“...the threat of color dictatorship.”
March 8, 2019 11:55 AM Subscribe
‘Yelling, Screaming, Almost Fisticuffs’ ...Over House Paint? [The New York Times] “His choices have been uncontroversial — his paintings have sold for more than $1 million each — until last summer, when he went a shade too far on one of his own homes. Mr. Scully, 73, specified Gold Zinger paint (from Valspar) for his turreted house built in the 1980s in Snedens Landing, an enclave in the hamlet of Palisades, N.Y., on the Hudson River’s western shore about 20 miles north of Manhattan. In an oversight, his team did not file for paint color approval permits required by the local government’s Historical Areas Board of Review. At the board’s December meeting, some emotions ran high as the public debated whether Gold Zinger should be allowed to remain on the house.”
There is a yellow house in our neighborhood, with a shade about as shocking as Gold Zinger. There are no restrictions on paint color in our area. We are glad that this is not on our block, and walk by there from time to time in order to have a chuckle.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 12:00 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by Midnight Skulker at 12:00 PM on March 8, 2019
I blame the fact that in America housing isn't just a place to live but is also (or even primarily) an "investment".
posted by sotonohito at 12:02 PM on March 8, 2019 [40 favorites]
posted by sotonohito at 12:02 PM on March 8, 2019 [40 favorites]
Clearly this Gold Zinger does not have the Midas touch.
posted by GuyZero at 12:04 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 12:04 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
Our family "accidentally" painted our house a kind of military/forest green. We didn't test the sample and my parents had this vision of what the outside would look like and by the time we noticed that it wasn't matching what we wanted, the painters we had hired had already painted half of the house and the paint was already purchased anyways. Maybe people are just being nice (we'll never know) but we've received compliments on the colour we picked and a few other houses up the street brightened their homes by choosing non-standard beige like colours and our street is a bit brighter. There's a blue house and a dark violet/purple one.
*shrugs*
posted by Fizz at 12:04 PM on March 8, 2019 [17 favorites]
*shrugs*
posted by Fizz at 12:04 PM on March 8, 2019 [17 favorites]
Many if not most of the houses around here are different colours. Some of them especially dramatic and arguably ill-advised colour choices. It livens things up a lot from the eternal beige! And they don't stand out much when there's more of them.
posted by lookoutbelow at 12:08 PM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by lookoutbelow at 12:08 PM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
I feel like you could paint a turd on the side of your house in this location and the value would still go up.
posted by Brocktoon at 12:09 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by Brocktoon at 12:09 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
At the last annual meeting our HOA (which freely admits that they don't have the money actually to enforce any rules) had a mini-uprising over the proposal to create a list of pre-approved house colors, mostly because people weren't really sure how it would apply to their own current house colors. Throughout the proceedings a long-time resident* kept shouting "NO MORE YELLOW HOUSES." There are only two houses in our neighborhood that are even close to yellow, so this felt like a pointed attack on someone in particular, and I was very surprised that what feels like the least avant-garde house color that's even a little bit unusual aroused such strong feeling.
*If you weren't aware of that before the meeting, she reminded you many many times.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 12:10 PM on March 8, 2019 [10 favorites]
*If you weren't aware of that before the meeting, she reminded you many many times.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 12:10 PM on March 8, 2019 [10 favorites]
Perhaps the photo is not doing it justice, but I don't see what's so offensive about it from the photo.
posted by each day we work at 12:12 PM on March 8, 2019 [92 favorites]
posted by each day we work at 12:12 PM on March 8, 2019 [92 favorites]
We decided to clad our house in navy blue stucco. Between that and its shape it does stick out a bit but at least it makes it easy to give directions.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:12 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:12 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
Convenants and HOA rules like this exist only to get neighbors to sue the shit out of each other for stupid reasons.
There's a house in our neighborhood painted Denver Broncos colors and now I wonder how many places that would invite these kinds of storms.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:13 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
There's a house in our neighborhood painted Denver Broncos colors and now I wonder how many places that would invite these kinds of storms.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:13 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
A house built in the 1980s ... is governed by a Historical Areas Board of Review? I guess the key word is "areas."
Except the Town of Orangetown's Historical Areas Board of Review webpage, which notes that it also "governs the historic areas in Palisades," states
(Clearly, reviewing land use law case history has saturated my brain.)
posted by filthy light thief at 12:13 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
Except the Town of Orangetown's Historical Areas Board of Review webpage, which notes that it also "governs the historic areas in Palisades," states
In the Historic Area, all construction requiring a building permit or any exterior changes to buildings constructed prior to 1918, requires approval from the historic areas board of review. Please be aware that the application process takes approximately 21 days, depending upon the time of submission, to appear before the board.Emphasis mine. So unless there's a local ordinance requiring that all buildings in designated historical areas of Palisades go before the HARB (which is quite possible), this seems like an over-reach.
(Clearly, reviewing land use law case history has saturated my brain.)
posted by filthy light thief at 12:13 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
i was kind of hoping that Gold Zinger was a shiny gold flake paint like you might see on a late-model Camaro, but alas, it is merely a bit loud, not a complete affront to suburban aesthetics
posted by murphy slaw at 12:13 PM on March 8, 2019 [50 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 12:13 PM on March 8, 2019 [50 favorites]
I quite like it, esp. with the copious white trim. I've seen brightly painted houses where the paint job was poor, the trim was neglected, etc., and that looks not so nice, a bit more noticeable than dull colors badly done. I would like for my neighbor's house color to be the worst of my worries.
posted by theora55 at 12:15 PM on March 8, 2019 [14 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 12:15 PM on March 8, 2019 [14 favorites]
There's a house in a neighborhood near us, which is a lovely old colonial that has been painted basically this color (#66ff33) with trim this color (#cc00ff) and every time we walk or drive past it, I just think, "go you, people with incredibly loud taste." It's ugly as hell, but also I kind of like it.
posted by gauche at 12:15 PM on March 8, 2019 [16 favorites]
posted by gauche at 12:15 PM on March 8, 2019 [16 favorites]
And yeah, I thought Gold Zinger was a nice saturated saffron-ish yellow. It's not especially for me but also not an eyesore.
posted by gauche at 12:17 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by gauche at 12:17 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by gauche at 12:15 PM on March 8 [+] [!]
eponysterical
posted by murphy slaw at 12:17 PM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
eponysterical
posted by murphy slaw at 12:17 PM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
This is our green house. The red tiles are being replaced soon and will be slate/grey, but in the interim, our home has a kind of Christmas feel to it.
posted by Fizz at 12:18 PM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 12:18 PM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
I am anti-NIMBY and rules about what you can do with your house in general I could see the point in letting the other houses facing yours to have some kind of say because they're the ones who'd be looking at it. No idea how that would work though. (reminds me of an "Idiot Abroad" episode where Karl Pilkington goes to Petra and he states that he'd rather live in one of the caves facing it because then he gets to look at it every day while the people inside Petra just get to see caves). My neighbours see the outside of my house a lot more than I do. I hope they like navy.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:20 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:20 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
I love Gold Zinger! It's one of my favorite yellows, not least because it is the Only Yellow which looks good with my complexion. I would absolutely paint my house Gold Zinger except that my house has vinyl siding and we couldn't afford it anyway. I am now considering whether any of the rooms we need to paint can be painted this color.
My gut feeling is that older or more "traditional" buildings are the ones that look the best in brights. I can think of a bunch of late 19th century houses nearish to me that are all in brights or saturated colors and they look very charming. Some of them are too fancy for me to even dream of owning, but there is a tiny purple house near me that I covet.
posted by Frowner at 12:21 PM on March 8, 2019 [9 favorites]
My gut feeling is that older or more "traditional" buildings are the ones that look the best in brights. I can think of a bunch of late 19th century houses nearish to me that are all in brights or saturated colors and they look very charming. Some of them are too fancy for me to even dream of owning, but there is a tiny purple house near me that I covet.
posted by Frowner at 12:21 PM on March 8, 2019 [9 favorites]
Family lore says my uncle, upon "making it" in the US, purchased a nice little historic home in small town New England, and was welcomed into the neighborhood with no actual welcoming committee, but a list of shades of white he was permitted to use in painting his home in order to preserve its historic character.
He painted it the most offensive shade of fire engine red he could find. It caused something of a kerfuffle, but the only enforcement was social pressure and my uncle had become fairly accomplished at telling everyone where to shove that.
Apparently, these 60-odd years later, it remains red. Everyone uses it as a landmark because every other street in that town looks identical. The grocery store is 3 blocks past the red house. The post office is a right turn after the red house.
