Neutralize Paint Odor During Your Kitchen Makeover With This Simple Onion Hack - Tasting Table

"This gets a little sciencey, but let's try to cover the basics. When you use fresh paint to brighten up your dark kitchen, it smells strongly because of compounds called aldehydes. Humans are very sensitive to these compounds and can smell even a tiny amount, which is why paint odor is so strong. Onions, when cut, release several compounds. The one that makes us cry is called Syn-propanethial-S-oxide. That compound reacts with aldehydes, effectively muting them for you."

"In real-world experiments, people have had mixed success with using onions for this task. You're dealing with small amounts of invisible, volatile compounds in an open space. If you have a window open, as you should when painting, then airflow can really disrupt how this may work. But to have greater success, you may need to use more than one onion. It would also help to cut up the onion and place the pieces around the room so the thiols spread out more."

Fresh paint emits aldehydes that humans can detect at very low concentrations, causing the strong paint smell. Cut onions release Syn-propanethial-S-oxide, which reacts with aldehydes and can blunt their odor. Onions also emit thiols for over an hour, and those thiols also react with aldehydes. Airflow and ventilation can disperse volatile compounds and reduce the effectiveness of onion-based odor reduction. Using multiple onions, cutting them into pieces and distributing them around the room increases thiol spread and improves results. Practical success has been mixed, and noticeable onion scent indicates sufficient onion compounds are present.

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