MEDIA outlets around the world have been contacting a Wellington family after they decorated their red-bricked terraced house in colourful chalks.

Mother-of-two Fern Taylor, who lives with her partner Marco DeFazio in Holyoake Street, said she was bored at home because of the coronavirus lockdown when she got the jumbo chalks out.

Children have been drawing rainbows as a message of hope during the crisis and Fern felt inspired after seeing a Facebook post in which a family had decorated half their house.

Fern intended to do the same and started work with daughters Arabella, four, and Matilda, two, but Marco, A Royal Marine, used a ladder to finish the rest of the house.

The story was picked up by BBC Points West, Heart FM, CBBC Newsround and the Daily Mail, and overseas by news outlets in New York, Berlin, Italy and Canada.

Fern said: “It’s been a crazy few days – I can’t believe how far this has gone! I just find it so funny. I didn’t expect it to go off like this, I was just bored.”

Fern, who works from home making children’s hair accessories, wrote on Facebook: “The amount of people who have stopped and smiled, and asked to take photos, has been so sweet.

“People have slowed down while driving past – we even had an ambulance stop and say they loved it.”