I like the smell of gasoline. And bondo. And fiberglass resin.

Also oil.

There’s probably more toxic substances that I enjoy smelling, but I can’t recall right now.

Maybe my short-term memory has been affected.

My better half doesn’t like any of those smells.

It’s probably because she knows about VOCs. That’s “volatile organic compounds” to those of us that are acronym-challenged.

Fumes from gas, oil, resin and paint are organic chemicals evaporating into the surrounding air—and those little tiny molecules are bad for you to breathe in, and bad for the environment.

Science-y.

So recently I needed to repaint the accent wall in our living room to make it…well…more accent-y.

And since I love the smell of paint drying, I was {disappointed} to find out that my go-to paint—Valspar Signature—has this thing called Zero VOC† Technology.

Okay, I was being facetious.

This is a good thing. Valspar Signature has extremely low odor and I’m sure that’s better for me.

And it’s a good thing for my accent wall because I got it painted in like, half a day, and the house didn’t feel like a chemical factory.

Painting an Accent Wall

Here’s a shot of the living room. The accent wall is exposed concrete block where the masons filled every other joint flush with mortar to create a square block effect. You can see the adjacent wall is a light green and the accent wall is a bit darker. In most cases, you don’t even notice the difference in the walls as we feel we didn’t go dark enough with the accent color.

This is the can of magic. If you’ve read any of my other painting posts, you know that I have converted from a non-believer of paint and primer in one to a full-on fanatic. It goes on thick as thieves and hides well. The label might as well say “stands up to Marty’s four kids.” And now with less smells, you won’t have to open the windows and light up one of those frou-frou candles.

We went with a darker green for the accent color this time. About one two shades darker on the swatch book than what we had previously painted. It’s called La Fonda Wild West Green and it’s from Valspar’s National Trust for Historic Preservation line of colors. Not that my mid-century house is historic—we just liked it. Oh, and if I didn’t like it after painting, I’d take Valspar up on their Perfect Color guarantee—they’ll give me another color for free.

I started with a brush, cutting in the masonry joints, the trim and the picture ledges. The darker green should be more dramatic. After the first coat, I could have stopped. It covered that good. Despite that, I still applied two coats since this wall gets plenty of little hand prints to clean off near the hallway opening.

This is one coat, streaky ‘cause it’s still drying. But like I said, one coat would’ve got ‘er done.

Here’s the reveal. Definitely more accent-y, without the unpleasant after-effects.

Here’s the before and after-y.

So our living room looks better. My lungs are probably happier. And just maybe I did a little nod to Earth Day by not injecting more chemicals into the atmosphere. Thanks Valspar.

Check out Valspar Signature paint and their Zero VOC† Technology at http://www.valsparpaint.com/en/find-the-right-product/interior/paint/signature-paint.html.

All this greenery makes me want to go plant a tree. Stay tuned.

†Contains 0 g/L VOC as calculated within the margin of error by EPA Method 24.

Disclosure: Dadand was supplied product and compensated to post about Valspar—a company whose products we love and use all the time. Despite that, the opinions expressed by Dadand are our own. To provide as much transparency as possible, Dadand makes every reasonable effort to disclose the source of all products and services reviewed.