I wouldn't be surprised if new residents of the house are instructed in no uncertain terms that they must keep the house Red in order to maintain its place in the community, but I think my uncle's resting soul would be most pleased should someone come along and start a ruckus by painting it Gold Zinger.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:24 PM on March 8, 2019 [73 favorites]
He painted it the most offensive shade of fire engine red he could find. It caused something of a kerfuffle, but the only enforcement was social pressure and my uncle had become fairly accomplished at telling everyone where to shove that.
Apparently, these 60-odd years later, it remains red. Everyone uses it as a landmark because every other street in that town looks identical. The grocery store is 3 blocks past the red house. The post office is a right turn after the red house.
I wouldn't be surprised if new residents of the house are instructed in no uncertain terms that they must keep the house Red in order to maintain its place in the community, but I think my uncle's resting soul would be most pleased should someone come along and start a ruckus by painting it Gold Zinger.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:24 PM on March 8, 2019 [73 favorites]
That color would fit right in various southwestern cities all the way to southern California. Guy just lives in the wrong place.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:33 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:33 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
Q: Whaddaya call King Midas' jester?
A: The Gold Zinger!
*coughs nervously*
So anyway, many years ago, I went to paint an apartment I'd just moved into. I wanted a light, sunny colour. Fortunately, the woman at the paint store looked closely at the chip I had selected and said "When that goes up on the wall, it's going to be an intense Big Bird yellow. Is that what you're looking for?"
"Uh, not exactly."
I went with something less intense.
That color would fit right in various southwestern cities all the way to southern California. Guy just lives in the wrong place.
This house looks fine to me, quite frankly. It would be also be a nice fit in St. John's. I think houses painted in vibrant colours are kinda nifty.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:33 PM on March 8, 2019 [8 favorites]
A: The Gold Zinger!
*coughs nervously*
So anyway, many years ago, I went to paint an apartment I'd just moved into. I wanted a light, sunny colour. Fortunately, the woman at the paint store looked closely at the chip I had selected and said "When that goes up on the wall, it's going to be an intense Big Bird yellow. Is that what you're looking for?"
"Uh, not exactly."
I went with something less intense.
That color would fit right in various southwestern cities all the way to southern California. Guy just lives in the wrong place.
This house looks fine to me, quite frankly. It would be also be a nice fit in St. John's. I think houses painted in vibrant colours are kinda nifty.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:33 PM on March 8, 2019 [8 favorites]
I want so much to own my own home, yet I also dread being a homeowner. Not just because of the cost of keeping up with maintenance or emergency repairs like when the plumbing goes all fuck-shaped, but because I really, REALLY don't want to deal with people thinking they get to tell me that I can't paint my house a perfectly reasonable color, or convert the lawn to a functional garden, or whatever.
I think Gold Zinger looks great on that house.
posted by palomar at 12:37 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
I think Gold Zinger looks great on that house.
posted by palomar at 12:37 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
It seems pretty harmless to me. While I'm not a fan of regulating paint colors, there are some ugly shades where I'd at least sympathize with the neighbors, but it seems a nice cheery yellow with a complementary trim.
posted by tavella at 12:37 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by tavella at 12:37 PM on March 8, 2019
Obligatory Mitchell and Webb: Avocado bathroom (yup, that's Olivia Coleman)
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:41 PM on March 8, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:41 PM on March 8, 2019 [10 favorites]
So I'm actually trying to buy a house in this neighborhood. Legally the oversight board has no say in this as the house was built after 1918. I'd also point out that there are lots of homes that the HRB has signed off on that are very modern additions or renovations that are in the "tasteful rich person" genre. The Scully house thing is kinda crazy even if you are a fan of the HRB. To start with the home itself is this big post modern riff on another historic house in the neighborhood. Secondly it's not super visible. It's kind of down a side street. Finally the yellow itself just isn't that bad.
The big question in this case was if he would go to court, because it's pretty clear he would have won.
posted by JPD at 12:42 PM on March 8, 2019 [10 favorites]
The big question in this case was if he would go to court, because it's pretty clear he would have won.
posted by JPD at 12:42 PM on March 8, 2019 [10 favorites]
Apparently around here you can get 50% of the cost covered to paint your heritage home its original colours (most of which are FUN): see here and here. Usually not all about the veneration of heritage but if it leads to fun colours I'm all in.
posted by lookoutbelow at 12:43 PM on March 8, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by lookoutbelow at 12:43 PM on March 8, 2019 [10 favorites]
gauche: There's a house in a neighborhood near us, which is a lovely old colonial that has been painted basically this color (#66ff33) with trim this color (#cc00ff)
Is it home to the 1960s Joker?
posted by filthy light thief at 12:45 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
Is it home to the 1960s Joker?
posted by filthy light thief at 12:45 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
Try to imagine a Paris street with bright yellow or pink house.
posted by giokey at 12:47 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by giokey at 12:47 PM on March 8, 2019
Clearly what's needed is a...Zinger snatcher.
all construction requiring a building permit or any exterior changes to buildings constructed prior to 1918, requires approval from the historic areas board of review
(a) Statutory interpretation work could use some sharpening. Approval is required either for construction requiring a building permit or for construction requiring exterior changes to buildings constructed prior to 1918.
(b) Question of what brought the house under the board's jurisdiction can actually be answered by reading the minutes, here (I won't spoil it).
I've never understood why people claim that a big advantage of owning a house is being able to alter it to your tastes when 80% of the time there's a HOA waiting to batter you into conformity anyway. I don't hate the yellow as I expected, but I also look at neighbors' paint choices as just part of the city environment. Plenty of Victorians in, say, Ann Arbor in striking colors. Just adds to the neighborhood character.
posted by praemunire at 12:48 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
all construction requiring a building permit or any exterior changes to buildings constructed prior to 1918, requires approval from the historic areas board of review
(a) Statutory interpretation work could use some sharpening. Approval is required either for construction requiring a building permit or for construction requiring exterior changes to buildings constructed prior to 1918.
(b) Question of what brought the house under the board's jurisdiction can actually be answered by reading the minutes, here (I won't spoil it).
I've never understood why people claim that a big advantage of owning a house is being able to alter it to your tastes when 80% of the time there's a HOA waiting to batter you into conformity anyway. I don't hate the yellow as I expected, but I also look at neighbors' paint choices as just part of the city environment. Plenty of Victorians in, say, Ann Arbor in striking colors. Just adds to the neighborhood character.
posted by praemunire at 12:48 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
As a New Orleans resident, I'd like to point out that purple, green, and gold do in fact go rather well together, especially in icing form.
Here are some color ideas and more color ideas for those poor, boring people.
If those aren't enough, just ask the Google.
posted by "mad dan" eccles at 12:49 PM on March 8, 2019 [8 favorites]
Here are some color ideas and more color ideas for those poor, boring people.
If those aren't enough, just ask the Google.
posted by "mad dan" eccles at 12:49 PM on March 8, 2019 [8 favorites]
Is it home to the 1960s Joker?
It is exactly that color scheme.
posted by gauche at 12:53 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
It is exactly that color scheme.
posted by gauche at 12:53 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
The house I bought last year needs painting, which I'll have done this spring. There is no HOA (I would never), but I have been considering what colors fit into the neighborhood. I'm not sure what I'm going with. I painted my office dark purple and it looks awesome, but the public as a whole is going to see the outside of my house way more than me. [Realistically it's going to be a dark gray leaning a bit toward blue.]
posted by MillMan at 12:54 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by MillMan at 12:54 PM on March 8, 2019
Colors are good and HOAs should be abolished
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:55 PM on March 8, 2019 [28 favorites]
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:55 PM on March 8, 2019 [28 favorites]
There are too many people who can't commit to beige.
I recently builtd a large piece of equipment that's housed in what is essentially a garage complete with door. We had to commit to a major design colour which would define the look of both the facility and the equipment, which is the size of a large truck. After a brief discussion with my staff, we landed on RAL 5017 otherwise known as "Traffic Blue". I understand that it's the blue used on information signs at the sides of roads, but it looks amazing on the door, metal trim and equipment. The contractors used a canary yellow as an accent colour and I have to say it looks amazingly striking, while still complying with our safety SOPs for ladder and handrail visibility.
