothered, relax: Olympic's low-odor, green seal-approved paint is available at Lowe's for $17/gallon.

We're thinking chocolate brown for the living room . . .