Paint of view

Credit where credit is hue to an as yet unidentified colleague in Nottingham, who has been widely praised on social media after leaving a note offering decorating advice through the letterbox of a customer planning to repaint her front door.

Elizabeth Pocklington, a science teacher from Nottingham, was struggling to choose a colour to replace her black front door and had painted several patches of colour, ranging from cream to green.

Having deduced the owners of the home were torn on their decision, one colleague left a P739 card with the handwritten suggestion: 'Second green up from the bottom of door looks the best,' followed by a smiley face.

Ms Pocklington shared a photo of the note and her multicoloured door on Twitter, writing: 'We were struggling to choose a front door colour...thank you to the postie for helping us out,' followed by rolling on the floor laughing emojis.

Her tweet went viral, notching up more than 3,000 retweets and 81,000 likes - with many people praising the colleague's 'good taste'.

She told the BBC: ‘I asked our post lady about the note and she was so shy about it. I'd ordered the colour about a week and a half ago, but I don't know whether to change it or not now.

‘The response has been awesome on Twitter and Facebook, obviously we've had lockdown and this is a story that has put a smile on people's faces.’

Many people on social media urged Ms Pocklington to take their advice, with one joking: 'You have to pick the one the postie chose or else they will see for all eternity that you didn’t go with their choice and that would be kinda awkward.'

Another branded the unnamed colleague behind the note the 'best postie ever', adding: 'I prefer the darker sage green at the top! Not that it is anyone’s choice other than yours.'

When we shared a photo of the door and note on our Facebook page, captioning the post: 'When you are struggling to choose a colour for your front door... your local postie will help you out!' the post evoked more than 10,000 reactions and 595 comments - with several joking it must have been a female postman - and they were right.

One Facebook user claimed: 'The postie deffo picked the right shade!' while another wrote: 'Haha that's fab! Well they obviously have seen a few doors in their time, I'd do it that colour and leave a big bar of Dairy Milk out for their great advice.'

Ms Pocklington later followed up on her initial tweet, admitting that in the end, she had gone against the colleague's advice and had ordered 'the middle one'. She did, however, admit that the note had 'made her day'.