The bloke who is helping us put our garden back together after the flood spent a day last week scraping and wire brushing the flaking paint off all the plaster walls.
As layer after layer of paint was removed, I was astonished and faintly ashamed to realise that, over 10 years,
I've painted those walls three different shades of off white, one red, one aubergine, a blue and a jade.
As soon as the shame faded I was off to the paint shop for test pots and the off-white courtyard shortly thereafter resembled a Buddhist prayer flag as I striped on green, taupe, blue, red, lavender and tangerine.
The onset of winter is a great time to paint yourself a feature wall, change the colour around the porch or even update your tired old collection of clay pots with a splash of something gorgeous.
We now look out our French doors on to a serene blue wall decorated with sandstone tiles. The side walls are a mocha shade that he picked. I'd never have chosen it but it looks amazing against the blue, and perfectly matches the trunks of the bangalow palms growing behind it.
Lesson: Don't be afraid of colour. If you don't love it, or you're tired of it after a few months, you can always change it - just not seven times in 10 years.
