How can I get the “new bed” smell out of my daughter's bedroom?

Question

I bought one of those princess carriage beds for my daughter. You know, the kind that take seventeen hours and five allen wrenches to put together. Anyway, I get it together and honestly, it's gorgeous. But it smells like... chemical. I don't know if it's the paint or the treatment to the wood or what it is, but it smells distinctly like chemicals. I'm not a big fan of my 3 year old daughter sleeping in that kind of smell.

We've had the windows open for nearly a week now, and it's fine when they're open, but when they're closed it smells right up. I've never seen a piece of furniture emit a chemical smell for this long.

What can I do to make this smell go away?

Answer 1

There's not really much you can do to stop the off gassing of VOC's from that piece of furniture, you just have to wait it out. How long it will take depends on the compounds used and the manufacturing process.

Your concerns are definitely valid, there have been many harmful health effects associated with VOC's.

Most of the time, this process happens relatively fast, though a week isn't all that long. Maybe a couple weeks to a month.

I agree with the commenter that suggested you call the manufacture or distributor. They might have some information on how long this will take.

In the future, you might want to consider furniture that is certified low VOC. GreenGuard is a UL certification common in North America.