Printed from smellbook.com/smells/new-paint. This printout keeps the entry for New Paint itself: its description, reference card, Connections, questions, evidence, related smells, record details, states, names and citation. It leaves out your own notes, the map, the lists of paths, routes, stories and fragrance directions, and the lists headed “Also linked to” (other entries that share its place or material) and “Linked from”; they are on the page online. The entries this one links to are still printed under Connections and Related smells.
Categories and types group entries for browsing; they are editorial, not evidence. How smells are grouped.
Also known as Fresh Paint · Wet Paint
A fresh renovation smell associated with newly painted surfaces, solvents or low-odor modern coatings.
Setting: manufactured. An editorial word for the kind of place or occasion the smell belongs to, not a smell word.
New paint smells sharp, fresh and slightly harsh, with a sweetish solvent edge that can feel heavy in a closed room. EDITORIAL
Named in the VERIFIED claims about this smell: not a list of what it is made of, and not its cause.
This entry links to
Other entries that link to this one
Links SmellBook records for this entry: where you meet it, molecules and related smells. EDITORIAL links are chosen by SmellBook editors and VERIFIED links come from VERIFIED claims. Nothing here is a ranking, and a molecule is not presented as the cause of the smell.
QUESTIONS ABOUT NEW PAINT
New paint smells sharp, fresh and slightly harsh, with a sweetish solvent edge that can feel heavy in a closed room. Low-odour modern paints are milder, more like a damp, clean plaster. The smell is strongest while surfaces are wet and usually becomes gentler as the room settles. It can be confused with glue or with a newly fitted interior.
It is met in a freshly painted room at home, during renovation, in newly decorated offices, shops and schools, and in new buildings where walls and woodwork have just been finished.
Typical settings: freshly painted room, renovation, new interior.
SmellBook links it to 2 place pages: see them in Connections.
One VERIFIED scientific claim from one published source is recorded for this entry: Emissions in newly painted homes. This claim says only what its source supports, in the scope shown with it.
The scientific study behind this evidence is chemistry or emission work, not a study of how the smell is perceived.
2 molecules are named in this claim; see the evidence for the role the claim gives them. The molecules this claim names were detected or measured in the study. The claim does not say they shape the smell.
New Paint is descriptive only; SmellBook does not encourage intentional inhalation of paint fumes or solvents.
Words that are easy to mix up: Is fresh the same as clean? and Is citrus a kind of fresh?
No historical source or heritage record is linked to this entry yet.
Answers marked EDITORIAL are written by SmellBook editors to describe the experience and add no scientific fact. Answers marked VERIFIED point to claims on published sources, checked against each source's own summary where one was available (each claim's page says how); what each claim supports is in its own text and scope.
Scientific evidence · 1 claim
Emissions in newly painted homes
In dwellings painted during the previous year, total indoor volatile organic compounds were about 100 µg/m³ higher, with significantly raised C8–C11 aliphatic compounds, butanols and TXIB, and formaldehyde rose where wood details had been newly painted.
Air measured in 62 dwellings within an asthma study; it reports emissions from paint, not odour.
How this was found: Emissions or air measured. What a material, product or place releases into the air was measured, usually without assessing odour. Source: primary study; material-emission work.
G. Wieslander, D. Norbäck, E. Björnsson, C. Janson & G. Boman
International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health
DOI 10.1007/s004200050125Each molecule is named by the claim shown after it. These molecules were detected or measured in the study. About molecules in SmellBook
Links chosen by SmellBook editors, not a ranking.
Associations can vary strongly by person, place and culture.
PATHS FROM HERE
Each step is a relationship SmellBook editors recorded in the knowledge graph, named as it is published there. Paths are not ranked or personalised, and they do not mean the smells smell alike.
Each step is a molecule that a VERIFIED claim names for both smells, in whatever role the claims state. Sharing a molecule does not mean two smells smell alike.
MY SMELLBOOK · LOCAL ONLY
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WHERE THIS SMELL APPEARS
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FOR RESEARCHERS AND EDITORS
Identity, revision history, corrections and how to cite New Paint.
CULTURAL: This entry's associations depend on context, language, memory or culture; its description and smell words are editorial. It says nothing about research or historical evidence; evidence for this entry is shown separately: VERIFIED.
A state says how an entry is met, such as wet, aged or roasted. It does not create a new smell, and it adds no scientific fact by itself: states marked EDITORIAL come from the entry's own records, and only those marked VERIFIED are reported by a VERIFIED claim.
How this entry is identified and named, for citing it or matching it with other records.
SmellBook SB-0069 — New Paintsmellbook:smell:new-painthttps://smellbook.com/smells/new-paintSmellBook. (2026). New Paint (revision 5, 2026-10-06). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:new-paint. https://smellbook.com/smells/new-paint@misc{smellbook_new_paint_r5,
author = {{SmellBook}},
title = {New Paint},
year = {2026},
note = {SmellBook Public Atlas, revision 5, 2026-10-06, smellbook:smell:new-paint},
url = {https://smellbook.com/smells/new-paint}
}TY - ENCYC ID - smellbook-new-paint-r5 TI - New Paint AU - SmellBook T2 - SmellBook Public Atlas PY - 2026 DA - 2026/10/06 ET - revision 5 UR - https://smellbook.com/smells/new-paint N1 - SB-0069; smellbook:smell:new-paint; resolver https://smellbook.com/id/smell/new-paint ER -
The citation names revision 5 of 2026-10-06, so a reader can tell exactly which version was cited. Citing records what was read; it does not grant a licence.
New Paint is descriptive only; SmellBook does not encourage intentional inhalation of paint fumes or solvents.
Other entries whose editors linked to New Paint:
Editorial description expanded to answer what it smells like and where you meet it; independently reviewed.
Created 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-06Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the first of three dataset releases of 2026-09-30; changed in the first of two dataset releases of 2026-10-05 (descriptors).
No correction notices published for this entry. Corrections policyEVIDENCE MATTERS
SmellBook separates cultural association, community perception, verified evidence, prediction and experimental relationships rather than presenting them as the same thing. Read the evidence guide ↗ See the evidence coverage report ↗