Help with paint Choosing colour

Bring nature indoors

Bringing nature indoors means choosing colours that come from it — earths, stones, leaves, the evening sky — and using them the way nature does: in graded families, with a dark to anchor and a light to breathe. Mylands shades are ground from natural earths and minerals, which keeps them true in daylight. Five palettes: earth tones, neutrals with plants, the sunset, greens in depth, the wall of foliage.

Page updated September 2026 · by the Mylands France colour team

Sitting room with soft olive-green matt walls, deeper green woodwork, large plants in terracotta pots, linen sofa, window light — Stockwell Green No.203 on the walls; the plants do the rest

Understanding

Natural colours are the ones you stop noticing

The wish for nature in the house is a wish for calm: rooms that resemble the outdoors, where nothing shouts. Nature's colours have a property that makes them easy: they are all desaturated and all related. An earth, a stone, a dry leaf, a bark share undertones; they can be layered without arguing, as a landscape does.

Mylands grinds its colours from natural earths and minerals — ochres, umbers, oxides, green earth, Carrara marble — which keeps them close to their origin: a Mylands brown is an earth, not a mix of red and black, and it reacts to light as earth does. That is what keeps these palettes true from morning to evening. See Our paint.

Five palettes

Five ways to bring nature in

1. Earth tones, as a family

A stone neutral on the walls, a warm off-white on the ceiling, and a deep green on the woodwork for contrast: the palette of a country lane. For a restful bedroom, the same with a deeper earth and a warm grey on the doors.

Walls · Temple Bar No.70 Ceiling · St James No.40 Woodwork · Pleasure Gardens Green No.214

2. Neutrals with plants

A warm off-white or a pale taupe on every wall, wood, rattan, terracotta, and plants: the gallery backdrop that leaves the green to the leaves. A mid off-white stands alone; a pale taupe makes a calm study with green accessories.

Walls · Holland Park No.5 Or · Hoxton Grey No.72 A piece of furniture · Chester Square No.199

3. The sunset

For a franker warmth: a powder pink that glows in dappled light, or a soft orange and a golden yellow, with deeper reds and pinks in the accessories. An evening room, a dining room.

Walls · Peach Flesh Pink No.268 End wall · Golden Square No.131 Accent · Huguenot No.49

4. Greens in depth

A pale green above the rail, a deeper green below and on the door: two depths of one green tie the room together like a hedge and its shadow. Or an olive drench, with panelling for texture.

Upper · Hurlingham No.181 Lower & door · Stockwell Green No.203 Olive drench · Sorrel Green No.207

5. The wall of foliage

When nature comes in through a large-leaf wallpaper, on a single wall with tall plants in front: paint the other walls and the ceiling in the paper's lightest green or white, and the lower wall in its deepest green.

Walls & ceiling · Syon Park No.13 Dado · Brompton Road No.205

6. Stone and sky

A mineral variant: a warm stone grey on the walls, a winter-sky blue-grey on the ceiling, pale wood: the cliff and the sky. For a south-facing sitting room you want to freshen without chilling.

Walls · Limestone No.55 Ceiling · Walpole No.42 Woodwork · Egyptian Grey No.154

Hall with warm stone matt walls, off-white arch and ceiling, deep green dado and skirting, wooden console, rush basket — Temple Bar No.70, St James No.40 and Pleasure Gardens Green No.214: the country lane

The pigments

Where natural colours come from

Every Mylands colour family has an origin in the earth or in stone. Knowing it helps in composing: two colours from the same pigment always agree.

Family	The pigment	The Mylands shades
Ochres and yellows	Yellow ochre, raw sienna	Haymarket No.47, Cornhill No.128, Golden Square No.131
Red earths	Iron oxides, burnt sienna	Indian Lake No.288, Huguenot No.49, Crayfish Party BH.19
Browns	Raw and burnt umber	Westmoreland No.160, Millbank No.254, London Brown No.287
Greens	Green earth, chromium oxides	Hurlingham No.181, Stockwell Green No.203, Pleasure Gardens Green No.214
Stones and greys	Crushed Carrara marble, vine black	Limestone No.55, Temple Bar No.70, Egyptian Grey No.154

The exact recipes are the manufactory's; these families are given for composing, not for making. On colour matching: Why a Mylands colour cannot be copied.

To avoid

What rings false

Bright "nature" green. Nature is desaturated; an apple green on four walls is a screen green.
Pure white with earths. It looks blue; a warm off-white stays in the landscape.
Gloss. No natural surface shines like a satin; matt reads as stone and lime.
Plants on a bright green wall. They disappear; a neutral or a greyed green shows them off.
Too many families. An earth, a stone, a leaf: three, not six.

Study with pale taupe matt walls, oak desk, rattan chair, green plants on a shelf, north light — Hoxton Grey No.72 and plants: the neutral that leaves the green to the leaves

Frequently asked questions

Your questions, our answers

Which colour shows plants off best?

A warm neutral — off-white, pale taupe, stone — or a greyed green lighter than the leaves. A bright green or a deep green of the same value as the foliage erases it. Terracotta and rattan make the link.

Do natural colours work in a north-facing room?

The warm ones, yes — ochres, earths, sunset pinks, greens with a hint of yellow. Grey stones and cold greens turn sad there. See How light affects colour.

Are Mylands paints natural?

They are water-based, low in VOCs, made from natural earth and mineral pigments and crushed Carrara marble, and compliant with the EN 71-3 toy standard. See Eco-friendly wall paint and Low-VOC paint.

How do I carry nature outside?

By repeating a colour from the indoor palette on the shutters, the door or the garden furniture: a deep green, an earth. See Using exterior paint colours.