in november we finally got around to painting our bedroom.

a long overdue home project.

we painted it the same white that we have been using throughout our home. it all started when i got the crazy itch to paint the walls in our kitchen, that then turned into the cabinets, that then turned into the hall, that then turned into the entry, playroom, and upstairs hall.

each time i painted, i also got crazy hives on my hands…a reaction i have had all my life when my body doesn’t get along with something well.

painful welts that itched and burned…on the palms of my hands, between my fingers and up and down my fingers! it hurt to do anything with my hands, and nothing would help except to not paint again.

i wore gloves, and i would still get hives.

needless to say, i wanted to get the bedroom painted as quickly as possible and be done with the paint.

once the room was done, we also got rid of our bulky headboard. so, our bed was (and is now) pushed up against the freshly painted wall.

well, all of my hives eventually settled down except for the pinky finger on my left hand and the ring and pinky finger on my right hand.

i thought it was bug bites.

i thought my skin was just dry from the cold dry december we were having.

i tried benadryl.

i tried steroid cream.

i tried antibiotic cream.

i tried extra moisturizer.

nothing worked.

this all started in november and lasted until sometime in january when i finally figured out.

one saturday morning my hands were hurting and i took some benadryl and went back up to bed.

i’m a stomach sleeper and put my arm under my pillow. when i did this, my hand touched the freshly painted wall.

my left pinky rubbed against the wall when i faced right and my right pinky and ring finger rubbed against the wall when i faced left.

exactly where my hives were.

the paint.

even the DRY paint was giving me the same hives that i got each time i painted a new room in our home.

the thing is, when we first moved into this house i made sure to use low-voc or no-voc paint. i cared about what we were breathing in…i didn’t want our babies breathing in toxic fumes.

8 years later, i just wanted to slap up paint that would stick…and be easy. so, i chose a paint with the primer…talk about lots of chemicals. {i’m not going to get into which paint, because i don’t even know WHAT chemical i react to}

it’s no wonder that my hands were reacting WHEN i was painting, but when i realized that it was still causing a reaction, just from contact, when it was DRY.

wow.

and, what about all the off-gasing that has been happening in our home for the last two years?!

ugh.

so, now i pin a pillowcase up on the wall until we figure out our headboard situation.

the timing worked out great, and my young living premium starter kit showed up at the end of december. i have been diving into all of the uses for them…including detoxing our home.

i am back in the game as far as “green” interiors are concerned. thrifting, reuse, recycled and  sustainable materials are all back on the plate. and i will be sharing information about them here.

we don’t have a lot of control over things in this world, but we DO have control over what happens in our homes.

let’s keep them healthy.

i can’t wait to share more of this journey with you.

home is…taking control of the health of your home.