Friday, May 21, 2010

Environmentally friendly choice for varnishing floors

I knew that I wanted the floors in this house to be a feature, but I was not prepared to compromise by using something which would be detrimentally to the health of my family and the environment.
I researched A LOT!!! But the best that I could come up with would be to oil the floors, which would need to be done every year or so. I didn't really mind that though, as I felt it was a better alternative to polyurethane.

However, when I was looking for environmentally friendly paints and was speaking with ecolour I found out that they also do a floor varnish. Again, using their recycling technology they have created a great 'green' alternative.

It was so easy to use. We sanded back the floors and sealed with the polyclear...2 hours between coats and I love the finish. Unlike ordinary polyurethane, polyclear actually feeds the wood.

Me, happy??!!!! Hell yeah...

Enviromentally friendly choice for painting walls

We used Ecolour wall, ceiling and plasterboard ceiling paints. They're made from recycled products, are ZERO VOC, and the company is certified 'carbon neutral.

Their prices are great, they ship anywhere in Australia and to top it all...they were lovely to deal with. I spoke with Libby more than anyone else and she was great.

I wont be using paint from anywhere else. I was prepared for the paint to be of a lesser standard to commercially available paints, but I didn't mind as the benefits outweighed this...HOWEVER, they are just as good, if not better than the other paints I've used in the past and it didn't give me a headache...

It sounds like I'm advertising for them, but as this blog is mainly for my family to catch up with what we are up to here in Australia, I guess it's not going to get them much business, but at least, in my own little way I have patted them on the back and said 'thanks'.

Kids room

Kids room...again, no before shots, but it was the same as all the other rooms...platerboard and unsanded boards...please excuse the awful nets up at the window. I will be making some lovely Roman Blinds for this window.

Bedroom 2

There is no 'before' picture of this room, but just picture plasterboard walls and ceiling and unfinished floors...much better now :)

Dining Room

The old dining room. This room was puzzling to me, as you can see the painting had only been half completed :S???

Can you see the thing leaning against the back wall? That is a very pretty fireplace, which we will be getting installed in time.
We frosted the bottom half of the windows as it overlooked our neighbours entertainment area. I'm sure they would prefer it if we couldn't see into their house :)  Oh and the half finished window...I see the irony, but I do intent on finishing it :)
For some reason, one night in the first few days of us moving in, I woke at 1am and decided that we would finish this room...so we did!!!

Kitchen

We haven't done much to the kitchen. We gave it a good scrub and had the laminate flooring installed. We talked about having a new bench top etc put in, but we will wait and see. The cupboard space is very limited, but it has just forced us to be more organised...although, one of the cupboards is a bit risky - watch out when you open the door!!!
The old pic, not much different.

Living Room

Above are the new photos :) We haven't done anything to the double doors yet. I was going to paint them white but now that the walls are freshly painted, I think they will be fine with just a good clean.

Mark sanded the floor first, but the varnish that was coating them was so awful that we decided to cheat and carpet the floor, which is actually a nice alternative to the rest of the house.

These are the before photos. Actually, these were on the Ad for the house, and would you believe that I fell in love with the house from these pics. I knew how beautiful the house was going to be :)