Many of these things, big science equipment pieces, are simply gray or some anonymous jumble of browns and beige cases. I'm really glad, just on a personal level that we've got a new thing that most people who see it agree looks pretty nice. It tickles a place inside me every time I see it.
posted by bonehead at 12:56 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
I recently builtd a large piece of equipment that's housed in what is essentially a garage complete with door. We had to commit to a major design colour which would define the look of both the facility and the equipment, which is the size of a large truck. After a brief discussion with my staff, we landed on RAL 5017 otherwise known as "Traffic Blue". I understand that it's the blue used on information signs at the sides of roads, but it looks amazing on the door, metal trim and equipment. The contractors used a canary yellow as an accent colour and I have to say it looks amazingly striking, while still complying with our safety SOPs for ladder and handrail visibility.
Many of these things, big science equipment pieces, are simply gray or some anonymous jumble of browns and beige cases. I'm really glad, just on a personal level that we've got a new thing that most people who see it agree looks pretty nice. It tickles a place inside me every time I see it.
posted by bonehead at 12:56 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
Years ago in Fremont CA, there was what appeared to be an old farm house with a barn and other out buildings. I think they were white. Then suddenly all the buildings were now this really bright torquiose color. My theory is that the owner needed to paint everything, didn’t have a lot of money, went to the paint store, and got a whole load of paint that somebody else didn’t want. Economics trumps aesthetics.
posted by njohnson23 at 12:59 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by njohnson23 at 12:59 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
I strongly dislike HOAs, especially in areas where it's nigh on impossible to buy a home without one. But mostly that's because those things are gross examples of trying to have it both ways -- to have the local authority of a government but not the limits placed on governments.
The HABR is, presumably, a full-on no-shit government. Required to abide by constitutional guarantees, required to provide equal protection. Democratically established, democratically maintained, and capable of being democratically abolished. Even beyond just not moving to a historic district, he has lots of remedies here. Getting himself and like-minded people elected to the board. Getting himself and like-minded people elected to the town's legislature to abolish or alter the historic district. If he has a case that he was treated worse than others because of his race or religion or whatever, filing suit along those lines.
While regulating house colors seems silly to me, lots of regulations in lots of places would seem silly to me. Honestly, this reads more as "Rich white guy surprised to be limited by a law" more than anything else.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 1:00 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
The HABR is, presumably, a full-on no-shit government. Required to abide by constitutional guarantees, required to provide equal protection. Democratically established, democratically maintained, and capable of being democratically abolished. Even beyond just not moving to a historic district, he has lots of remedies here. Getting himself and like-minded people elected to the board. Getting himself and like-minded people elected to the town's legislature to abolish or alter the historic district. If he has a case that he was treated worse than others because of his race or religion or whatever, filing suit along those lines.
While regulating house colors seems silly to me, lots of regulations in lots of places would seem silly to me. Honestly, this reads more as "Rich white guy surprised to be limited by a law" more than anything else.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 1:00 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
It might be that the only thing I miss about my old house is the purple (Rock Star was the exact color name) with red trim, but then again, definitely a non-HOA sort of neighborhood, where for years there was a house with a giant sun painted on the front.
And that yellow seems really nice and cheery, unless the photo is wildly unrepresentative.
posted by epersonae at 1:00 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
And that yellow seems really nice and cheery, unless the photo is wildly unrepresentative.
posted by epersonae at 1:00 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
The Faroe Islands are pretty snazzy too.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:01 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:01 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
I love it! And I think it will look fantastic when the grass is green and the leaves are on the trees. The world needs more colour. It always makes me a little sad when I'm out (especially in the grey of winter) and all you see is white/grey/black cars and dull buildings. When we visited Dingle & Burano one of my favourite things was the bright and colourful storefronts/some houses; iirc, in Dingle at least, I think it was started to promote tourism. I'd love to see that in more places; it makes me happy anyway.
posted by Laura in Canada at 1:01 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Laura in Canada at 1:01 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm reminded of a few apartment buildings in Berkeley that were painted colors that kinda hurt. I quite liked them.
There's a house on my walk to campus in Cambridge that was painted a pretty serious deep magenta about a year ago. Looks fantastic.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 1:12 PM on March 8, 2019
There's a house on my walk to campus in Cambridge that was painted a pretty serious deep magenta about a year ago. Looks fantastic.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 1:12 PM on March 8, 2019
I looooove that yellow. I think it looks fantastic.
This is reminding me a bit of Sandra Cisneros's purple house. Which I also loved.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:15 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
This is reminding me a bit of Sandra Cisneros's purple house. Which I also loved.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:15 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
Wasn't there an article on the Blue recently about how historical houses were much more colourful than we've preferred to reimagine them?
posted by clawsoon at 1:16 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by clawsoon at 1:16 PM on March 8, 2019
That yellow is not far off actual yellow ochre, which is as unassailably historical a pigment as one can get.
posted by clew at 1:21 PM on March 8, 2019 [12 favorites]
posted by clew at 1:21 PM on March 8, 2019 [12 favorites]
There's quite a few historic Victorian houses in my rural Minnesota town that are decked out in bright colors and wild trim accents. It looks nice and brings a needed pop of color during the white months
posted by Ferreous at 1:23 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Ferreous at 1:23 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
A new too-large house was recently built in our very rural area. The siding is the color of sweated mushrooms.
I would much prefer Gold Zinger.
posted by slipthought at 1:24 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
I would much prefer Gold Zinger.
posted by slipthought at 1:24 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
There's a house on 7th St in Ann Arbor that is exactly the color of a Crayola Crayon box. I love that house so much! It's just an ordinary cape cod, small and unexciting, but the yellow makes the whole block look nicer.
Mr Elizilla and I painted our house forest green and grape purple, with cream trim. It's unusual but we love it that way. Maybe people are just being nice but we get nothing but complements. Though our builder was clearly distressed; he thought it would have looked better in gray.
The garage door didn't have to be painted and we left it gray for a few months but in the end we painted it the same purple. It's fabulous.
posted by elizilla at 1:26 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
Mr Elizilla and I painted our house forest green and grape purple, with cream trim. It's unusual but we love it that way. Maybe people are just being nice but we get nothing but complements. Though our builder was clearly distressed; he thought it would have looked better in gray.
The garage door didn't have to be painted and we left it gray for a few months but in the end we painted it the same purple. It's fabulous.
posted by elizilla at 1:26 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
Jellybean Row: The Colour of St. John's
I really love visiting Newfoundland just to see the city of St. John's again. Jellybean row is really pretty, but all of the historical town looks like this.
posted by bonehead at 1:29 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I really love visiting Newfoundland just to see the city of St. John's again. Jellybean row is really pretty, but all of the historical town looks like this.
posted by bonehead at 1:29 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
Why is it the minute I saw the word "fisticuffs" I knew it would be white people?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 1:32 PM on March 8, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 1:32 PM on March 8, 2019 [11 favorites]
I don't see anything wrong with the color and even if I did I think the people who think that they are entitled to dictate house colors on other peoples houses are jerks. My friends painted their house red and some neighbor came by to excoriate them for ruining the neighborhood, ruining their house value or some such. I dearly wish I had been there because I would have loved to tell them off.
For some reason the preferred color in new house building hear in the PNW Portland area where it is dreary for several months is a depression enhancing shade of mud taupe. I would literally rather have anything but it or its sister shade of blech gray. Metallic green? FINE I WELCOME YOU.
posted by Pembquist at 1:37 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
For some reason the preferred color in new house building hear in the PNW Portland area where it is dreary for several months is a depression enhancing shade of mud taupe. I would literally rather have anything but it or its sister shade of blech gray. Metallic green? FINE I WELCOME YOU.
posted by Pembquist at 1:37 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
Fizz! My house is just the same color! When people are coming who've never been there before I always say "it's the big green house that looms ominously over the rest of the street, you can't miss it" and people pretty much invariably agree that is a great description of our house. It was grey-green when we got it and when we repainted a couple summers ago we were like "let's make it a little GREENER."
I think the yellow is perfect for this house. Stories like this make me think my color perception is really different from most people's.
posted by potrzebie at 1:47 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
I think the yellow is perfect for this house. Stories like this make me think my color perception is really different from most people's.
posted by potrzebie at 1:47 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
praemunire: "all construction requiring a building permit or any exterior changes to buildings constructed prior to 1918, requires approval from the historic areas board of review
(a) Statutory interpretation work could use some sharpening. Approval is required either for construction requiring a building permit or for construction requiring exterior changes to buildings constructed prior to 1918. "
I have to say, that is a reading of the statute that is particularly favorable to the HRB. I see in the minutes that they read the statute this way as well.
