Mumsnet users share their child’s messiest moments with Farrow & Ball

[LucyBMumsnet]

This sponsored discussion is now closed

We may have gradually adapted to spending more time at home this year, but that doesn’t mean it’s been easy. With children around, more time indoors can often mean more opportunity for mess-making, whether over-adventurous colouring, teatime catastrophes, or grubby mitts. Farrow & Ball’s durable Modern Emulsion paint is washable and wipeable, so to celebrate all eventualities, they would like to hear the story of the biggest mess your child has ever made.

Here’s what Farrow & Ball has to say: “Our homes have become office, crèche, and schoolroom as well as space for your family. Couple that with the fact that most of us have been looking at the same walls for months on end, noticing every mark, or wanting to introduce a change, and you have a great opportunity for a fresh lick of paint.

Modern Emulsion is a great choice for any space because it’s washable, wipeable, and tough enough to withstand those everyday scuffs and scrapes from things like scooters and shoes. It’s also eco-friendly, child-safe, and available in any Farrow & Ball colour you choose.”

What has been your child’s messiest moment? Do you have a budding Picasso who simply can’t resist the allure of a blank wall? Perhaps your children weren’t even the culprits: are your four-legged friends responsible for muddy marks and wet splodges along the wall? How do you tackle the clean-up?

No matter what kind of creative punishments your home has been subject to, we’d like to hear your stories. All who share on the thread below will be entered into a prize draw. The winner of the prize draw will receive a £100 voucher for a store of their choice (from a list), a virtual Farrow & Ball colour consultancy, and 10L of Modern Emulsion paint in a colour of their choice. Two runners-up will each win 5L of Modern Emulsion paint in a colour of their choice.

Thanks, and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

[Zirmbach]

My niece & nephew have bunk beds, they discovered that the coving is polystyrene and started stabbing pens and pencils into it, then just picking it off the ceiling. Joy.

[willitbetonight]

I have three boys very close in age. I went into their bedroom one day to find that they had set up their nerf guns as an at home paint-balling party. Nerf bullets were dipped in one of three colours (red, green and blue if you are interested) before being loaded into the nerf gun. Each child had a colour. Luckily most of the paint was all over my at the time three year old who took a hammering from his older siblings but my lovely muted walls were also sporting a polka dot look......

[BristolMum96]

Took toddler out for muddy and messy walk. Got home and parked up the buggy in my hallway - too close to the wall. Said toddler was strapped in and happily rubbing her filthy wellies up and down the cream wall

[Martinisarebetterdirty]

Halloween - daughter’s face was painted with a black cobweb. Burst in to tears through over tiredness and wiped it off all over my fabric cream sofa.

[tywysoges]

Sudocrem. Everywhere. 🙈

[CynthiaRothrock]

My daughter loved to draw pictures so we went through tons of paper, a friend of mine kindly gave us some white board sheet, that clings to the wall with static, it can be wiped clean, no wasting so much paper etc.
How wrong could I be? We put it up on dds wall and she could scribble away for hours,that was until she realised she could peel it off when she ran out of space. She peeled it off and continued to draw on her wall. I only noiticed when she called that the "page" wouldn't come off the wall... She was trying to peel the wallpaper off at this point 🤷‍♀️

[MrsFrTedCrilly]

My biggest child related mess is pretty much my own fault.. my son absolutely loved the angry birds game and I decided it was an excellent idea to build it out of cake so he could play the game in real life then eat the cakes afterwards with his friends for his fifth birthday...
There’s nothing like a group of excitable 5 year olds on a sugar rush chucking cake about Green food colouring is surprisingly difficult to wash off walls...
I may have been the biggest child in the room

[Asuwere]

After I'd (stupidly) moved the colouring box into her room, DD spent the evening drawing pictures all over her wall. She must have realised that she'd done the wrong thing as she did write "I love mum" underneath it in an attempt to make up for it! :)

[ErinSophia]

My 5 year old daughter managed to tip a full tin of paint over her baby sister's Moses basket, thankfully my baby daughter wasn't in the basket at the time. I could have cried when I saw the mess.

