Interiors | Whitney Page — Healthy Interiors for Historic & New Homes

Working with me starts with one question: what should this be made of?

That question turns up over a kitchen island, in a half-framed addition, in a 1901 parlor where somebody has just pulled four layers of vinyl wallpaper off the plaster. My job is to research the options, weigh them against how you actually live, and hand you a specification you can give to your painter, your builder or your own two hands.

My approach

I don’t arrive with a look. A healthy home can be warm, elegant, historic, modern, quiet or entirely unconventional—the point was never a style. I start with the bones of the house and the habits of the household, then choose finishes that make both look better in ten years than they do on the day the drop cloths come up. Natural materials age; that is the whole argument for them.

I design for the people in the house first, and the weather outside it second. Everything else is detail.

Whitney Page

Before we talk about color I want to know who is in the room. A toddler on the floor and a wool rug are a different conversation than two adults and a dog. Before we specify finishes, I read past the marketing: ingredients, sourcing, performance, maintenance. The recommendation is built around your project, your budget and what your trades can actually install well.

Continued: the consulting

I What to expect

No mystery and no long proposal. Here is the shape of a typical project, from the first email to the last coat.

The first conversation

You tell me what you’re building, renovating or trying to undo. I tell you honestly whether you need an hour of my time or a whole palette—and what it will take.

Walking the house

In person or by video. Light, orientation, moisture, what the walls are made of, what has already been done to them, and how each room gets used on an ordinary Tuesday.

III

The palette

Samples in your hands and in your light, a written specification with products, colors, finishes and suppliers, and the reasoning behind each choice so you can defend it later.

Through the build

Questions answered as they come up—substitutions, sequencing, how to brief a painter on plaster—so decisions get made before they become expensive to unmake.

II What I do — and what I don’t

The role is advisory, and it works best when that line is clear from the first day.

What I do

Research, evaluate and specify materials—paint, plaster, flooring, tile, countertops, cabinetry, insulation, wood finishes, hardware and textiles.
Build a whole-home palette that holds together room to room, old wing to new addition.
Read ingredient lists, technical data and end-of-life so you don’t have to.
Advise on historic finishes and on what an old house can and cannot safely be coated with.
Source samples, and review the ones your builder or designer brings to the table.
Stay available through the project for the questions that come up mid-build.

What I don’t do

Purchase materials, place orders or manage inventory.
Act as your contractor, installer or project manager.
Work from a fixed list of approved products, or push a brand because it’s easy.
Impose my own taste on your house, or make a home look “green” for the sake of it.
Specify a material I can’t explain—what’s in it, where it came from, how it wears.
Chase a trend that will need undoing in five years.

III What I reach for

Three finishes do most of the work in the homes I specify. They are beautiful, they are repairable, and none of them fill a room with plastic.

A hand turning the pages of a natural paint fan deck in soft chalky neutrals

No. I

Plastic-free paint

Most modern paint is liquid plastic—an acrylic film sealed over your walls. I specify mineral, lime, clay and plant-based paints instead: vapor-open, deep in color, touch-up-able, and no off-gassing into the room long after the painter has gone.

Mineral, lime, clay & plant-based

Wide oak plank flooring in raking sunlight, the grain lifted by a natural oil finish

No. II

Oil-finished floors

Hardwax and natural oils soak into the wood rather than sitting on it as a film. The grain stays visible, the floor feels like wood underfoot, and a scratched board can be spot-repaired in an afternoon—no sanding the whole house back to bare.

Repairable, board by board

A softly trowelled lime plaster wall with an arched niche and a weathered patch at the base

No. III

Lime & clay plaster

The oldest wall finish there is, and still the best behaved. Lime and clay buffer humidity, let a wall dry out, take light in a way no flat paint can, and—at the very end—go back into the ground without ceremony.

Breathable, mineral, ancient

IV How to work with me

Every sample in this notebook started as a question on someone’s project. Here is how that usually turns into a room.

No. I

The Single Decision

One material, researched and specified—a paint, a plaster, a floor, a countertop. For the moment you know what room needs help but not which material deserves it.

Fastest way to start

No. II

The Whole-Home Package

A full material palette for a new build or major renovation—natural and historic where it counts, healthy throughout, and guided selections from groundbreak to move-in.

For builders, designers & owners

No. III

The Ongoing Partnership

Standing access to a materials specialist as the project unfolds—questions answered, samples reviewed, decisions made before they become expensive to unmake.

Retainer or by the session

V Letters from clients

Our journey with natural building materials started with Whitney Page. For our home and our business we go to Whitney with problems like this: “How do I not coat this handmade piece of furniture in toxic veneer but still preserve the wood?”

We recently booked a color consultation with her for the build-out of our retail farm store. Whitney guided us through her vast catalogue of natural paints and stains to choose a color and finish for our walls that allowed our products to really stand out. Calling Whitney is an easy decision for us, every time.

Brian and Laura Torma Tekla Farms

Two lime plaster tile samples in raking afternoon light on a floor beside a fir cabinet — Fig. Plaster samples reviewed for a farm store build-out.

When it comes to eco- and health-friendly building, Whitney is a wealth of information, advice, and support. I don’t know what I would do without her.

Consulting client

Whitney has an encyclopedic knowledge of healthy building materials and a deeply rooted commitment to healing the earth through built environments.

Design professional

A healthy home can be warm, elegant, historic or modern. The point isn’t a style—it’s paying attention.

From the consulting notes

A house should be good to live in and good to breathe in.