I am not a lawyer, but on first glance I had read the statute as referring only to pre-1918 buildings, i.e. "Approval is required for all construction on pre-1918 buildings requiring either a building permit or any exterior change."
posted by crazy with stars at 1:57 PM on March 8, 2019
(a) Statutory interpretation work could use some sharpening. Approval is required either for construction requiring a building permit or for construction requiring exterior changes to buildings constructed prior to 1918. "
I have to say, that is a reading of the statute that is particularly favorable to the HRB. I see in the minutes that they read the statute this way as well.
I am not a lawyer, but on first glance I had read the statute as referring only to pre-1918 buildings, i.e. "Approval is required for all construction on pre-1918 buildings requiring either a building permit or any exterior change."
posted by crazy with stars at 1:57 PM on March 8, 2019
I did my house in radioactive yellow a few months ago. Jetliners can use it to line up their approach to the local airport. At night. It's goddamn awesome.
Fortunately I live in a heavily Mayan area so all I get are compliments.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 1:58 PM on March 8, 2019 [8 favorites]
Fortunately I live in a heavily Mayan area so all I get are compliments.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 1:58 PM on March 8, 2019 [8 favorites]
I would like to send everyone involved in this dispute a copy of The Big Orange Splot.
posted by huimangm at 2:10 PM on March 8, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by huimangm at 2:10 PM on March 8, 2019 [6 favorites]
Mr. Rashid lamented widespread fear of brightly colored buildings. When we see unexpected shades, he said, “That’s when we feel alive.”When some people feel alive, they get angry.
posted by clawsoon at 2:14 PM on March 8, 2019 [8 favorites]
Or maybe it's the other way around.
posted by clawsoon at 2:19 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by clawsoon at 2:19 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
huimangm: I would like to send everyone involved in this dispute a copy of The Big Orange Splot.
posted by clawsoon at 2:24 PM on March 8, 2019 [10 favorites]
Discussion Questions:That escalated quickly.
Why do you think Mr. Plumbean painted his house the way he did?
Was he right to paint his house in a way different from his neighbors, when part of the community agreement was that they would keep their houses looking the same?
Did Mr. Plumbean have the right to paint his house however he liked?
What if he painted words expressing his hate for an ethnic group? Would that be okay? At what point does his right to make an independent choice give way to his obligations to his neighbors?
posted by clawsoon at 2:24 PM on March 8, 2019 [10 favorites]
On a similar note in our neck of the woods...
posted by jim in austin at 2:25 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by jim in austin at 2:25 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
On a similar note in our neck of the woods...
posted by clawsoon at 2:28 PM on March 8, 2019 [12 favorites]
Neighbors who have a problem with Rodriguez's pink house only have one remedy — filing a lawsuit.Remedy #2: Ask the Lord to help them accept the things they cannot change and give them the wisdom to know the difference.
posted by clawsoon at 2:28 PM on March 8, 2019 [12 favorites]
My parents live in a condo development where there are three very subtly different shades of beige that the houses are painted. There are also a few choices of color for doors and shutters.
It is nightmarish.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:29 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
It is nightmarish.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:29 PM on March 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
I think that house looks fantastic. I was expecting something absolutely garish, but imo the color really suits the house and the setting.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:43 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:43 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
clawsoon, sorry, I just chose a site at random that wasn't the Amazon link! I do love the book.
posted by huimangm at 3:02 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by huimangm at 3:02 PM on March 8, 2019
I kind of like the discussion questions! I mean, there are points where I would truly empathize with the neighbors -- if next door painted their house red and black and hung Nazi flags, it would be both kind of scary on a personal level and make it very difficult to move since your home value would likely tank. I'm just not sure there's any graceful legal way under US law to differentiate between that and "I don't like your purple house".
posted by tavella at 3:18 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by tavella at 3:18 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
My house was built in 1906 and no one can remember it ever being any color besides lemon yellow. It's a neighborhood landmark, and is even visible in a painting down at City Hall. After a few years here, I noticed the side that got the afternoon sun was fading out, and we repainted. I explicitly wanted the original color restored, and even had some of the previous owner's paint saved for touch-ups. Instead, the paint crew matched the color of the sun faded side and painted the whole house a lighter shade. I hope I stay around enough to paint it again, and go back to the brighter yellow.
posted by Miss Cellania at 3:33 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Miss Cellania at 3:33 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I guess that's what you get for building a neighborhood at the top of a slippery slope.
posted by GuyZero at 3:36 PM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 3:36 PM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
Someone I know in Columbus (Ohio) told me about some neighbors who got paint from a government surplus sale, painted their house....... and then found out the paint was reflective. Think road stripes.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 3:47 PM on March 8, 2019 [22 favorites]
posted by bitter-girl.com at 3:47 PM on March 8, 2019 [22 favorites]
There's quite a few historic Victorian houses in my rural Minnesota town that are decked out in bright colors and wild trim accents. It looks nice and brings a needed pop of color during the white months
Totally! My first reaction when seeing the picture was that it wasn't too far off (perhaps a bit more vivid) than my own Minnesota hometown's historic Burwell House, which is quite charming IMO.
posted by Expecto Cilantro at 3:47 PM on March 8, 2019
Totally! My first reaction when seeing the picture was that it wasn't too far off (perhaps a bit more vivid) than my own Minnesota hometown's historic Burwell House, which is quite charming IMO.
posted by Expecto Cilantro at 3:47 PM on March 8, 2019
If you can’t live with your neighbors’ color choices, I respectfully suggest you move out of the city.
I’m massively offended by all those beige, grey and turd-colored real estate flips in my neighborhood but do I make a big fuss about it? No, as is the agreed-upon way of city living, I just silently judge my prudish petty bourgeois neighbors while I walk by their value-preserving eyesores, tut-tutting to myself. Fucking asphalt. Who paints their house asphalt? It’s like you’re saying ‘excuse me, I’m not even here’, but you just paid 20k over asking. It’s passive aggressiveness in paint form.
But do I complain? Reader, I would never.
posted by The Toad at 3:50 PM on March 8, 2019 [15 favorites]
I’m massively offended by all those beige, grey and turd-colored real estate flips in my neighborhood but do I make a big fuss about it? No, as is the agreed-upon way of city living, I just silently judge my prudish petty bourgeois neighbors while I walk by their value-preserving eyesores, tut-tutting to myself. Fucking asphalt. Who paints their house asphalt? It’s like you’re saying ‘excuse me, I’m not even here’, but you just paid 20k over asking. It’s passive aggressiveness in paint form.
But do I complain? Reader, I would never.
posted by The Toad at 3:50 PM on March 8, 2019 [15 favorites]
No apologies necessary, huimangm! I thought it was the perfect illustration for this post: A cute story about someone painting their house a quirky colour spirals out of control.
posted by clawsoon at 3:51 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by clawsoon at 3:51 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
Years ago in Fremont CA, there was what appeared to be an old farm house with a barn and other out buildings. I think they were white. Then suddenly all the buildings were now this really bright torquiose color. My theory is that the owner needed to paint everything, didn’t have a lot of money, went to the paint store, and got a whole load of paint that somebody else didn’t want. Economics trumps aesthetics.
This is also why the traditional color for barns is red! Early barns were painted with a red color derived from ochre, which was abundant and gets its color from the fact that a main ingredient is iron oxide, or rust. Easy to find, easy to make paint for your barn. Why iron oxide is so common in our soil, of course, involves the physics of dying stars
posted by vibratory manner of working at 5:05 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
This is also why the traditional color for barns is red! Early barns were painted with a red color derived from ochre, which was abundant and gets its color from the fact that a main ingredient is iron oxide, or rust. Easy to find, easy to make paint for your barn. Why iron oxide is so common in our soil, of course, involves the physics of dying stars
posted by vibratory manner of working at 5:05 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
That’s almost the exact shade of my own house! Painted by the previous owners, who also painted the breeze locks out the back in primary colours.
We thought we’d repaint the house the moment we bought it, but realised - it’s a quality paint job, so why not wait for it to actually need repainting, and it’s easy for friends to find. “Which house is yours?” “Oh, it’s the yellow house!” We’ve made it a bit more aesthetically pleasing when we painted the bottom half (cladding) a deep navy rather than the white it had come with.
Grown to love it, and when we remodel the kitchen I’m using a lighter lemon-yellow as a homage to the gold house once it goes.
posted by chronic sublime at 5:10 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
We thought we’d repaint the house the moment we bought it, but realised - it’s a quality paint job, so why not wait for it to actually need repainting, and it’s easy for friends to find. “Which house is yours?” “Oh, it’s the yellow house!” We’ve made it a bit more aesthetically pleasing when we painted the bottom half (cladding) a deep navy rather than the white it had come with.