[Zirmbach]

@willitbetonight

I have three boys very close in age. I went into their bedroom one day to find that they had set up their nerf guns as an at home paint-balling party. Nerf bullets were dipped in one of three colours (red, green and blue if you are interested) before being loaded into the nerf gun. Each child had a colour. Luckily most of the paint was all over my at the time three year old who took a hammering from his older siblings but my lovely muted walls were also sporting a polka dot look......

Loving the attempt at DIY paintballing!

[deflationexasperation]

I was upstairs, folding washing and I could hear footsteps running up and down the living room, kitchen diner.
I knew someone had a little project on. I never imaged that project was, taking tomato ketchup sachets, one by one from a bowl in the kitchen, then running to the living room and opening them and splurging them onto a window seat, hiding the mess with a cushion then running back for more 😂🏃‍♂️. It was a rented property too.

[deflationexasperation]

• she was 3

[RJandEMmum]

There has been years of destruction here from spilled drinks to marker pens all over walls and furniture. My son got hold of some paint and managed to decorate the bedroom with brown splashes while I was in the bathroom. My daughter has since added to the "decorating" ten fold over the years. Peeling off wallpaper at random, leaving her name and hearts drawn in marker all over the place and claiming "it wasnt me..." well its your name.. experimental hole poking in walls with pens... and more recently slime has been a big hit... on the ceiling, in the carpet, on the wall... safe to say.. it ain't coming off... I just do circuits of the house patching up...

[DrDiva]

My then 3yo DS, who was speech-delayed, was caught drawing on the walls with pink felt pen by his childminder. She crept up behind him then said in a loud voice, “just what do you think you are doing?!”
Unmoved, DS went on drawing, and said over his shoulder in his clearest ever voice, “drawing on the walls - what did you think I was doing?”

[dadshere]

DD 'helped' dh decorate her bedroom. Right after he had painted the walls she coloured them in and drew fairies, unicorns and our dog all over the walls. She was very pleased with the results.

[fourmonthstogo]

A lockdown day involving too much juggling work and childcare led to discovery of my five year old decorating her walls with very intricate drawings that explained the suspiciously long period of quiet. She was devastated when I scrubbed it off.

[theAntsareMyFriends]

We've had the classic turning on the blender without the lid on from my son who was unfortunately making a blackberry smooth. It went all over him and then he decided to wander round the kitchen touching everything while I was trying to wipe down the walls.

[PashleyB]

Playing with black powder paint as a toddler. It got absolutely everywhere and was ingrained into the clothes she was wearing, her teddy and of course the walls. That involved repainting as scrubbing the paint on the wall only took some off. Never again!

[AllTheCakes]

Working from home during lockdown whilst trying to entertain my toddler. I had to take a last minute call from my boss and my toddler managed to get in to the kitchen cupboards and pull out the baking supplies. He had a great time throwing flour and sugar around the room whilst I wasn’t looking! No one told him there was a national shortage at the time...

[seafoodudon]

When my eldest was about five she graffittied the toilet wall. In ink, and in carefully crafted child's writing she wrote her dad's first name. When confronted she totally straight-faced insisted it was her dad who did it. Well, it was his name on the wall!

[MumC2141]

Drawing on the walls, getting hold of the ink pad for stamps and then putting hand prints on the wall. Just after it had been painted because my much younger nephew had done the same.

[CoffeeAndABook]

My cat when we first had her decided to hide in the chimney breast. The soot was literally everywhere when she came down and darted around the room.

[wellingtonsandwaffles]

My son experimented with a Blender and various kitchen items to quite a messy and destructive end!

[OrSomeSortOfWokAtTheVeryLeast]

My daughter came downstairs (aged 3) crying that her nose was bleeding, she had her hand covering her face, she then removed her hand to look at it, completely freaking out that it was covered in blood, so decided to run while rubbing her hand across the wall to try and get it off. The blood was everywhere. We had just moved in and the walls had just been painted. I wanted to cry with her!

[KoalaandRabbit]

When my DS was around 5 we used to find handprints going up the wall to our upstairs bathroom. One day we also found a smiley face drawn on the wall. We said who did that and DS replied I didn't do that, it was my hand that did it.