My husband was not amused when I said I was going to paint our Electrics meter box and my two teenage boys thought it was an awful idea. To be honest if they weren’t so against it I probably wouldn’t have done it. I decided to paint it nice and bright, they look awful as they are.

What did you do?

The idea was to use the lockdown rainbow image and transfer that to the box, painting strips across the box in various colours.

What you will need:

  • paint, (I used Wilko emulsion tester pots)
  • paint brush
  • masking tape
  • pencil
  • ruler
  • clear varnish

Instructions:

  • Before I painted the box, I had to clean it as it was a disgusting!
  • Measure the box and divide the measurement by the number of colours ( in my case 7).
  • using the ruler, draw a line for each colour
  • Put masking tape along each line,
    • I only painted every other colour block to start with.  I left it overnight to dry and then painted the other colour blocks after putting masking tape over the colours I had painted the day before to stop me making a mess of it.
  • In between colours, I used warm soapy water to clean the paintbrush. 
  • for the frame, leave the paint for a few hours to dry then put masking tape around the wall of the box , opened the door and painted the frame white.
  • Leave it dry for few hours (properly dry)
  • Cover the whole box with clear varnish (hopefully this will weather proof it the new colours).

When applying the varnish I should have put much less on the brush, varnish is much thinner than the paint. Because I used too much varnish on the brush it ran down the box.

Tell us a bit about yourself

I am a mum to 3 , Stephanie 21, Jacob 15, Nicholas 14. Just the two boys at home now, but I run my own business where I help people save and or make an extra income and I LOVE it.

I love helping people and making a difference to people which is why I joined a local support group helping collect shopping, prescriptions etc for vulnerable people during this awful pandemic.

I also took on a temporary role at the local hospital as a PPE safety officer. Basically it is my role to ensure that any Dr or nursing staff going into see a covid patient is fully protected wearing the correct PPE and then when they leave the room I help take it all off and dispose of it correctly.

How are you finding life being housebound?

I initially found lockdown really difficult, I didn’t realise how much time I spent out of the house,  I found I was drinking and eating far too much. I was spending so much time on my phone looking at rubbish and social media or watching the news and found it so depressing, it really got to me.

The boys have coped brilliantly with it and my husband has been at work so he hasn’t really experienced much change. I decided to change my mindset so switched off the tv and limited my phone usage and set my self a target of walking 10,000 steps a day, it made me feel so much better and gave me something a target, something to achieve each day. 

Do you have any tips for other parents?

My advise during lockdown would definitely be “write a list” I write a list everyday of things  I want to get done, I find it really satisfying being able to cross the jobs off after I have completed each one, the kids can even help with them too ( hopefully)!

What is your next project:

I think will be the gas box, although I don’t think I will tell my husband 😊having said that, I think I may opt for a simple grey colour with a stencil pattern on it maybe in white. But it needs to be simple as I am NOT known for my artistic skills or patience.  But also because time is quite precious.