About 18 months ago, I took it upon myself to paint our daughter’s room. Yellow with red trim – bright and cheery yet not overly girlie. At 2, she could have cared less, excited only to be out of her crib and happy to have access to most of her toys long after she should have gone to bed.

One day, about six months ago, she announced to us that things had changed. No longer would she idly sit by and allow her 3-year-old life to be dictated by mommy’s colour choices. In reality, the only colour that exists in the world (apparently) is purple – and I should know that, being an adult and all.

She was, actually, a bit less smug about the purple conversion. But, the requests for us to turn her life into Purple World continued pretty much endlessly until she reached the pinnacle of purplehood – her room.

We himmed and hawed, delayed as long as possible, until one day she flashed her daddy those baby blues and told him she wanted her room to be a purple fairy midnight forest – with fairies, a giant moon and friendly ghosts. Daddy’s mural-painting inner artist kicked in, M and he designed the room on the computer, and we headed off to the paint store.

We knew we wanted eco-friendly paint for the tiny person’s room and also knew that Home Depot carried a solid Canadian brand, CIL.

The reality with eco-friendly paint is that the industry certainly hasn’t bought into thinking green as mainstream and our options were monumentally limited. But, it was very important to us that the walls on our kiddo’s bedroom walls weren’t covered in volatile chemicals:

CIL Dulux Natural Whites paints (which is what we ended up using) contain no petroleum-based or other organic solvents (VOCs – Volatile Organic Compounds). VOC’s contribute to air pollution and paint odour. Shockingly, common VOCs include benzene, formaldehyde, kerosene, ammonia, toluene, and xylene. Exposure to VOCs can irritate your eyes, nose, throat, and skin and can be a concern to those suffering from allergies and asthma.

I was overwhelmed years ago when I first started reading about the toxicity of paint. I mean, look at that list of ingredients!

We expected to pay and pay big for our eco choice. Surprisingly, the $29.95-a-gallon price tag was LESS than some of the higher-end paints from CIL and other manufacturers. Right in the middle of the pack.

We had a few initial gripes in that while CIL claims to have 550 colours to choose from when mixing the Natural Whites, those colours were quite pastel. Nothing vibrant at all – which was absolutely fine for the purple queen. But, you aren’t going to get primaries with this paint.

But, if you are willing to settle for a lighter shade, this paint is gorgeous in more ways than one.

It covered beautifully with two coats (even the red window frames) and the colours dried rich and radiant. We ended up, actually, buying WAY too much paint because the last time we painted that room we ran out. with one gallon. Not this time.

Ken spent some serious time working on the mural part and found the paint nearly odour-free, not even needing to crack a window on the second day when he was doing detail work like fairies, stars and moons.

It washes up with soap and water and made one purple-loving preschooler beam from ear to ear at the completion of her purple universe.

Meanwhile, mom and dad aren’t wondering about the kerosene or formaldehyde lingering in the midnight fairy forest, which makes us all beam a bit and breathe easier too.

Have you tried an eco-friendly indoor house paint? Chime in here and tell us about your results (good or bad).