When they looked at the fridge in the store they thought it was just plain red. The fridge happened to be jammed in among quite a few fridges at the time.

After a six week wait they were excited to finally get it home and down the ninety five steps to their house. When they ripped off the packaging they discovered that the sides of the new fridge were black.

There was some contemplation along the lines of 'how did we not realise this' and 'we will learn to love it as we are not taking it back up those steps!' Initially though it did feel kind of ridiculous having a fridge that looks like we are a family of sports mad Cantabrians.

You have to pass the fridge to reach the flight of stairs at the back of the kitchen that allows access to the bedroom above. To help the fridge blend in ‘a little’ Jill decided to paint the stairwell and wooden balustrade black. With Resene Blackboard Paint on the walls, black paint on the ceiling and Resene Black and white wallpaper samples in a collage format on some of the wall space the stairwell has a light-hearted and fun look now.

Passing all this light-heartedness and fun on what was once a dingy and drab stairwell, they also decided the bedroom had to be of a calmer nature. Jill used Resene Hermitage on the bedroom walls and Resene Half Cougar on the wooden furniture, and as the stairwell ceiling was now black and visible from the bedroom, she painted the bedroom ceiling black as well.

Although Jill enjoyed painting the stairwell and bedroom, this was the first time she had attempted wallpapering, using wallpapers from Resene ColorShops. It turned out to be quite an easy process but it did take some time as she had decided to use a collage format.