Community comes together to give their street a rainbow-bright makeover

Tash Frootko, 41, is on a mission.

The landlady wants to transform her street into a rainbow-bright paradise – and bring together the community in the process.

Tash owns a number of properties on St Mark Street in Gloucester, and is hoping to turn the street ‘from drab to fab’ by getting the houses’ exteriors painted in gorgeously bright colours.

She has already completed 16 homes and has had 30 neighbours out of 52 on St Mark Street agree to have their homes painted.

This isn’t the first time Tash has dedicated herself to transforming beige and boring properties into a living rainbow – she previously went viral for painting the houses on nearby Nettleton Road.

This previous effort worked a treat, helping neighbours to connect and turning the road into a beauty spot, with tourists flocking to see the colourful houses and snap photos in front of them.

Tash said: ‘After the success of Nettleton Road, I wanted to do the same with another street – bring the whole street back to life with colour.

‘I’m hoping to start a colour revolution in Gloucester. I love colour, and I want other people to be inspired, too.

‘It’s quite typical to see streets where most of the houses are rented, like on St Mark Street, being not that well cared for.

‘But every time you paint a house, the whole street changes. You watch the street evolve.

‘It’s amazing what you can achieve if you dare to be different.’

Tash said the project took ‘months and months’ of planning, and she has hired two painters to complete the work – with 16 houses being completed already.

Each house takes a few days to paint – and eight of the 16 houses has been painted in just the last couple of weeks, since 1 June.

She said: ‘It’s quite tricky to organise, but I’m a very organisational person, I love that part.

‘Sometimes people are a bit standoffish about it. But it does seem to be having a domino effect.

‘No-one wants to dare to be different, but as more houses get painted, it almost seems to give other people the confidence to be a little bit more adventurous.

‘The bolder you go, the more people want to be involved.’

She added: ‘The rainbow colours on the street are hugely significant at the moment, what with everybody painting rainbows to support the NHS.

‘But it’s also been a really good way to take people’s minds off the whole pandemic. I think people are trying to just avoid talking about it now – and this is a good distraction.’

Tash hopes to get the St Mark Street project completed by September – and says she would like to paint more streets around Gloucester.

‘The response to it has been amazing so far. A project like this can really bring the whole community together,’ she said.

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