Last year we had a call from a potential client in Storrington, with a brief that we hadn’t had before. This potential client, her husband and young son had moved down from London not long before and were starting a new life in Sussex. The reason they had moved down from the big smoke was for a cleaner life; sadly between them they really struggled with allergies. Toxins had had an extreme affect on their lifestyle, causing allergies, skin irritations and even hair loss. They were looking to create a low toxic environment in the countryside that was comfortable and ‘clean’ but without having to cut corners on the aesthetics.

VOC free — The toxins we were avoiding were VOCs and MITs

I was upfront - this wasn’t an area of my expertise. I’ve always had an eye on providing ‘greener’ more environmentally friendly interiors but it has never sat at the top of my design brief before. So I began my research.

What are the toxins we need to consider?

There were two specific toxins that our client needed us to avoid.

The first was MITs (Methylisothiazolinone), a preservative found in paint. The other, VOCs or Volatile Organic Compounds which can be found in paints and finishes, adhesives and sealants, carpets and furniture. These organic compounds such as formaldehyde have a high vapour pressure at room temperature causing them to evaporate into the air. We all know the smell of a freshly painted room, or a new piece of furniture, right? That’s what we’re talking about. They can cause a number of health issues including allergic reactions, headaches and in some cases more severe health conditions in some people.

Is it realistic to think we can create a bedroom without these toxins?

I had one of those moments when you realise how much information is available online if you start to look for it. But as always it’s a case of trying to see the wood for the trees. Luckily there are some amazingly knowledgeable people out there and our team of trades were so helpful.

It was a very open conversation with my client, running new knowledge past her as I went. I learnt that some of the toxins we were trying to avoid were actually emitted from natural products, such as wood giving off VOCs. Every new product or material became a conversation: What toxins does it contain? Is it possible to avoid it or is the level acceptable? We were honest and accepted that a 100% toxin free space was probably unobtainable, but once you start to understand the toxins, I was confident we could get the toxins extremely low.

Gassing off

We learned about ‘gassing off’. You know when you open a new piece of furniture, you unwrap it all excitedly only to be greeted with a nasty chemical smell? Well that’s the nasties that we needed to avoid. Opening up these products and letting them breathe in a well ventilated room beforehand is a way of making sure any harmful VOCs are eradicated before they’re used in the final room setting.

Low Toxin easy wins -

Paint

Paint has come a very long way over the years and it was great to find that Toxin free paint exists. We found that it wasn’t quite as easy as working with a ‘standard’ paint but it was more than worth it for the benefits it provided on the health front. We used 100% VOC-free Little Knights paint as well as Graphenstone Grafclean paint and the wonderful people at Brewers in Worthing who couldn’t have been more helpful, colour matched it for us to a Farrow and Ball colour we wanted to use.

Bedding

All the bedding was 100% French flax linen from Bed Threads and the mattress was 100% organic from Snoozel Green. It’s probably one of the most luxurious beds we’ve ever created! The bedspread was 100% natural cotton from John Lewis.

Lighting

All the lighting we used was glass and metal, for the main pendant light and pendant side lights we installed. Firstly to avoid the toxins, secondly to avoid any unnecessary dust from settling. Glass lights are easy to clean and don’t hold the dust like a fabric shade can. The switches we sourced from Corston.

Accessories

An easy way we could bring in materials that we didn’t have to worry about. Plant pots were ceramic, fabrics were organic cotton and frames were ceramic from M&S, metal or wood that could gass-off.

Curtains were 100% cotton and gassed off before hanging on a plastic wave track that gave a lovely high end look.

Plants

became a big part of the scheme, working on our side to keep the air clean. We used ceramic plant pots of varying colours.

More Tricky Design Areas

Furniture was probably the most tricky area to avoid VOCs. Most companies don’t declare what’s in the materials they use, they may just say ‘oak’ or ‘veneer’ but they give no details of the adhesives, varnishes, finishes etc. One of the jobs on this project was to replace the wardrobe doors so we used zero formaldehyde MDF to build the doors and zero MIT paint for decorating them. Even the adhesive was low in VOCs.

The bed we sourced was solid oak which we allowed to gas off beforehand and the chair was the same and used natural rattan as the seat.

Bedside tables were difficult to source so Dave and Craig at South Coast Cabinetry came to the rescue. They made two bespoke bedside cabinets that not only filled the space perfectly, but were gassed off in their workshop for 2 weeks before delivery. They hit the brief and look beautiful.

Carpets - As we left the project, the carpet was yet to be replaced but 100% wool carpet that was natural and untreated was going to be used to keep the toxin levels to a minimum.

In Conclusion

This project pushed all the boundaries for us and I’m not going to lie it was nerve wracking at times. The end game was always to provide our lovely clients with a space that they could be fully comfortable in because their allergies weren’t affected. And I couldn’t have been more delighted when the verdict was positive. They loved the space and there were no nasty reaction. The cherry on the cake was when my client used a Temtop air quality monitor to test the new bedroom and the score couldn’t have been higher. Happy team, happy client.

See more photos and more details on the full project and what our client had to say right here on our client project page.

How We Created A Non-Toxic Master Bedroom