Comparison

Mylands or Little Greene?

Two family-owned English houses, two richly pigmented water-based paints — and two ways of making a matt. Mylands (London, 1884) makes everything in a single manufactory, tints every tin to order and sells its class 1 washable Marble Matt Emulsion at €121.00 for 2.5 L; Little Greene (Manchester, heir to a dye works of 1773) offers two matts — Absolute Matt, very flat but only wipeable, and Intelligent Matt, washable — at around €111–127, with showrooms in France and a wallpaper range. Here is the detail, figures included.

Comparison updated September 2026 · sources at the foot of the page

Two walls painted side by side in deep matts, a blue-grey and an olive green, in morning light — Two matts, two makers: the difference shows in raking light — and under a sponge

The starting point

Two family-owned English houses, one standard of quality

If you are torn between Mylands and Little Greene, you are looking for the same thing: deep colour, a matt surface, a water-based paint that does not smell of solvent, made by a company on a human scale rather than a group. On those points the two houses resemble each other more than any other English brand. Both are family-owned and independent; both formulate in water with a very low VOC content; both claim natural pigments and British manufacturing; both meet the EN 71-3 toy standard for children's rooms.

The differences lie elsewhere: in how each house solves the washable-matt question, in coverage per litre, in the number of colours, in price — and above all in how you buy in France, where Little Greene has showrooms and Mylands an official site. That is what the table below sets side by side.

Side by side

The comparison, point by point

Every line cites the figures published by the two manufacturers (data sheets and official pages); Little Greene prices are those seen at French retailers, the Mylands price is read live from our catalogue.

Criterion	Mylands	Little Greene
Founded	1884, London — by John Myland, "Honest John"	Heir to the Little Greene Dye Works (1773, near Manchester); the present company was revived by the chemist David Mottershead
Ownership	Independent family business, sixth generation of the Myland family	Independent family business, second generation of the Mottershead family
Manufacturing	One manufactory, West Norwood (London); every tin tinted to order	Bases made in a factory in North Wales, tinted and filled in Manchester
Palette	172 signature shades, including the 120 "Colours of London" and the colours of its film sets; bespoke shades possible	Around 200 colours, in historical collections (Colours of England, Green with the National Trust, Stone, Grey, Archive…)
Flagship wall finish	Marble Matt Emulsion — 3% sheen, crushed Carrara marble, breathable	Absolute Matt Emulsion — 1–2% sheen, velvety matt; Intelligent Matt Emulsion — 2%, self-priming multi-surface
Washability of the matt	Washable and scrubbable — class 1 wet-scrub resistance (EN 13300)	Absolute Matt "wipeable with a damp sponge", for low-traffic rooms (per Little Greene); Intelligent Matt washable, class 1
Stated coverage	Up to 15 m²/L (Marble Matt Emulsion); ≈ 12 m²/L for the multi-surface finishes	≈ 14 m²/L (Absolute Matt and Intelligent Matt)
Drying (matt wall paint)	Touch-dry in 1–2 h, recoat after 3–4 h	Absolute Matt: dry in 2–4 h; Intelligent Matt: touch-dry in 30 min, recoat after 1–4 h
Other finishes	Multi-surface Dead Matt (≈ 5%), Eggshell (≈ 15%), Satin, Gloss, Floor Satin, Masonry paint, primers	Intelligent Eggshell (10–15%), Intelligent Satin (30–35%), Intelligent Gloss (87–90%), floor, masonry, traditional oil paints, Distemper, Limewash, Re:mix (recycled paint), primers
Tin sizes	100 ml sample pot, then 1 L, 2.5 L and 5 L depending on the finish	60 ml sample pot, then 1 L, 2.5 L, 5 L and 10 L depending on the finish
Guide price — 2.5 L of matt wall paint	€121.00 incl. VAT — Marble Matt Emulsion, on mylands.fr	Around €111–113 incl. VAT for Absolute Matt, €127 for Intelligent Matt, at French retailers (September 2026)
Samples	100 ml sample pots (≈ 1.5 m²) from €9.50; free physical colour card	60 ml sample pots, around €9.75 at French retailers; colour card
VOCs & safety	Water-based, low VOC, meets the EN 71-3 toy standard	Water-based, "zero added VOCs" (≤ 2 g/L for Absolute Matt), A+ label, meets EN 71-3; 40% recycled ingredients in Absolute Matt (per Little Greene)
Where to buy in France	Online at mylands.fr, the official site — same-day dispatch before 2.30pm, delivery in 2–3 working days, free from €75	Little Greene showrooms in Paris (rue Bonaparte) and Nice, a network of approved stockists, and littlegreene.fr

