Bizarre Home Exteriors: Be Thankful These Aren't Your Neighbors

By Brooke Foster (Subscribe to Brooke Foster's posts)
Dec 1st 2009 2:00PM

Categories: Decorating, Color, Famous Homes, Design, etc, Architecture, Cool Homes

You think your neighbor's house is hideous? Well, you may feel a bit better after you click through our gallery of some of the weirdest home exteriors in the world. The owners of these spaces didn't think twice about exerting their strange (and sometimes wildly creative) visions on to their home -- no matter what their neighbors say. Don't miss the "Porcelain House" -- a home built from 400 million porcelain fragments -- or the German building that has city officials demanding it be repainted.

And next time you walk out your front door and roll your eyes at your neighbor's disastrous front yard, you can breathe a sigh of relief. At least their house doesn't look like this...

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Bizarre Home Exteriors

People who live in the nation's capital may be more patriotic than most, but these homeowners in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. wanted everyone to know just how much they love Uncle Sam. The photograph was taken in October 2001, perhaps an ode to national unity felt after 9/11.

Alex Wong, Getty Images

Most of the homes in this Sacramento over-55 community are muted shades of stone, beige or brown. But one homeowner wanted to exert his wild streak by painting his house a bright green. Is it an ode to Kermit the Frog or split pea soup or the Jolly Green Giant? It's unclear, but if you don't live next door, it's pretty cool.

jovino, Flickr

Cheers! At the Farm Pub in Bristol, England, sip your beers outside among ducks and cows and lots of flowers -- painted ones, that is. According to the Farm Pub's website, the "building has been beautifully sprayed by Graffiti artists, the garden area has been returfed, and we have a large covered and heated smoking area on the patio."

Unity., Flickr

Architect Peter Kaschnig thought it would be interesting to paint this Austrian house a vibrant royal blue both inside and out. Doesn't it look like a lego? Maybe that's why, despite its color, this home doesn't bring on the blues. It's pure playfulness.

annia316, Flickr

Located in a gentrifying neighborhood of the nation's capital, this homeowner decided to treat his home's exterior like a painting -- and the more color, the better. Considering this is a very diverse part of the city, I wouldn't be surprised if the colors matched the flag of the occupant's home country. See more pics.

inked78, Flickr

This French-styled house, built by a Chinese collector in November 2008 in Tianjin, China, was constructed using 400 million porcelain fragments, 5,000 ancient vases, 4,000 antique china dishes and bowls, over 20 tons of crystalline rocks and agate and 400 white marble stone carvings. It's open to the public as a museum, and as of November 2008, it was worth over $65 million.

China Photos, Getty Images

Purple is the hot color in decor and fashion right now. Will the craze extend to houses? This San Francisco Victorian looks positively perky in the hue.

Jeremy Brooks, Flickr

Imagine buying a building, renovating it into your dream property, and then the local city board tells you it's "too colorful" and demands you re-paint it. Well, that's what happened to this Bavaria, Germany resident. City officials said that painting the exterior walls like this, even if designed by an artist, was an act of defacement. I wonder if in the U.S. the homeowner could argue that the order somehow violated his freedom of speech -- or expression.

DPA/ZUMA Press

A close-up view of the colors. It is pretty ugly.

DPA/ZUMA Press

There aren't any windows in the front of this Coquitlam, Canada home. Still, it gets plenty of light; the entire back of the home is just windows.

hradcanska, Flickr

Comments (75)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

Annie 12-05-2009 @ 2:23PM

Lighten up--some of these exteriors are delightful. And if you don't want to look at them, then don't.

dingobaby 12-05-2009 @ 2:23PM

I love that people can paint their house any color they want or do whatever with it they want. I am a conservative decor person myself, but I love freedom and love it when my neighbors want to do something outrageous. We should not be so concerned with how our neighbors decorate their exterior, save for maybe if they put pornography on it and you have kids, then I could see censoring them a bit.

BK 12-05-2009 @ 2:34PM

Cool pictures, lame article

Shoshana 12-05-2009 @ 2:42PM

Author has no sense of creativity. I think the blue house and the green house are a little much, but I would love one of the mural homes. Beautiful.

Shelby 12-13-2009 @ 8:49PM

I completely agree! These homes are beatiful! Especially the "One planet, One Chance"

Gyne Ryan 12-05-2009 @ 7:56PM

These don't look like unfortunate exteriors. They're actually all rather well done. And a purple house in San Fran doesn't seem so odd to me. A poorly kept exterior is an unfortunate exterior, and I've seen those. :p

doctorunne7 12-05-2009 @ 2:53PM

Wow, and I thought Germany wasn't ruled by Nazis anymore. I must be really out of touch with current events.

s 12-05-2009 @ 2:53PM

i think these houses are great...what's wrong with a little individuality?...i've never before commented on these things, but this article made me upset

Ally 12-05-2009 @ 2:59PM

I really do not agree with how these houses were portrayed with such negativity. All the houses shown are really creative and interesting. I mean who said that we all have to live in the same exact same type of houses that only vary in size and what shade of neutral colors they are.

Eric 12-05-2009 @ 3:00PM

Burgandy and gold house in DC is Washington Redskins colors.

sandyin29 12-05-2009 @ 6:29PM

I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.

Lori constein 12-05-2009 @ 4:56PM

I think all the houses were done well. would rather look at any of those instead of a crack house or some run down abandoned property. With so many foreclosures and people being kicked out on the street to suddenly find themselves homeless I find the concept of this whole story insane.

julie 12-05-2009 @ 3:32PM

Author is an idiot. Probably head of some home owners association that dictates the color of flowers you are allowed to plant. As stupid as that sounds I did not make it up - thats a real rule in a neighborhood I refused to but a home in. At least these houses are taken care of and freshly painted. The owners took some pride in their homes.

laura 12-05-2009 @ 3:39PM

Purple is not weird at all for a San Francisco Victorian; most are painted bright colors. In the Haight, however, there is a house with a tiger painted on it; that is much more bizarre.

Morgan 12-05-2009 @ 3:57PM

I know right, that house is slightly odd. However when it comes to SF verses other cities its quite normal. I love the Haight district. Its a true American bohemian neighborhood

Margie 12-05-2009 @ 3:45PM

I thought they ALL were just fantastic. If we were all the same how boring would this world be?

sandyin29 12-05-2009 @ 6:31PM

Margie, I'm with you!

oinky jones 12-05-2009 @ 3:50PM

I agree with most of the posts I've read -- people should be allowed to paint their houses however they want, short of depicting violence or pornography. The city I live in is very uptight about decorating and won't even let people get rid of grass lawns in favor of cacti or other drought-friendly plants, even though we're in our second year of water rationing. This is ludicrous. Let's stand up for our rights and exercise some imagination and creativity!

sandyin29 12-05-2009 @ 6:28PM

Good Lord! Where do you live? In many cities, such as here, in Las Vegas, the water district will PAY YOU to kill the grass in favor of "water smart" landscaping.