Hollywood’s Fave Way to Transform Your Home for Under $150

Yahoo Decor Contributors
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Dominic Myland, Managing Director of Mylands of London. Photo: Richard Cannon.

If there’s one thing you shouldn’t skimp on when giving your home a makeover, it’s paint. Think about it this way: cheap paint is cheap for a reason, and most of the time, you end up using three coats to achieve the same coverage as you would with one coat of a premium paint. Not only are you doing more work, but—because you’re using so much more of the cheaper paint— the math sometimes works out so that you’re not even saving that much money.

So which high-end paint brand should you invest in? The most famous is probably Farrow & Ball, but one of the greats (and our favorite) is London-based Mylands. It’s been around for over 130 years, is still family owned, and—despite its use in recent years on the sets of Downton Abbey (like these shades of Amber Gray and Empire Gray)—is still under-the-radar.

It’s not just Downton either. Mylands has been the go-to paint for the TV and movie world for years, supplying the sets of Harry Potter, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary and the James Bond movies.

Lady Mary endorsements aside, what makes this paint worth paying about $148 per gallon? In addition to being the only paint company in Britain to hold the Royal Warrant (a really serious seal of approval, it’s given to tradespeople who supply the Royal Court with products or services), the paint’s consistency is thick and offers fantastic, durable coverage, so less volume is required than with a lesser quality paint. Once on the walls, the coat retains its deep color so you don’t need to worry about fading.

Here’s the clincher: it’s mega hard-wearing. Some paint brands boast of paint being ‘wipeable.’ Meaning, the coat won’t be damaged with a swipe of a towel. With Mylands, though, you can actually SCRUB its paint colors clean without any effect on the finish. So if you’ve got children or pets, we’re guessing we probably don’t have to recommend Mylands twice. It’s the perfect combination of beauty and function…and worth every cent.

Mylands costs around $148 per gallon and is available in the US at McCollum Interiors.