Apparently if you live near the water, you run the risk of your spirit becoming a little bit too free. Either that or the beach attracts a lot of people who are absolutely color blind. Houses near the beach tend to not be the mundane “ticky-tacky” of inland suburbia.
This place doesn’t need any balloons tied to the mailbox to announce ‘the party’s here.”
Then there’s this one. Why stop at painting the house when you can paint the accessories too?
Purple and green? It just doesn’t get any beachier.
All these places remind me of when I was a kid in Iowa, and my dad took me to see the “crazy houses.” They were right in the middle of one of those 1950’s communities full of pastel three-bedroom ranches that all looked alike.
Apparently a guy decided to paint his house school bus yellow. His next-door-neighbor, after asking him to tone it down and being flatly rebuffed, chose to fight fire with fushia, and painted his house bright purple.
With the gauntlet thrown, so to speak, the owner of the yellow house lost no time adding huge bubble-gum pink polka dots on his sunny domicile. Not to be outdone, his neighbor painted giant cartoon characters (Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Popeye, and others) on top on the purple background.
Of course word got out, and soon there were lines of cars on the quite street filled with gawkers eager for a glimpse of the “two crazy guys’” houses. Eventually the guys came to their senses and repainted their houses in boring pastel colors. But it sure was fun while it lasted.
1 Comment
March 2, 2009 at 7:24 pm
I don’t know what makes this post better: the awesome pictures of multi-colored dwellings or the Showtime Weed’s reference to “Ticky Tacky” homes in suburbia. Either way, love it!
When I lived in New Orleans, I lived in a place with lots of homes like this. Wild colors, clashing schemes, and all quite fun. It seems the people in the homes reflected the paint. Most of those people were artists, intellectuals or other creatives.
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