A mortified mother-of-three has spent years repainting her home after her daughter redecorated their entire house with purple hand prints in the space of just 15 minutes.
Sharon Edman, from Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, was folding laundry in another room in April 2015 when her four-year-old daughter Molly wreaked havoc on the rest of the house.
In just a quarter of an hour the cheeky youngster, now seven, managed to break into a paint tin and leave a trail of deep purple hand prints all over the pristine white walls of the family home – from the kitchen to the bedrooms.
Sharon, 43, has now revealed how she and husband Shane have spent the three years since covering the purple acrylic with white paint because the hand prints still show through.
Three-year-old Molly (now seven) was stained purple for ‘at least a week’ after wreaking havoc on her parents’ house when she broke into a paint pot and left hand prints on the walls
Sharon Edman (right, with daughter Molly) was folding laundry in another room in April 2015 when her four-year-old daughter wreaked havoc on the rest of the house
Sharon, who is also mum to Maddi, 18, and Tommy, three, recalled: ‘It was just Molly, my newborn son Tommy and myself in the house at the time.
‘I’d left her out in the living room while I folded laundry in my bedroom. She was only alone for about 15 minutes and was being very quiet.
‘I was happy that she was being quiet, I just thought she was really well behaved. I should have known she was being naughty. Silence is always dangerous.
‘All of a sudden she came running up to the room and just stood in the doorway covered in purple paint from head to toe. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I was shocked.
‘I asked her what she was doing, and she had the biggest smile on her face and told me she had been painting.
Speaking about the decorating disaster, Sharon recalled: ‘I’d left her out in the living room while I folded laundry in my bedroom. She was only alone for about 15 minutes and was being very quiet’
Recalling the moment she found the hand prints (pictured) Sharon said: ‘All of a sudden she came running up to the room and just stood in the doorway covered in purple paint from head to toe. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I was shocked’
The youngster left a trail of deep purple hand prints all over the pristine white walls of the family home – from the kitchen to the bedrooms
‘I asked her to show me. As I walked out the bedroom, I saw the paint was absolutely everywhere.
‘I was shocked. I wanted to scream and yell at her, but at the same time I wanted to burst out laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of it.
‘But I tried my best to muffle my laughter as I didn’t want to encourage that kind of behaviour.
‘Her little eyes were looking up at me, and I could see she thought she had done a great thing and just wanted to make me happy.
‘She specifically chose purple too because she knew that it is my favourite colour.’
Speaking about the moment she discovered Molly’s mess, her mother said: ‘Her little eyes were looking up at me, and I could see she thought she had done a great thing and just wanted to make me happy’
Decorating disaster: Sharon’s horror continued when she discovered the purple paint wouldn’t budge – even after three hours of vigorous scrubbing
The hand prints are still visible in this picture, with Sharon revealing that her daughter sported an unsightly ‘purple tinge’ for a week afterwards
Sharon continued: ‘We had a very serious discussion about why you don’t colour the walls, and she was banned from using paints for a week.’
Sharon’s horror continued when she discovered the purple paint wouldn’t budge – even after three hours of vigorous scrubbing.
And the walls were not the only thing to be permanently stained, with the swimming instructor revealing that her daughter sported an unsightly ‘purple tinge’ for a week afterwards.
And even now three years since the incident, Sharon says she and her husband are still in the process of repainting their walls with several coats of white paint to try and hide their daughter’s ‘redecorating’.
She said: ‘I’ve had loads of marks on the walls before from pens, crayons and pencils.
Sharon is also mum to Maddi, 18 (far right), and Tommy, three (centre) and says she and her husband are still in the process of repainting their walls with several coats of white paint
Sharon (pictured with her two daughters) said: ‘We had a very serious discussion about why you don’t colour the walls, and she was banned from using paints for a week’
‘Usually Molly would just use poster paint on pieces of paper. She is a very creative child.
‘Somehow she got into the acrylic paint. She must have seen me using it to repaint a table a few days earlier.
‘I didn’t realise it was the acrylic paint until I popped her in the shower and the paint just wasn’t coming off.
‘Her skin was stained purple for at least a week. It was terrible. People thought it was bruising, and it even settled around her eyes which made it worse.
‘I scrubbed the walls for at least three hours the first day to try and get it off.
Speaking about her mischievous daughter, Sharon said: ‘We’ve had to do at least three coats of paint to make it look nice. But we still haven’t done anything to our front lounge wall, so there is still all hand prints in there’
‘The rest of the week, I did it for two hours every day and it finally came off a little bit, but you could still see it was there. My arms were shaking and so sore. It was the best arm workout I’ve ever had.
‘Luckily we have been renovating the house a bit anyway. In the end, we just sanded down the walls and repainted them.
‘We’ve had to do at least three coats of paint to make it look nice. But we still haven’t done anything to our front lounge wall, so there is still all hand prints in there.
‘We plan to repaint it soon, but in the meantime it’s a hilarious reminder of what happened.
‘She still loves to paint, but she knows never to be artistic on the walls ever again.’