It wasn’t the most romantic setting – a natural-plaster workshop in Taos, N.M. – but their meeting there in 2003 produced a marriage and an all-natural finishes store for Sheryl Lock and Lars-Erik Hansen.

Handcrafted House opened about six weeks ago at 1323 East Second Ave. in a former photography studio and camera shop.

The store’s stock in trade consists of natural and nontoxic paints, stains, sealers, oils, plasters and wallpaper. They’re continuing the natural-product lines of the Eco Home Center, a store at 11th Street and Main Avenue that closed in the last couple of years.

“We want consumers to know that all-natural finishes aren’t exclusively for adobe or straw-bale houses,” Hansen said. “They’re available for any house.

“Toxic building materials have become the standard. Families with concerns about respiratory problems now have an option.”

Lock is far from sold on Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

“Environmental Protection Agency regulation of toxics in finishes is murky,” Lock said. The EPA allows finishes with 50 grams per liter of volatile organic compounds, or VOC, to be labeled as having zero.

Her research finds that the Mystic brand of paint she sells is a true zero-VOC product.

Lock, who came to Durango in 1994, has been a member of the natural-building community for 10 years, working in straw-bale and adobe construction.

Hansen, a native of Denmark, was a carpenter and plasterer there and a commercial fisherman in Alaska before settling in Durango in 2003 to continue carpentry and all-natural plastering.

“In Denmark, painters refuse to touch toxic finishes,” Hansen said. “You can be fined there for spraying toxic lacquer.”

Hansen said Handcrafted House is a logical extension of his plastering company, Hansen Handcrafted Finishes. The business has taken him to Telluride, Denver, Dallas, Seattle and the Caribbean.

“Handcrafted House is a showroom for my business,” Hansen said.

He also has given workshops in his specialty in Seattle, Taos and Denmark, Hansen said.

In addition to the zero-VOC paint, the store sells clay and lime plaster, lime stucco, soy-based concrete stain and natural sealers, stains and oils, and wallpaper made of all green materials and printed with clean ink.

Hancrafted House also carries concrete sinks and countertops made by Durango-based Counter Kulture that contain 72 percent recycled glass purchased from the Durango recycling center.

Lock and Hansen plan to add natural latex beds and organic pillows, bedding and throw rugs to their showroom. They also plan to offer workshops in natural finishes.

“There is a lot of educating to do,” Hansen said.

Lock said interior finishes without VOCs are ideal for children’s rooms or nurseries, and pregnant women also can benefit, Lock said.

“Natural finishes don’t off-gas like regular paint or synthetic plasters do,” she said.

daler@durango herald.com