How to Get Rid of the Oil Base Paint Smell in a Room That Was Just Painted

Even if your new paint job looks beautiful, it might bring tears to your eyes--real tears. Using oil-based paint can leave an unmistakable smell that persists long after cleanup. Follow a few steps to dissipate the paint odor and leave your room smelling as beautiful and fresh as it looks. These old-fashioned remedies have been used successfully for years by painters and homeowners and use simple, inexpensive, easily renewed ingredients.

Things You'll Need

• Electric fan Small bowls or saucers White vinegar Brown paper bags Charcoal briquettes or charcoal pieces

Instructions

Strategies--Try Them in Order or Together

1. Make sure that your paint is truly dry. A good oil-based painting job, especially with a primer and two coats of paint, takes between 3 and 7 days to dry completely. Paint dries from the surface in, so a coat just dry enough for another to be applied may still need complete drying time, as does the coat on top of that. Poor ventilation during painting adds to the problem, as does painting during very humid weather. So ventilate the painted space thoroughly for 3 to 7 days. Leave all windows open, at least a little. Run an electric fan if windows do not provide a cross-draft.

2. Use white vinegar to dissipate the remaining odor. With the windows still cracked open, set several saucers or small bowls of white vinegar around the room. Add a little fresh vinegar every day for 3 days. This is an old remedy for the historic smoke-filled room, and nobody knows why the vinegar doesn't just add the smell of vinegar to your room, but it doesn't.

3. Absorb remaining odor with charcoal briquettes or pieces of plain wood charcoal. Fill several brown paper grocery bags with 2 to 4 cups of charcoal and set the bags around the room. Charcoal absorbs many odors and is most frequently used to prevent musty odors in turned-off refrigerators, but it works well with removing paint odors, too. Leave charcoal in place as long as you need it, which is usually only a few days or less. If weather remains muggy, refresh the charcoal and wait a bit longer.

Tips & Warnings

• If the paint was applied in humid summer weather, warm damp days may bring back occasional faint odors. Once the heating season begins, this will cease. Hide the bags of charcoal behind furniture if you want to keep them out of sight.

• Do not leave fans on unattended.