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Brands · answered by Fini

Is there a cheaper alternative to Little Greene Tea with Florence?

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Quick answer

The closest cheaper match is Crown Button Box at ΔE 3, followed by Dulux Teal Voyage at ΔE 3.5. Both land in the same teal-green territory and cost noticeably less per tin than Little Greene.

Tea with Florence is one of Little Greene's most loved colours — that soft, dusky teal-green that reads almost grey in low light and comes alive when the sun hits it. If you want the look for less, there are a couple of honest options.

The best of the bunch is Crown Button Box at ΔE 3, with an LRV of 20.1 — near-identical brightness to the original. ΔE 3 isn't a flawless match (under 1 is imperceptible, under 2.5 is very close), so you'll see a whisker of difference side by side, but on a finished wall nobody would ever clock it. Crown's Trade emulsion is solid, covers well and is a fraction of the Little Greene price.

Next is Dulux Teal Voyage at ΔE 3.5, LRV 20. Same brightness as Button Box, a touch further from the original tonally. Dulux is everywhere, easy to get colour-matched, and their Diamond Matt is genuinely tough if it's going somewhere that takes knocks.

I'd steer you away from COAT Adulting here — at ΔE 5.1 and LRV 16.2 it's a meaningfully darker, more saturated take. Lovely colour in its own right, but it's not really a dupe for Tea with Florence, so don't buy it expecting a match.

The honest caveat: nothing matches Little Greene's pigment depth exactly. Tea with Florence has that complex, slightly chalky drama that comes from generous pigment loading, and cheaper paints tend to flatten out a bit in flat light. If the room is north-facing or dim, that difference is more likely to show.

My advice — buy a tester of Crown Button Box first, paint two coats on a big bit of lining paper, and move it round the room across the day. If you're happy with it in your actual light, you've saved a good chunk of money. If it falls flat, that's your sign the original was worth it after all.

Colours from the answer

LRV 18.2
Little Greene
Tea with Florence
LRV 20
Dulux
Teal Voyage
LRV 20.1
Crown
Button Box
LRV 16.2
COAT
Adulting

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