Grown to love it, and when we remodel the kitchen I’m using a lighter lemon-yellow as a homage to the gold house once it goes.
posted by chronic sublime at 5:10 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I work in this neighborhood. Guess I know where Monday's post-lunch walk will take me!
posted by plastic_animals at 5:31 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by plastic_animals at 5:31 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
on first glance I had read the statute as referring only to pre-1918 buildings, i.e. "Approval is required for all construction on pre-1918 buildings requiring either a building permit or any exterior change."
You don't require a building permit "to a building," so there's no grammatically correct way to make "constructed prior to" modify the first branch. This is why lawyers have to read everything fifty times.
What actually seems to have happened, at least based on the minutes, is (okay, spoilers) the house incorporated some modest part of a pre-1918 house and thus it was determined that the requirement applied to the "new" structure as well.
Cambridge definitely has some nicely colorful Victorians, too.
posted by praemunire at 5:48 PM on March 8, 2019
You don't require a building permit "to a building," so there's no grammatically correct way to make "constructed prior to" modify the first branch. This is why lawyers have to read everything fifty times.
What actually seems to have happened, at least based on the minutes, is (okay, spoilers) the house incorporated some modest part of a pre-1918 house and thus it was determined that the requirement applied to the "new" structure as well.
Cambridge definitely has some nicely colorful Victorians, too.
posted by praemunire at 5:48 PM on March 8, 2019
That not-especially-bright yellow looks lovely with the white trim! Historically, houses were often painted in the brightest colours people could afford and get hold of - my area is more in historic interiors than exteriors, but I do know that bright pinks, greens and yellows made by mixing whitewash with different earth pigments have been popular since the 18th century and the Victorians went a bit mad when cheap synthetic pigments like Prussian Blue became available.
The whole daft dispute with his neigbours reminds me of this woman who painted her house in bright red and white candy stripes in a very posh part of London.
posted by Fuchsoid at 6:02 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
The whole daft dispute with his neigbours reminds me of this woman who painted her house in bright red and white candy stripes in a very posh part of London.
posted by Fuchsoid at 6:02 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
> Perhaps the photo is not doing it justice, but I don't see what's so offensive about it from the photo.
The photo in the article is the house after repainting it to less saturated "Semolina." The only taste we get of Gold Zinger is the swatch.
posted by ASCII Costanza head at 7:30 PM on March 8, 2019
The photo in the article is the house after repainting it to less saturated "Semolina." The only taste we get of Gold Zinger is the swatch.
posted by ASCII Costanza head at 7:30 PM on March 8, 2019
One of the things I love about the PNW is there's hardly any goddamn beige houses. Many of Seattle's neighborhoods are practically a riot of color. One of my favorite streets in the Central District has a number of dark purple houses, as well as lemon yellows and lime greens.
It's definitely a good old cheery Scandanavian "fuck you" to everything being gray all the time, but it also looks good with all the green trees and moss. Beiges, browns and greens would just vanish in our landscapes.
In some neighborhoods I'd bet you'd get shunned if you went with a beige-on-beige HOA friendly house.
Granted, I don't hang out in Bellvue or Madrona.
posted by loquacious at 7:58 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
It's definitely a good old cheery Scandanavian "fuck you" to everything being gray all the time, but it also looks good with all the green trees and moss. Beiges, browns and greens would just vanish in our landscapes.
In some neighborhoods I'd bet you'd get shunned if you went with a beige-on-beige HOA friendly house.
Granted, I don't hang out in Bellvue or Madrona.
posted by loquacious at 7:58 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
There was a house in my old neighborhood painted three garish, clashing colors. We called it "Mistint Manor" because it looked like it was done with those cans of paint that got put in the discount bin because the color didn't come out quite right.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:34 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:34 PM on March 8, 2019
Know what would be awesome? Not describing places people live as "nightmarish" or other hyperbolic bullshit because you don't like their aesthetic choices.
(I live in a glorious blue house, but 80% of my neighbors chose one of three beige options. It's not what I would choose, but it doesn't make my neighborhood a dystopian hellscape. Freaking out over beige is as morally indefensible as freaking out over Gold Zinger)
posted by tocts at 8:39 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
(I live in a glorious blue house, but 80% of my neighbors chose one of three beige options. It's not what I would choose, but it doesn't make my neighborhood a dystopian hellscape. Freaking out over beige is as morally indefensible as freaking out over Gold Zinger)
posted by tocts at 8:39 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
From the description - "turreted house", "gold zinger" - I was expecting some kind of Trumpian monstrosity.
But it's a tasteful house with pleasant shapes and a completely appropriate balance of colours. WTF, HOA?
posted by flabdablet at 8:42 PM on March 8, 2019
But it's a tasteful house with pleasant shapes and a completely appropriate balance of colours. WTF, HOA?
posted by flabdablet at 8:42 PM on March 8, 2019
Freaking out over beige is as morally indefensible as freaking out over Gold Zinger.
Ok, we're going to take a field trip to Irvine, CA.
You're going to need to drop this acid when we get there.
posted by loquacious at 8:54 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
Ok, we're going to take a field trip to Irvine, CA.
You're going to need to drop this acid when we get there.
posted by loquacious at 8:54 PM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
I lived in a small Maine town with a guy who painted our house a very light peach-pink with crimson trim.
He asked the neighbors -- a long-married couple, both in their 70s, umpteenth-generation Maine natives -- what they thought. Moments went by, then the verdict: "It's ... different."
Which, for small-town umpteenth-generation Mainers, is really throwing down. Though in a way that made clear that they didn't hold our outre tastes against us. And they loved that we planted our garden in the side yard (not the backyard, like everyone else) because that was the area that got the best sun.
posted by virago at 9:18 PM on March 8, 2019
He asked the neighbors -- a long-married couple, both in their 70s, umpteenth-generation Maine natives -- what they thought. Moments went by, then the verdict: "It's ... different."
Which, for small-town umpteenth-generation Mainers, is really throwing down. Though in a way that made clear that they didn't hold our outre tastes against us. And they loved that we planted our garden in the side yard (not the backyard, like everyone else) because that was the area that got the best sun.
posted by virago at 9:18 PM on March 8, 2019
Last summer we got our house painted dark teal and it is the best. It was a really horrifying shade of peach before that, and kind of two-tone because the paint above the porch roof had faded to a much paler/yellower tone. Our neighbours looked so relieved when we had it done!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 3:39 AM on March 9, 2019
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 3:39 AM on March 9, 2019
Now I want to paint my shed purple. Possibly with a bright green trim. I want it to look like the ticket booth to a particularly dodgy side show or circus, or perhaps even the little forest cottage of a quirky reclusive witch that definitely eats children and maybe also adults.
posted by loquacious at 4:39 AM on March 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by loquacious at 4:39 AM on March 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
Remember the 50s: little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky, little boxes all the same, there's a pink one and a green one and a blue one and a yellow one ....
Except that these days it's: there's a beige one and a beige one and a beige one and a beige one ....
posted by mbo at 5:19 AM on March 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
Except that these days it's: there's a beige one and a beige one and a beige one and a beige one ....
posted by mbo at 5:19 AM on March 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
Know what would be awesome? Not describing places people live as "nightmarish" or other hyperbolic bullshit because you don't like their aesthetic choices.
Respectfully, I can describe the featureless clip art condos any way I please. The disturbing part isn't the beige, it is the uniformity and lack of choice. To ascribe aesthetic intent to any of the houses on behalf of their occupants is to miss the point entirely, as all of the choices offered by the developers were essentially the same. Now there is a condo board made up of petty tyrants who enforce those limitations - not because they only like beige, but because they like power. Furthermore, I have been there more times than I can count and I am every time mildly unsure which house is theirs. It is an almost dreamlike feeling of unease which, when coupled with the trope of cookie cutter suburban homes in the horror genre, can accurately be described as "nightmarish."
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:34 AM on March 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
Respectfully, I can describe the featureless clip art condos any way I please. The disturbing part isn't the beige, it is the uniformity and lack of choice. To ascribe aesthetic intent to any of the houses on behalf of their occupants is to miss the point entirely, as all of the choices offered by the developers were essentially the same. Now there is a condo board made up of petty tyrants who enforce those limitations - not because they only like beige, but because they like power. Furthermore, I have been there more times than I can count and I am every time mildly unsure which house is theirs. It is an almost dreamlike feeling of unease which, when coupled with the trope of cookie cutter suburban homes in the horror genre, can accurately be described as "nightmarish."
