Despite the fifty or so wet paint signs plastered to the inside of my building, I, for some reason, leaned just a little too close to the wall when swinging back a heavy fire door. Off I went with my day, wandering through the streets of London, only to see stripes of green paint lashed over the back of my brand new waterproof coat when I hung it up after walking through a full gym floor.

The worst thing is, my parents had just gifted me the dark-blue puffer for Christmas after I’d been going to work, dinners and drinks in my Dad’s old rugby coat. But here I was, wishing for my dad’s player layer back, faced with my new present ruined. So, I did what anyone would and left it for hours while getting distracted, before getting to the root of the problem. But then, I combined multiple tried and tested hacks to see if I could reverse the damage.

First came the scraping – I used a credit card to scrape dried paint off for about ten to 15 minutes. After boxing I was really struggling for my life here, but I could start to see progress.

Then came the hot soap and water, an obvious step. However this made me panic more, because even though it got off the excess, I could see white stains left on the dark blue fabric underneath.

Next the magic started to happen. I couldn’t use anything too abrasive because of the waterproof layer, so I drenched two cloths in white wine vinegar, poured some more of the liquid onto the coat itself, and left them to rest on top of the coat for a good 30 minutes.

Then the hack advised scrubbing at it with a nail brush, which I did for about ten minutes, and to my relief the white tinge finally started to disappear. I kept going for a few more minutes, and all in all, I was happy with the results after about an hour’s work.

However, now that my coat is hanging up, the distinct smell of vinegary chips hangs in the air – it seems there is no perfect hack to paint removal if you spill it on a waterproof coat with absorbant feather filling inside. 

Despite a thorough rinse and wash, my coat is definitely kinder on the eyes, but I’m probably best avoided in pubic for the next five to ten working days.