The Non-Toxic Nursery

By: Alexandra Zissu and Deirdre Dolan

Average 4.5 out of 5

While putting together The Complete Organic Pregnancy, Alexandra Zissu and Deirdre Dolan thoughtfully spoke with Julie Torres Moskovitz, an architect in New York City who focuses on green design. Her insight into the details of design sheds light on everything one should think about when greening their nursery.

As I prepare construction on my eighteen-month-old son’s room in our loft in an old factory building, I contemplate what level of eco-friendly and organic to aim for. My son confronts all types of toxic materials every day in our neighborhood. We live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in a mixed-use zone where industry is side by side with residential living, so we are probably exposed to more hazardous chemicals in our air than the average suburban dweller. Sometimes I contemplate moving out of the city, escaping to a cleaner environment. However, I do not allow myself to fi xate on this daydream because in the end I know that unsafe materials are found everywhere and there is no use trying to run away. Instead, I’ve decided to embrace the choice we’ve made to stay here and raise a child.

There are positives to being in an old factory building; aside from the high ceilings and great views, our space is drafty, which to me indicates that we have an air exchange. This assures me that we are not living in a “sick air” building.

I begin my journey into creating a room for my precious baby boy just as I created a safe haven for him in my womb. My choice in materials and paints for my son’s room has evolved and expanded over time. I know this from the research that I have collected for my architecture practice, Fabrica 718, which specializes in sustainable design.

Thanks to the demands of forward-looking clients, I’ve found many environmentally friendly products in recent years. These products fi t into several categories: those made from recycled materials, those that promote conservation of the environment, and those that provide a safer, cleaner home environment. I’ve researched many ecomaterials in an effort to determine which category they fall into, and to figure out whether it’s truly a “green” material or if a company is just profi teering from the new eco-friendly trend. My clients are often drawn to wood materials like OSB (oriented strand board) and a derivative product called COR, which are good in terms of the greater environment because they use upward of 70 percent of a tree versus solid wood products that use only 40 percent. But they are made with toxic glues and therefore emit VOCs. There are also companies that use recycled plastic, but add to it a resin. This creates a new, unrecyclable material. Once these plastic resin materials havelived their useful life, they will be sent to the landfi ll and there they will never degrade and return to the earth.

On top of deciphering product literature to determine if something is actually a “green” material, there’s the obstacle of finding a contractor who is willing to use it. I have faced resistance from contractors who automatically want to charge a higher price for eco-friendly materials because of the extra effort they predict they will need to spend to find and work with something that varies from the standard. I always do the background research on availability and pricing so that I am prepared to help the contractor.

Calling ahead of time to determine the correct distributor to order from is critical, because otherwise your project can be held up waiting for these specialty materials. I’ve also discovered that a lot of environmental products are frequently discontinued or distributors suddenly stop carrying them. Although “green” design has grown in popularity, business can be slow. For example, I was planning on using Dow’s Woodstalk, a compressed wheatgrass for the bed frame for my son’s bed. I have used Woodstalk on many projects. A four-by-eight-foot sheet, three-quarter-inch-thick, costs less than an average piece of three-quarter-inch thick plywood. However, I recently learned that Woodstalk has just been discontinued. Fortunately, I have found several similar products on the market.

In choosing where to locate my son’s room within our open loft space, I decided that encompassing a large window was a good idea. Although babies need dark spaces to take naps in during the day, the value of good ventilation outweighs the need for darkness. For his furniture, I will use several products that I have used in other architecture projects. I recently designed a bar in New York City’s East Village, where the client insisted on using a compressed wheatgrass board for the bar and seating areas. This material has held up very well with high traffic and use. Primeboard premium wheatboard is now the most readily available alternative to Dow’s Woodstalk. I will either leave this wheatgrass board in its natural color, using only a water-based sealer, or choose a nontoxic, semi-gloss paint finish for it. Safecoat and Best Paint offer beautiful, rich color options. For a clear, satin sealer I’ll buy AFM Natural’s Safecoat Polyureseal. Titebond has a line of safe, water-based wood glue I will use to construct the furniture.

For building my son’s bed frame and bookshelving, I am planning on using a compressed wood board that has no formaldehyde: Medite II by SierraPine. I will stain it with one of the eight Safecoat DuroStains available by AFM Naturals. His mattress will be organic and I may opt for the twin size (39"W × 75"L) so that it will last longer than the smaller toddler size (28"W × 52"L).

For painting the walls of his room, I have several safe options that come in a wide range of colors. I’ll use the eggshell finish by AFM Safe Coat or possibly the more muted colors offered by Milk Paint. In the past I have used Benjamin Moore’s Eco Spec paint, which comes in hundreds of colors and is more readily available than these paints. However, Benjamin Moore does not offer the saturated colors in its Eco Spec line. Adding fun colors to a child’s bedroom walls is an easy and cost-effective way to distinguish it and make it feel like his or her own, unique place. My architecture partner took this idea one step further by painting an abstract, colorful mural on one wall in her daughter’s room.

And I will not carpet the room. Since asthma is a concern for city dwellers, I want to be sure that my son’s room is dust-free, which means avoiding wall-to-wall carpeting. To keep things cozy, we may have a small area rug of natural grass or a biodegradable, nontoxic one by manufacturers such as Earthweave Carpet Mills, Inc. or Colin Campbell & Sons.

Being eco-friendly should never feel like you are compromising aesthetically. New ideas can develop from the limitations of green product availability. Details such as differently sized niches built into the walls of the room can offer many options for storing toys and books in interesting ways. This is a simple detail to add to your child’s room that doesn’t involve introducing toxic or harmful materials to his or her room. The best architectural feature in my son’s room won’t be organic or eco-friendly but special just the same: a small access way into our bedroom so that he can feel free to come and jump in bed with us.

Alexandra Zissu is a writer and editor who has worked at T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Details, and Lifetime magazine. She has also written for Vogue, Organic Style, and Health magazines, among others. Deirdre Dolan is a journalist whose writing has appeared in Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, and others. She has written columns for the New York Observer and The National Post, and is the author of Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Book. Together, they are the authors of The Complete Organic Pregnancy .