Little Greene figures are those published by the brand and its retailers on the dates given and may change. Sheen levels are light-reflection reference figures from each manufacturer's data sheets. The Mylands price is read from our catalogue as you view this page.

Two unlabelled dark paint tins open on a workbench, one full of blue-grey, the other of olive green, a wide brush between them — Two matts, one brush: the material is judged out of the tin as much as on the wall

What makes the difference

Where Mylands stands out

One matt that does it all

Little Greene asks you to choose: Absolute Matt for the surface, Intelligent Matt for washability — and fifteen euros or so more per tin. Marble Matt Emulsion does not ask the question: 3% sheen, crushed Carrara marble for depth, and class 1 wet-scrub resistance (EN 13300) for the sponge. One tin, one answer, from the living room to the kitchen.

Class 1 for the price of a wipeable matt

Up to 15 m² per litre against 14 stated by Little Greene, and a 2.5 L tin at €121.00: Marble Matt Emulsion costs the same per square metre as Absolute Matt, which is only wipeable, and around 10% less than Intelligent Matt, Little Greene's washable matt. The real figure to compare is the cost per square metre in two coats — the "Mylands paint prices" page works it out for you, live.

One manufactory, a tin tinted for you

Mylands makes and tints every tin to order in its single manufactory at West Norwood, south London, where the Myland family has produced since 1884 — no outsourced factory, no tinting machine in a shop. That is the guarantee of consistent colour from one tin to the next, and from one batch to the next.

Supplier to the Crown, painter of the studios

Royal Warrant granted by Elizabeth II in 1985 and renewed by Charles III; paint for British film sets since 1928. Two references that demand a colour that reads true under any light — and recipes archived since the beginning.

In all honesty

Where Little Greene keeps the edge

Showrooms in France

Little Greene has been established in France for a long time: a showroom in Paris on rue Bonaparte, another in Nice, a network of approved stockists and a French site. You can see the large hand-painted panels, leave with your tin and get advice in person. Mylands France sells online, with a free colour card and samples delivered to your door — a different model, without the shop window.

Paint and wallpaper together

Little Greene publishes wallpapers — six collections with the National Trust, drawn from the archives of its houses — and matches them to its colours. It also offers traditional finishes that Mylands does not make: Distemper, Limewash, oil paints. If your project mixes painted and papered walls within one range, the advantage is clear.

A visible recycling programme

With Re:mix, its paint made from unsold tins, and an Absolute Matt reformulated in 2025 with 40% recycled ingredients, Little Greene is ahead on the circular-economy front. Mylands claims natural materials — mineral pigments, marble, binders of natural origin — but publishes no equivalent figure.

Deciding

How to choose between the two

Choose Mylands if you want a single deep and washable matt for the whole house without trading surface against upkeep, if coverage and price per square metre matter, or if you like the idea of a London manufactory that tints every tin for you. Choose it too for colour immersion: Multi-Surface Dead Matt dresses walls, woodwork and radiators in one matt.

Choose Little Greene if you want to see and buy in a showroom, if you match paint and wallpaper within the same collection, if you are after a traditional finish — limewash, distemper — or if the recycled-content argument weighs in your decision. In every case, test before you order: a sample pot applied to two walls and watched morning and evening settles it more surely than any comparison. Torn between the three English houses? See Farrow & Ball or Little Greene or Mylands, and all our comparisons.

A colour in mind?

