A couple embarking on a bit of DIY discovered some helpful advice from the past, as they peeled back the wallpaper in their front room to reveal a note from the houses previous owner.

Charlotte Morrison and her husband Yariden were redecorating their London home when they found a note from an obviously wound-up previous occupant of the house, confirming exactly how much wallpaper theyd need to do the job.

The historical homeowner obviously got that particular equation wrong at the time, hence why they were wound up.

Charlotte shared the hilarious note to Facebook, explaining that the man called Jon had been doing up the room in 1997 but had come up short when it came to buying enough wallpaper.

The prophetic note reads: “If you ever need to wallpaper this room again it will take eight rolls of wallpaper.

“I bought just six rolls at £17 per roll, 5/12/97 and I didnt have enough. (It really p***ed me off).

“Jon. 21/12/97.”

Thanks Jon, thats actually some really helpful advice. Well, provided theyve not already bought the paper to go on the walls.

Charlotte captioned the post: “So decided to strip all the wallpaper layers finally in the front room, come across this. Cheers Jon.”

The image and post quickly went viral, amassing more than 14,000 shares and at least 5,000 comments.

Jon has broadly come out of this pretty favourably – I mean, he was obviously put out by the whole job, but he decided to channel that anger into some helpful advice for the people of the future.

Would that we could all be that considerate in our less-fortunate moments.

Then – and this is the best bit about it – one of Jons relatives came forward to shed some light on the man himself.

Charlotte shared another post that said: “WE FOUND JON!! A relative of Jons contacted me! Described our house and correct address.

“Only Jon hates social media, instead of statuses he writes notes. I let Jons relative know that social media thinks he is a legend.”

Under that post, one person commented: “I love it!!! Ive been there and done that with wallpaper before and it does p*** you off, when you think youve purchased enough – especially if theyve discontinued it and you cannot purchase anymore.”

Another said: “Why couldnt we have had a helpful fella from the 90s, or why couldnt I be good at maths at least?”

So, thanks Jon. Youve inspired a new generation to get off their backsides and work out exactly how much theyll need.

Either that, or hes provided a load of work for a load of painters and decorators.