It’s a pain in the butt to extensively research the perfect eco-friendly craft supply that also, you know, WORKS. It sucks if you buy something that’s eco-friendly but doesn’t perform the way that you want it to, or if you feel as if you have to buy something harmful to the environment in order to get the result that you want. It feels terrible to accidentally buy something harmful when you know that eco-friendly alternatives exist. However, it feels AWESOME to buy something that’s eco-friendly AND that performs perfectly while looking even better than the conventional stuff. I buy (with my own money–this is NOT a sponsored review), Zinsser Bulls Eye Zero primer, and I have used it probably every single day this month for the millions of furniture refinishing projects that I’ve been doing for my new house. Here’s why I like it:
- The paint is eco-friendly. I will buy toxic paint if I feel like I really need it for a project (I don’t even want to think about how much work refinishing these lockers would have been without spray paint), but never if there’s an eco-friendly alternative that also performs well. Bulls Eye Zero has no VOCs (which means it doesn’t smell–yay!), and it’s water-based, which means that it cleans up easily and the brushes also clean easily. This is also good because my kids have a hand in nearly all my projects–
–and if they’re using it, they’re wearing it. 2. So is the packaging. The container itself is made from recycled plastic. Specs say that both the container and label are also recyclable, but I seriously doubt that either will be paint-free enough when I’m done with them for my recycling center to accept them–I’ll ask, though! 3. And it works GREAT! I generally do some sanding on my furniture refinishing projects, but not reliably, and I often work with weird surfaces, such as all kinds of janky laminate. In the past month, I’ve used this primer on sanded wood and two different kinds of unsanded laminate, and on black metal. I used it to cover stickers and chipped paint on my steel lockers, and permanent marker on my card catalogue. I put on two coats, let it dry for a day, then painted and sealed. The primer works just the way it’s supposed to–
–which is exactly what I need. Although I have a primer that I love, I still haven’t found a brand of interior paint that both works great and is as eco-friendly as I want. If you’ve got suggestions for some good brands for me to check out, leave them in the Comments below! [I bought this primer with my own money and received no compensation from Zinsser for this post.]