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:34 AM on March 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
As someone who has painted two house exteriors in bright shades of yellow, I salute Mr. Scully!
posted by Sublimity at 7:01 AM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Sublimity at 7:01 AM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
I really like houses painted in interesting colors and color combinations (whether vivid or muted), and especially neighborhoods where lots of houses have been painted this way. I am typing this in a beige building in a beige neighborhood; aesthetically it is horrible.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:13 AM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Dip Flash at 9:13 AM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
Apparently around here you can get 50% of the cost covered to paint your heritage home its original colours
Oh man do I wish they had this around here, because the earliest photos I can find of the house I live in have it painted absolutely the most appalling shade of pink that you can imagine.
(OK, I went and dug them up: this shade of pink)
My house is very old. A hundred years ago, this neighborhood was thoroughly working class and rough around the edges, because they up and built the freight railroad line across the street from my house and all of a sudden there was coal smoke billowing past the abutting houses at all hours. I'd love to meet the man who saw the conditions of the neighborhood and the house and thought "Yup, this thing should definitely be cotton-candy pink."
posted by Mayor West at 10:42 AM on March 9, 2019
Oh man do I wish they had this around here, because the earliest photos I can find of the house I live in have it painted absolutely the most appalling shade of pink that you can imagine.
(OK, I went and dug them up: this shade of pink)
My house is very old. A hundred years ago, this neighborhood was thoroughly working class and rough around the edges, because they up and built the freight railroad line across the street from my house and all of a sudden there was coal smoke billowing past the abutting houses at all hours. I'd love to meet the man who saw the conditions of the neighborhood and the house and thought "Yup, this thing should definitely be cotton-candy pink."
posted by Mayor West at 10:42 AM on March 9, 2019
The disturbing part isn't the beige, it is the uniformity and lack of choice.
Except that you're imagining the lack of choice.
I live in precisely the kind of neighborhood you're describing. The builders offered blues, greens, yellows, grays, and 3 different beiges (red, orange, and purple were admittedly not on the list). Of ~150 houses mine is one of two blue. There are I think 2 or 3 yellow, 2 or 3 gray, etc. 80% are one of the beiges, completely at the choice of those who paid to have the house built (these were all ordered, none built by the developer on spec).
News flash: many people don't have your aesthetic taste, but that doesn't mean they were forced into what they have.
posted by tocts at 11:27 AM on March 9, 2019
Except that you're imagining the lack of choice.
I live in precisely the kind of neighborhood you're describing. The builders offered blues, greens, yellows, grays, and 3 different beiges (red, orange, and purple were admittedly not on the list). Of ~150 houses mine is one of two blue. There are I think 2 or 3 yellow, 2 or 3 gray, etc. 80% are one of the beiges, completely at the choice of those who paid to have the house built (these were all ordered, none built by the developer on spec).
News flash: many people don't have your aesthetic taste, but that doesn't mean they were forced into what they have.
posted by tocts at 11:27 AM on March 9, 2019
When I was a kid a house down the road has some exterior work done and the owners painted the exterior a perfect 18% gray.
I would walk past and wonder what color they would eventually put over the primer.
Took me three years to realize they wouldn't paint over it, and haven't now. It's still the most perfect neutral grey. It's almost oppressive how flat it is.
I think the Gold Zinger is a nice autumnal hue.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:48 AM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
I would walk past and wonder what color they would eventually put over the primer.
Took me three years to realize they wouldn't paint over it, and haven't now. It's still the most perfect neutral grey. It's almost oppressive how flat it is.
I think the Gold Zinger is a nice autumnal hue.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:48 AM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
News flash: many people don't have your aesthetic taste, but that doesn't mean they were forced into what they have.
News flash: you don't live in my parent's condo development and have no idea what their choices were and were not. I do, because they told me. The houses are all the same exact base with optional extra floors etc, literally chosen from a catalog, except for the units that were unoccupied upon completion, which the developers built according to what I'm guessing was perceived market demand. Even the appliances and counters were chosen from a very limited selection. Very much like ordering fast food.
So good on you for defending the beige houses of your neighbors! I'm sure they are world weary from being so put upon by the tastes of people such as myself and are grateful for your efforts on their behalf. I don't GAF what color their houses are or even hate beige, but having a rando mansplain to me from a position of total ignorance how I am wrong about facts regarding my life and the lives of my family? That, dude, I just cannot abide.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:22 PM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
News flash: you don't live in my parent's condo development and have no idea what their choices were and were not. I do, because they told me. The houses are all the same exact base with optional extra floors etc, literally chosen from a catalog, except for the units that were unoccupied upon completion, which the developers built according to what I'm guessing was perceived market demand. Even the appliances and counters were chosen from a very limited selection. Very much like ordering fast food.
So good on you for defending the beige houses of your neighbors! I'm sure they are world weary from being so put upon by the tastes of people such as myself and are grateful for your efforts on their behalf. I don't GAF what color their houses are or even hate beige, but having a rando mansplain to me from a position of total ignorance how I am wrong about facts regarding my life and the lives of my family? That, dude, I just cannot abide.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:22 PM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
Part of the annoyance at the beige is that many people don't choose it for aesthetic reasons at all. They choose it because they are afraid anything else will affect resale value, or because the neighbors force it (through an HOA or municipal ordinances), or because they are afraid that if they choose something else it won't work. If they love beige, more power to them. But do they really love it? Or do they just feel they don't have any other choice?
Incidentally, where I live now, NextDoor is filled with people periodically bitching about neighbors with colorful houses but it often seems to be a proxy complaint since the neighbors in question are often Hispanic. In other words, it might not be the colors that really bug these particular neighbors. :/
Last year a city councilperson proposed a limit to how many colors you could paint your house. Arty geeks like me swarmed the next council meeting to get that one shot down. There are few things that offend me more than someone else telling me how I can paint my house. (But my neighbors have nothing to fear. My house has aluminum siding. Otherwise it might be purple already.)
Down the street from me was a house that was lime green with a pink front door. I loved it. It has a fabulous mid-century modern exterior and the colors just worked on that house though they wouldn't on most. But neighbors bitched and bitched. Recently the house was repainted a dull grey. I have to say I don't think that's an improvement. "If you lived across the street you'd like it," say the neighbors. No, no I wouldn't. I like a little color in my environment. Beige houses, beige cars, beige kitchens... that's hell, to me. (My kitchen is turquoise and red, including a red fridge.)
posted by litlnemo at 1:06 PM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
Incidentally, where I live now, NextDoor is filled with people periodically bitching about neighbors with colorful houses but it often seems to be a proxy complaint since the neighbors in question are often Hispanic. In other words, it might not be the colors that really bug these particular neighbors. :/
Last year a city councilperson proposed a limit to how many colors you could paint your house. Arty geeks like me swarmed the next council meeting to get that one shot down. There are few things that offend me more than someone else telling me how I can paint my house. (But my neighbors have nothing to fear. My house has aluminum siding. Otherwise it might be purple already.)
Down the street from me was a house that was lime green with a pink front door. I loved it. It has a fabulous mid-century modern exterior and the colors just worked on that house though they wouldn't on most. But neighbors bitched and bitched. Recently the house was repainted a dull grey. I have to say I don't think that's an improvement. "If you lived across the street you'd like it," say the neighbors. No, no I wouldn't. I like a little color in my environment. Beige houses, beige cars, beige kitchens... that's hell, to me. (My kitchen is turquoise and red, including a red fridge.)
posted by litlnemo at 1:06 PM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
Love to stroll the streets of Cape May.
https://www.pinterest.com/lorrainelehman1/painted-ladies-of-cape-may-nj/
posted by notreally at 4:37 PM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
https://www.pinterest.com/lorrainelehman1/painted-ladies-of-cape-may-nj/
posted by notreally at 4:37 PM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
seems to be a proxy complaint since the neighbors in question are often Hispanic
On the local nextdoor there was a long thread about the supposedly offensive new colors of a gas station remodel which, quote, ‚make us look like San Pablo‘ (a working class neighborhood which is mainly latino).
I conclude that paint color is the equivalent of spice in the beige WASP real estate world, only to be tolerated in miniscule quantities, maybe a light touch of peach...but please don‘t bring out the hot sauce or there will be actual tears among the mayflower contingent
posted by The Toad at 5:14 PM on March 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
On the local nextdoor there was a long thread about the supposedly offensive new colors of a gas station remodel which, quote, ‚make us look like San Pablo‘ (a working class neighborhood which is mainly latino).
