If you had to choose but one area in your home to remodel green, and you have kids, without a doubt it should be their room(s). We all want to create the perfectly cute baby’s room, a fun, imaginative place for them to play and sleep. But safety outranks cute for our kids any day. Unknown to most parents, many, if not most of the materials on the market to use in kids' rooms are filled with toxic chemicals hidden in the furnishings with no warning labels. With their developing immune systems kids are even more susceptable to the ill effects of toxins than we adults. Below are some guidelines for many of the materials you may be selecting for their rooms. Just remember, the most important thing you can do when designing and furnishing a nursery or kid's room is to first consider Indoor Air Quality — particularly for newborns — always.

Here's the GreenSage Guide to selecting materials for your child's room(s):

PLANNING:
Plan ahead and remodel early. Get your room designed and finished at least three months before a newborn comes home. Keep it aired out when the weather permits. This gives the room time to offgas. It also eliminates that extra stress for parents during the last stages of pregnancy.

FLOORING:
- No wall to wall carpeting unless its 100% chemical free wool, looped pile carpeting. (One example would be the Bio-floor carpeting found here at GreenSage). Most other carpeting contains a stunning variety of offgassing chemicals such as formadehyde, toluene, benzene, ethyl benzene, styrene, and acetone. Carpeting with cut pile can easily emit tiny particulates of the cut fibers that continually break off. Kids so easily breathe these particulates into their developing lungs. Not so good for preventing allergies or asthma.

Another concern about carpeting is that unless everyone removes their shoes in the house, carpeting collects not just dirt, but outdoor pollutants brought in on those shoes that sink deep into the fibers of the carpeting. Not the place you want to put your baby down to be crawling on, then sticking their fingers in their mouths.

- Hardwood or Bamboo Flooring with an Area Rug (again preferably made of wool without chemicals) is an excellent choice with the best of both worlds for easy cleaning yet soft and warm under foot (or bottom or hands and knees as the case may be). We suggest prefinished flooring for a longer lasting finish. If you select to purchase unfinished flooring, make sure the polyurethane and other finishes are waterbase only and still complete it at least three months before a newborn comes home.

USING PAINT?
Fresh paint on the walls always livens up a room. We prefer "no VOC" paints as a first choice, then low-VOC paints, and finally a latex or acrylic paint where the windows can be open for a week. You can find some great interior paint choices in our Directory of Green Products.

WINDOW TREATMENTS
Use sustainable, chemical-free fabrics for drapes or curtains, preferably machine washable. Although we love organic cotton as a great choice, we do not recommend the color-grown organic cotton as it can fade more easily than dyed fabric. We like hemp/cotton for its washable, sturdy fibers with less wrinkling. If selecting shades, avoid PVC and the "natural" reed or bamboo shades that have smelly toxic finishes applied to them. Maybe instead have a roman shade made from the fabrics mentioned.

FURNITURE
New furniture these days is usually made of particleboard laden with strong glues containing formaldehyde and other chemicals, then lacquered with more toxic chemicals to protect the finishing veneer. It can take months and even years to offgas. We've tried to buy some solid recycled wood furniture pieces, but they smelled so bad from the lacquer finishes, we had to leave the store. If you can find some without the toxic finishes, its a great alternative. Other alternatives might include antiques, solid wood hand-made sustainable furniture, or interesting used or unfinished solid wood pieces that you can finish or paint yourself with non-toxic finishes and paints. You can also look for particleboard pieces that have a “GreenGuard” certification. This certification means that particular piece of furniture has been tested in a laboratory and found to have little or no outgassing VOCs and therefore should be safe.

BEDDING
Babies and kids sleep a lot. Whether crib size or twin for older kids, a wool wrapped organic cotton innerspring mattress would be one of the best investments for your kid's health you'll ever make. Many states require mattresses to be flame retardant. We think that's one of the worst laws on the books. Its not like your baby smokes in bed. Wool is used to wrap around the organic cotton in these mattresses because wool is inherently flame retardant. No chemicals needed. Wool puddle pads and bumpers, organic cotton mattress pads, sheets and blankets are all available in the Nursery section of our online store. Be sure to wash all clothing and cotton bedding products in fragrance-free, biodegradable soap.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to avoid all chemicals in your kids' room(s), but if you use the GreenSage Guides you will avoid most of them and greatly improve the indoor air quality. If you're still concerned, try an air cleaner for the nursery. They come in several adult colors, plus pink and blue.