French lawn paint sees success after hot summer

A lawn paint invented by a French entrepreneur and specially formulated for European gardens has soared in popularity after summer heatwaves scorched grass and hedges.

Former investment banker Pierre Joutel decided to launch the product after leaving the Swiss bank where he had worked for 10 years on financial derivatives.

“While I was thinking about what I could do, I remembered that my brothers and I, as teenagers, had to take turns every evening in summer to water the lawn. I once asked why we could not paint it instead, and everyone had laughed.”

Lawn paint – the origins

In fact, painting lawns has been part of life in some dry states of the US for 60 years, and US companies dominate the global markets.

However, Mr Joutel found they did not sell in Europe, mainly because the paints were made from petroleum-derived polymer resins, and so were not approved by authorities.

He hired a chemist to find an alternative and discovered a soya bean-based resin.

“It took 18 months of research but then we were very happy with the product,” Mr Joutel said.

Launching the product

The paint, called Greenéclat, has been sold to professionals and resellers since 2024. When it started gaining traction with gardeners, Mr Joutel also started selling direct from his website.

Ready-mixed paint costs €49.99 for five litres – enough to cover 50m². Concentrated paint, to be diluted with water, costs €89.99 for a litre, which is enough to cover 400m².

“In 2025, growth was slow because it was a wetter summer. However, people already knew a lot more about it thanks to a TV show which featured lawn painting,” Mr Joutel said.

“I had a lot of social media accounts at the time and each time I posted a video there were lots of comments, mainly from people who said I was crazy, but I quickly saw these were mainly people who lived in flats.

“Then after the dry spells this summer we were selling 50 bottles a day online and at least that to the professionals.

“With the watering bans and the cost of water, using our paint is often the best solution.”

How the paint works

The company makes two shades of green – one for lawns and another more suited for hedges, especially thuja and cypress, but also for those attacked by box tree moth caterpillars.

Lawns painted by Greenéclat retain their colour for two to three months, depending on how often they are mowed, while the hedges stay green for four to six months.

The paint is applied using a pressure sprayer, and usually takes at least two hours to dry, although many people leave it longer before walking on it.

“If children play football or rugby on it, they will probably get green marks, in a similar way to ordinary grass stains, but they do wash out,” said Mr Joutel.

“I have had one client who was unhappy because the paint was coming off every time someone walked on it. When we looked into it we found he had used enough paint to cover 400m² on a 40m² patch of grass.”