Getting your interiors painted or painting them yourself is very rewarding and leaves you with an updated, beautiful interior space. Wintertime is the best time of the year to paint inside because you won’t be getting much done on the outside of your home this time of year in the Denver area anyway. 

One of the things you must do to prepare for an indoor painting project is making sure you have enough ventilation in the painting area. Hopefully, you don’t have access to lead paint anymore, but even the safest of paints can cause adverse health effects by exposing you to air with high levels of paint fumes in it. 

Ventilation and protecting your household items are some of the most important prep tasks you can take on to ensure your interior painting project goes smoothly. But even after you’ve opened the windows and didn’t use an inordinate amount of paint on your walls, you still might have lingering paint odors. Generally, if you can smell the paint, there are still at least trace amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) floating around, which can cause all kinds of health problems if exposed to them for too long. 

Let’s look at some possible solutions to rid your indoor spaces from that obnoxious and possibly dangerous new paint smell.

Improved Ventilation

Opening the windows after you finish painting a room is a great way to ventilate the area and dissipate the paint odor. However, you don’t have to start there. If you can still smell that new paint, you can try adding fans to the room and pointing them at the window to blow the paint fumes that way. For the fans, you don’t want to set them to oscillate. Instead, you want to create a wind tunnel that continuously pushes paint fumes out the window. Place fans in the corners of the room if you can.

Closing the door to a painted room with windows is another simple way to keep the paint fumes from spreading throughout the house, and a closed room is easier to clear out with fans. 

Natural Odor-Eaters

Look, we’ve all been there. We try to cover up one odor with another, and before we know it, we’ve created a perfume factory. Sometimes the best way to help paint odors to dissipate is to use a few natural odor-eaters and be patient. Nothing is going to work right away. 

If you have an extra onion you’re not likely to eat, you can use it to naturally absorb paint fumes. That’s right, it actually works. Simply cut an onion in half and put the two halves in bowls on opposite sides of the newly painted room. The onions will absorb the odors in 24 to 36 hours. Just don’t eat them afterward.

Specialized Products

If time is an issue, you might have to invest in a specialized air quality product like an air purifier. It will work a little faster, even in rooms with little to no natural ventilation. This is especially effective in rooms in which you can’t open windows. You can supplement this process by adding air fresheners to help eradicate the smell of paint.

For more indoor painting tips, contact Ireland’s Finest Painters today.