I conclude that paint color is the equivalent of spice in the beige WASP real estate world, only to be tolerated in miniscule quantities, maybe a light touch of peach...but please don‘t bring out the hot sauce or there will be actual tears among the mayflower contingent
posted by The Toad at 5:14 PM on March 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
Oh man now I want a bright yellow house.
posted by Mchelly at 6:54 PM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 6:54 PM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
One of the better things about living in the Avenues in SF is the color schemes, including this awesome Mondrian-inspired one near Ocean Beach.
posted by en forme de poire at 7:32 PM on March 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by en forme de poire at 7:32 PM on March 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
I wonder how Mr. Scully's neighbours would have felt if rather than an artist with a thing for yellow he was a relevance-deprived ex-football thug with a thing for blue.
posted by flabdablet at 10:21 PM on March 9, 2019
posted by flabdablet at 10:21 PM on March 9, 2019
SF isn't exactly known for being an easy place to do construction and modifications on houses, but one thing which it does right is to allow you to paint your house whichever damn color you please.
And here are some more.
posted by alexei at 10:49 PM on March 9, 2019 [3 favorites]
And here are some more.
posted by alexei at 10:49 PM on March 9, 2019 [3 favorites]
YAAAAS BIG MOOD DO IT LIKE THAT. (From alexei's first link.)
I really like that color combo.
Yeah, the houses in SF are great and totally wild. I had friend in SF with houses with colors like that and it was just an everyday thing. I always found it made the city compellingly beautiful and breathtaking just as seen in the photos. Riding the bus around town was like rolling through a living photography art show sometimes, all wild angles and colors as the trolley bus climbed the twisty hills through miles of colorful row houses all jumbled together like dense rookeries of colorful birds.
Except that you're imagining the lack of choice.
I live in precisely the kind of neighborhood you're describing. The builders offered blues, greens, yellows, grays, and 3 different beiges (red, orange, and purple were admittedly not on the list).
Then your HOA may be a milder one and not an example of what we're talking about. And, well, I'd want purple so I'd be SOL. So, in either case we're not imagining the lack of choice.
In Orange County there are entire cities (like Irvine, CA) that are effectively blanketed with HOAs, condos and large scale rental complexes that don't allow any home colors besides, effectively, shades of beige. Irvine in particular is infamous for even dictating to height of your lawn and what kind of grass you can plant. Places like Coto de Caza and Aliso Viejo are often even more strict.
And it's not just about beige or paint. These are the same HOAs and rules that prevent people in cities and planned communities like this from doing something like replacing their landscaping with a food garden.
And this is why I made that joke upthread about taking a field trip to Irvine or something, because that place is freaky weird like Camazotz from A Wrinkle In Time, or Stepford from The Stepford Wives kind of weird.
There are places where the houses or apartments look so identical to each other you can get lost and be off by a mile or more. Same hedge, same paint, same fence, same exact lawn shape and height, same lawn grass, same road patterns - totally different block and street address.
Sometimes the only visual clue is the pattern of different cars in the lots, or maybe someone's unauthorized sports team flag or fairy lights in a window.
I would actually strongly recommend not taking acid in the brown, err, beige city. It might cause lasting psychological trauma and be a really bad time.
Which brings up a point about aesthetics and psychology.
It's known in environmental psychology that this kind of brutal "sameness" can be detrimental for people in a number of ways. One of these ways is degraded attention spans. Another is that can suppress self identity or expression. That this enforced environmental sameness does have a personal psychological effect on its inhabitants and goes beyond simply a matter of personal taste or the business of home ownership.
I grew up in cookie-cutter, unwalkable neighborhoods like this. I found it to be intolerably oppressive and pretty much awful all the time. Even the schools were all self-similar. If you look at my childhood neighborhoods on a satellite photo it looks like a Sim City game run by a very boring dictator that liked cars, straight lines and strip malls.
I spent most of my childhood feeling like I just went from one institutional, mass produced place to another. When I went to friend's houses, their houses were often effectively the same as mine. It was incredibly rare to see any house or structure at all that didn't have a nearly exact copy of itself either directly next door, within view or just down the next block.
I spent a lot of time trying to find actual nature. Not a manicured park, not the crowded beaches. Any place where the grass wasn't mown and the hedges and trees weren't trimmed and there was some biodiversity was precious to me because it was simply that rare. Everything was pretty much houses, strip malls, parking lots and concrete.
I used to go to this flood control and drainage channel where there was a rare patch that wasn't completely cemented in, and there was sand and cattails and wetland grasses. There were minnows and small fish in the water, and even frogs and dragon flies. I'd throw caution to the wind and try not to think about all the runoff and chemicals that was probably in the water and take my shoes off and sit on the edge where the concrete ended.
I would feel silly and weird for wanting this and liking this, like it was somehow abnormal. Anyone who knows me today and how much I love nature would and should find this alarming. That's how pervasively my beige environment affected me.
In hindsight that little patch of wetland is so small I can practically taste the pathos when comparing it to how much nature I've seen, even just today. We're talking about a cruddy little patch of drainage ditch that could fit in an average back yard. It was not Walden, it just had less concrete, trash and broken glass. It was somewhat quieter, though the sound of cars on the bridges at either end was still a constant thing. It had dragonflies and flowers and plants that were indigenous, that didn't come from a landscaping center. Plants that weren't cut into weirdly geometric shapes by armies of gas-powered tool wielding landscapers, constantly at war with nature.
I remember when I first started traveling to other cities feeling like I didn't even understand them or how to see them, and I wondered why even expensive neighborhoods looked so chaotic, or why the houses weren't all the same, or why there weren't endless miles and miles of half mile square blocks of hundreds and thousands of identical houses.
There was a period of my young adulthood where I spent a lot of time recalibrating how I saw cities, neighborhoods, homes and architecture. In hindsight it feels a little like I escaped a cult, or a cult-like city like the one in Logan's Run.
We vastly underestimate the problems we're creating for ourselves with these environments. It's not just about the color beige, or that beige is boring. It's more about the fact that conformity can actually be harmful.
posted by loquacious at 12:03 AM on March 10, 2019 [14 favorites]
I really like that color combo.
Yeah, the houses in SF are great and totally wild. I had friend in SF with houses with colors like that and it was just an everyday thing. I always found it made the city compellingly beautiful and breathtaking just as seen in the photos. Riding the bus around town was like rolling through a living photography art show sometimes, all wild angles and colors as the trolley bus climbed the twisty hills through miles of colorful row houses all jumbled together like dense rookeries of colorful birds.
Except that you're imagining the lack of choice.
I live in precisely the kind of neighborhood you're describing. The builders offered blues, greens, yellows, grays, and 3 different beiges (red, orange, and purple were admittedly not on the list).
Then your HOA may be a milder one and not an example of what we're talking about. And, well, I'd want purple so I'd be SOL. So, in either case we're not imagining the lack of choice.
In Orange County there are entire cities (like Irvine, CA) that are effectively blanketed with HOAs, condos and large scale rental complexes that don't allow any home colors besides, effectively, shades of beige. Irvine in particular is infamous for even dictating to height of your lawn and what kind of grass you can plant. Places like Coto de Caza and Aliso Viejo are often even more strict.
And it's not just about beige or paint. These are the same HOAs and rules that prevent people in cities and planned communities like this from doing something like replacing their landscaping with a food garden.
And this is why I made that joke upthread about taking a field trip to Irvine or something, because that place is freaky weird like Camazotz from A Wrinkle In Time, or Stepford from The Stepford Wives kind of weird.
There are places where the houses or apartments look so identical to each other you can get lost and be off by a mile or more. Same hedge, same paint, same fence, same exact lawn shape and height, same lawn grass, same road patterns - totally different block and street address.
Sometimes the only visual clue is the pattern of different cars in the lots, or maybe someone's unauthorized sports team flag or fairy lights in a window.
I would actually strongly recommend not taking acid in the brown, err, beige city. It might cause lasting psychological trauma and be a really bad time.
Which brings up a point about aesthetics and psychology.
It's known in environmental psychology that this kind of brutal "sameness" can be detrimental for people in a number of ways. One of these ways is degraded attention spans. Another is that can suppress self identity or expression. That this enforced environmental sameness does have a personal psychological effect on its inhabitants and goes beyond simply a matter of personal taste or the business of home ownership.
I grew up in cookie-cutter, unwalkable neighborhoods like this. I found it to be intolerably oppressive and pretty much awful all the time. Even the schools were all self-similar. If you look at my childhood neighborhoods on a satellite photo it looks like a Sim City game run by a very boring dictator that liked cars, straight lines and strip malls.
I spent most of my childhood feeling like I just went from one institutional, mass produced place to another. When I went to friend's houses, their houses were often effectively the same as mine. It was incredibly rare to see any house or structure at all that didn't have a nearly exact copy of itself either directly next door, within view or just down the next block.