Finding a Little Greene shade at Mylands

We do not publish a table of "equivalents" between the two colour cards: Little Greene's colour names belong to the brand, and two different formulations never give exactly the same result under the same light. What our colour team can do is match a bespoke shade from a painted sample, a fabric or an object — a skill inherited from the film studios.

The simplest method remains to start from the colour family you love — an olive green, a blue-grey, a warm stone — and order two or three Mylands sample pots in that family. The digital colour card and the visualiser help you shortlist; the wall does the rest.

A bedroom with blue-grey matt walls, a pale wooden bed, a linen curtain, morning light — The finished room: blue-grey in morning light

Frequently asked

What we are asked most often

Is Mylands cheaper than Little Greene?

Compare like with like: a 2.5 L tin of Marble Matt Emulsion costs €121.00 incl. VAT on mylands.fr, against around €111–113 for Little Greene's Absolute Matt and €127 for its Intelligent Matt at French retailers (September 2026). With coverage — 15 m²/L against 14 stated — Marble Matt Emulsion costs the same per square metre as Absolute Matt, which is only wipeable, and around 10% less than Intelligent Matt, Little Greene's class 1 washable matt. Trade accounts also have their own price list.

Absolute Matt or Intelligent Matt: which does Marble Matt Emulsion correspond to?

Both at once. Little Greene separates the surface (Absolute Matt, 1–2% sheen, wipeable only) from the resistance (Intelligent Matt, 2%, class 1 washable). Marble Matt Emulsion brings the two together in one tin: 3% sheen — a deep, chalky matt with no visible reflection — and class 1 wet-scrub resistance. You do not have to choose between the bedroom and the hallway.

Is the Mylands matt as flat as Absolute Matt?

Almost: 3% sheen for Marble Matt Emulsion, 1–2% for Absolute Matt. A point apart, the measurement is invisible; what you see is the depth of the colour and the way the surface absorbs raking light — and there the crushed Carrara marble in the Mylands emulsion makes the difference. If you want the extreme of matt at the expense of upkeep, Absolute Matt goes one notch further; if you want a matt you can wash, Mylands is already there.

Can the two brands be mixed on one job?

Yes, provided you keep one brand per surface: a Mylands wall and a Little Greene door live together without difficulty, both being water-based paints. Avoid layering the two on the same surface without a primer, and do not expect an exact colour match between two manufacturers — even under a similar colour name.

Is Mylands paint made in England like Little Greene?

Yes, and in an even more concentrated way. Every Mylands tin is made and tinted to order in the house's single manufactory at West Norwood, south London, where the Myland family has produced since 1884. Little Greene makes its bases in a factory in North Wales and tints them in Manchester, where the company has its headquarters.

Where to buy Mylands in France?

At mylands.fr, the brand's official site in France: order online, same-day dispatch before 2.30pm from our warehouse in Occitanie, delivery in 2–3 working days, free from €75. Our page Where to buy Mylands in France walks through the process, from samples to delivery. Also weighing up Farrow & Ball? We made the same comparison.

Sources

Mylands data: the Our paint, Find your finish and FAQ pages of this site, and the Marble Matt Emulsion product page on this site (3% sheen, ≈ 15 m²/L, class 1). Little Greene data: the "Absolute Matt Emulsion", "Intelligent Matt Emulsion", "Paint finishes", "History & heritage" and "National Trust partnership" pages of littlegreene.com, the Intelligent Matt Emulsion data sheet (class 1 EN 13300, ≤ 1 g/L VOC, A+), the article "Absolute Matt: une nouvelle version encore plus écologique" on littlegreene.fr (29 September 2025) and the "Showrooms" page of littlegreene.fr, consulted September 2026; history and the Mottershead family: Knight Frank, "The Little Greene paint story"; prices in France: papierspeintsdirect.com (Absolute Matt 2.5 L €113, Intelligent Matt 2.5 L €127, sample pot €9.75) and meinewand.com (Absolute Matt 2.5 L €111), September 2026. Little Greene and its colour names are registered trademarks of their owner; Mylands France is not affiliated with Little Greene.