I spent a lot of time trying to find actual nature. Not a manicured park, not the crowded beaches. Any place where the grass wasn't mown and the hedges and trees weren't trimmed and there was some biodiversity was precious to me because it was simply that rare. Everything was pretty much houses, strip malls, parking lots and concrete.
I used to go to this flood control and drainage channel where there was a rare patch that wasn't completely cemented in, and there was sand and cattails and wetland grasses. There were minnows and small fish in the water, and even frogs and dragon flies. I'd throw caution to the wind and try not to think about all the runoff and chemicals that was probably in the water and take my shoes off and sit on the edge where the concrete ended.
I would feel silly and weird for wanting this and liking this, like it was somehow abnormal. Anyone who knows me today and how much I love nature would and should find this alarming. That's how pervasively my beige environment affected me.
In hindsight that little patch of wetland is so small I can practically taste the pathos when comparing it to how much nature I've seen, even just today. We're talking about a cruddy little patch of drainage ditch that could fit in an average back yard. It was not Walden, it just had less concrete, trash and broken glass. It was somewhat quieter, though the sound of cars on the bridges at either end was still a constant thing. It had dragonflies and flowers and plants that were indigenous, that didn't come from a landscaping center. Plants that weren't cut into weirdly geometric shapes by armies of gas-powered tool wielding landscapers, constantly at war with nature.
I remember when I first started traveling to other cities feeling like I didn't even understand them or how to see them, and I wondered why even expensive neighborhoods looked so chaotic, or why the houses weren't all the same, or why there weren't endless miles and miles of half mile square blocks of hundreds and thousands of identical houses.
There was a period of my young adulthood where I spent a lot of time recalibrating how I saw cities, neighborhoods, homes and architecture. In hindsight it feels a little like I escaped a cult, or a cult-like city like the one in Logan's Run.
We vastly underestimate the problems we're creating for ourselves with these environments. It's not just about the color beige, or that beige is boring. It's more about the fact that conformity can actually be harmful.
posted by loquacious at 12:03 AM on March 10, 2019 [14 favorites]
From Alexei's link: this SF paint job is goooooorgeous to me.
posted by en forme de poire at 4:31 PM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by en forme de poire at 4:31 PM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
I have a treehouse that I accidentally painted a hideous and very bright color (they mixed it wrong, they remixed it wrong, we finally were like screw it, whatever, it's a treehouse, we'll just use it) last summer, and ever since the leaves fell I've been very concerned about whether all my neighbors are gazing out at my puke-yellow treehouse and silently hating me.
This article has heightened my paint-related anxieties. Gonna have to get busy repainting that thing.
posted by gerstle at 8:28 PM on March 10, 2019
This article has heightened my paint-related anxieties. Gonna have to get busy repainting that thing.
posted by gerstle at 8:28 PM on March 10, 2019
I live pretty close to the street loquacious mentions above, with a bunch of purple houses! Sadly, one of them repainted to a more muted purple recently, but they kept the green trim :)
There’s another one nearby that’s a nice periwinkle and a pretty multicolor sunburst above a dome-shaped window on the top floor. I always stop and marvel at how it matches the view of the Olympics rising behind to the east.
The place I live in now has unusually ornate trim molding all over that was a pretty soft pink, but the building owners had it painted white last year and I kept opening my windows to try and convince the painter to leave it be. I moved here partly because it was a funky looking building! I wonder if the beige and brown newer construction next door was happier about the change, they seem to keep it bland on purpose.
Pretty house colours make everything better, is the moral I guess.
posted by zinful at 10:15 PM on March 10, 2019
There’s another one nearby that’s a nice periwinkle and a pretty multicolor sunburst above a dome-shaped window on the top floor. I always stop and marvel at how it matches the view of the Olympics rising behind to the east.
The place I live in now has unusually ornate trim molding all over that was a pretty soft pink, but the building owners had it painted white last year and I kept opening my windows to try and convince the painter to leave it be. I moved here partly because it was a funky looking building! I wonder if the beige and brown newer construction next door was happier about the change, they seem to keep it bland on purpose.
Pretty house colours make everything better, is the moral I guess.
posted by zinful at 10:15 PM on March 10, 2019
Mod note: A few deleted. Using Google maps to link to a private address isn't a great idea (imagine if someone linked to your personal info, such as exact address, with your name and other info then easily available via searching that; it would be pretty damn scary, even if there was something odd or interesting about your house). If you just want to show how a place looks, a screen shot of the map image not including address would be okay.
posted by taz (staff) at 11:28 PM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by taz (staff) at 11:28 PM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
There are places where the houses or apartments look so identical to each other you can get lost and be off by a mile or more. Same hedge, same paint, same fence, same exact lawn shape and height, same lawn grass, same road patterns - totally different block and street address.
Tell me about it! One time a few years back I had an hour or so to kill in an affluent suburb in North Las Vegas (long story) and so I thought I'd just walk around for a while. I wandered into this gated community whose gate was open, and I got so disoriented from every house and lot looking the same that I started to panic. For the life of me, I couldn't find my way back to the gate or to the spot where I was supposed to meet my driver. I couldn't even find street signs. I had been in housing developments and planned communities before, but nothing that extreme. It was pretty freaky.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:51 AM on March 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
Tell me about it! One time a few years back I had an hour or so to kill in an affluent suburb in North Las Vegas (long story) and so I thought I'd just walk around for a while. I wandered into this gated community whose gate was open, and I got so disoriented from every house and lot looking the same that I started to panic. For the life of me, I couldn't find my way back to the gate or to the spot where I was supposed to meet my driver. I couldn't even find street signs. I had been in housing developments and planned communities before, but nothing that extreme. It was pretty freaky.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:51 AM on March 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
ever since the leaves fell I've been very concerned about whether all my neighbors are gazing out at my puke-yellow treehouse and silently hating me.
The more I think about this, the more I wish that I could communicate one thing to people like your neighbors: If your life is so secure and comfortable that you have the time and energy to get angry over the color that someone else painted their property, you have too much time and too much money and you should give some away until you're busy enough that you stop thinking about, eg, the yellow house down the road.
Like, I cannot even imagine having the brain space to give more than a passing thought to a house whose appearance I didn't care for.
posted by Frowner at 5:55 AM on March 11, 2019 [6 favorites]
The more I think about this, the more I wish that I could communicate one thing to people like your neighbors: If your life is so secure and comfortable that you have the time and energy to get angry over the color that someone else painted their property, you have too much time and too much money and you should give some away until you're busy enough that you stop thinking about, eg, the yellow house down the road.
Like, I cannot even imagine having the brain space to give more than a passing thought to a house whose appearance I didn't care for.
posted by Frowner at 5:55 AM on March 11, 2019 [6 favorites]
Like, I cannot even imagine having the brain space to give more than a passing thought to a house whose appearance I didn't care for.
While I absolutely think that plain old pettiness and spite is a factor in how mad people get about houses painted the wrong color, a lot of it comes down to fear that an ugly house will make it slightly harder to realize the value of your house as an asset down the line. American society taught two or three generations of people in a hundred different ways, implicit and explicit, that the best thing to do with their money was to invest it in the nicest home they could afford and that the financial health of their family was almost entirely dependent on keeping the value of that real estate high. HOA drama in all its horrible form is a particularly twisted development in that whole story, but I think it, along with a bunch of other noxious opinions Americans have about their neighbors and neighborhoods ranging from irritating to outright bigoted, substantially stems from being nervous that if real estate prices around them start dropping, they'll be ruined in their old age and/or unable to give anything to their children.
posted by Copronymus at 5:16 PM on March 18, 2019 [3 favorites]
While I absolutely think that plain old pettiness and spite is a factor in how mad people get about houses painted the wrong color, a lot of it comes down to fear that an ugly house will make it slightly harder to realize the value of your house as an asset down the line. American society taught two or three generations of people in a hundred different ways, implicit and explicit, that the best thing to do with their money was to invest it in the nicest home they could afford and that the financial health of their family was almost entirely dependent on keeping the value of that real estate high. HOA drama in all its horrible form is a particularly twisted development in that whole story, but I think it, along with a bunch of other noxious opinions Americans have about their neighbors and neighborhoods ranging from irritating to outright bigoted, substantially stems from being nervous that if real estate prices around them start dropping, they'll be ruined in their old age and/or unable to give anything to their children.
posted by Copronymus at 5:16 PM on March 18, 2019 [3 favorites]
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posted by leotrotsky at 11:59 AM on March 8, 2019 [11 favorites]