apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

omigod. an hommage. someone remembers Ralph's Plainwrap.

I'm verklempt. (sp.?)

It doesn't have the best curb appeal to begin with, so I can understand the owners devising a cheap method (paint!) to make it more interesting, but it's trying WAY too hard. Between the door and the stripes and the text, it's too much. I'd paint the entire house that lovely light blue, change the front door, entrance rails, and maybe add narrow shutters to the window to give this house a bit more personality, and oh yeah, scale down that bush dramatically.

Must be a fan of Repo Man.

Apparently the owners didn't know when to stop...

Is anyone else uber-annoyed by the Safecount.net floaty ads???

they even used a nice font.

I like the stripe...the rest is dumb

It's just like the early 80's when the generic brands at the supermarket came in white boxes with blue text that would say "granola" or "cotton swabs" in courier new. They even had generic "beer." God those were the days. Sending kisses to these people for their irony and nostalgia. *tear

I've seen that house! It's in my brother-in-law's neighborhood. I haven't driven by it in a long time, but I'm interested to see if it still looks like that now.

bepsf - get adblocker plus. it rocks.

Makes me think of a t-shirt with stripe and logo. Would work well for a t-shirt company.

There is an even brighter house in Chesterton, owned by a sign painter (SE corner Mineral Spgs Rd & Rte 12).

i like it.

It's sort of weird to put a house up on AT just to make fun of it (or, in this case, admit to sort of liking it while cringing). I think it's cute. Look at this photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mharriger/539646690/in/set-72157600336960588/

When I took film classes at Columbia, some wag had labelled every single thing in the film seminar room "ACME," as an hommage to Roadrunner cartoons. We had ACME chairs, an ACME blackboard, etc. I think the same sensibility is at work here.

I like it, too, and the front door is great. The owners obviously have a good sense of humor...invite them to the block party!

I like the stripe too, but not the label.

For those who didn't shop at Ralph's in the 80s:
http://hollywood2020.blogs.com/photos/celebrities/joyce_plain_wrap_photo.html

the label is idiotic.... just like decorating a kitchen with "eat"... My husband once joked that in homes like that, the bathroom should be decorated with "poop"

I like it, too. It's obviously just fun and silly. Not everything (or every house) has to exist just to try and be the epitome of style and beauty. I sort of wish I had the cohones to do something so silly. My boyfriend would never stand for it, though.

this made me smile.
i wouldn't do it to my house, but i'd want to be friends with the people that did ..

It certainly is interesting. Well they succeeded in getting our attention so I guess it worked. Would I do this to my house though-- um no.

I don't usually like words as decor. It is too tourette syndrome-ish. My brain would get tired of reading it endlessly. But because this is about Ralph's Plainwrap,
(which I never heard of) I think it is funny and I would like the owners.

I think it's inspired by Public Image Limited -- they released an album in the late 80's that used this generic imagery (for instance, the cassette was called "Cassette"):

http://www.amazon.com/Compact-Disc-Public-Image-Ltd/dp/B000005IRS/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1251919612&sr=1-5

Cool idea...

I love the stripe and door, and while I might not have gone whole-hog and added the label it does appeal to the 1960s Batman fan within me.

hahaha, moderninlongisland's husband is funny.

This is fine if your house isn't visible from the road, do whatever you want.

A community requires a certain amount of cooperation and consideration. I wouldn't want to live across the street from this and have my house up for sale. This devalues the properties around it.

Everyone needs to take a deep breath and relax. The design is creative and makes you think while also putting a smile on your face. Maybe the recession is hitting our creative aesthetic too hard, or maybe the other folks commenting are just uncreative and bland, but I think that there is an awesome sense of creativity and life in the paint scheme of this house. I applaud whoever implemented it.

The rest of you can go back to your home improvement store and pick out your "practical" paint chips, install beige or evergreen wall-to-wall carpeting, and buy sets of furniture from Ashley, but the rest of us enjoy our lives...let us be and keep your negative energy to yourselves. Thanks!

I have loved, through reading you all, tracing the genealogy of the Ralph's Plainwrap idea, and watching it morph down the years as its origins got lost in the mists of time....

it was funny then, I see maybe not so funny now

I giggled.

"this made me smile.
i wouldn't do it to my house, but i'd want to be friends with the people that did"

This.

I like it. Well, I don't like the Mondrian door, but I like the stripe AND the label.

I agree w/speck - the label is cute but the Mondrian door is trying too hard.

The hose looks like it's pointing to the label!

re: supermanj1, "The rest of you can go back to your home improvement store and pick out your "practical" paint chips, install beige or evergreen wall-to-wall carpeting, and buy sets of furniture from Ashley, but the rest of us enjoy our lives...let us be and keep your negative energy to yourselves. Thanks!"

You're obviously just as critical and negative as everyone else, you're just directing it towards the people commenting instead of the design, which is what this sight was created for.

That's All...

Hilarious and cool. If i were house shopping I wouldn't give it a second glance without the paint job- the outside tells me that the inside may well be interesting.

I really like the stripe :)

I sort of like the "house" bit, and the stripes, but not the door.
The door is horrible.

I love when people express themselves through their house. If you can't be yourself at home, where can you?

I am saying this as someone who just painted her house a purple/gray with white trim, and an orange door on the cottage/garage. It was beige - like 99% of the homes in my neighborhood. So, like the other poster said, I would probably enjoy being friends with them.

i'm with you, supermanj1. i love it. why being creative would be seen as disrespectful to the neighbours is beyond me. i think we need a little fun and whimsy in our boring old beige neighbourhoods. and anybody coming within an inch of that bush with sharp gardening implements would have to get through me first. ha!

Frankly, it is those people who paint their homes boring beighe or taupe for 'resale' that are being disrespectful. A house is meant for living and should be an expression of those who live there. Paining it boring colors either means you are a boring individual, or have no respect for your community (and are only their for the 'investment'). Either way, I wouldn't want to be friends with you. On the other hand, I'd be inviting the owners of this house over for bbqs on a regular basis!

There is something similar to this in a suburb of Vancouver. The entire house itself is painted a sky blue, except for part of the horizontal wooden siding that is very carefully painted ROYGBIV. Directly above this horizontal rainbow, in laser-cut black wooden lettering, is the word 'Somewhere'. It's very well executed, and makes me smile every time I pass the house. I keep meaning to take a picture of it!

Modern on long island - I like your husband's thought process! How hilarious would it be, to have a very glamorous bathroom, and somewhere near the toilet, in a very cursive, fancy font, have the word 'poop'? I would quite possibly die laughing if I ever encountered such a thing. It would even be better if it was under a towel rack, hidden by the hanging towel so that most would not see it. But then... I have a strange sense of humor.

Yeah for beige! Woo hoo for taupe!! Amen for white and high five for grey!!!!

Not against color at all, a favorite house nearby where I grew up was a pink Victorian, with white trim. It was amazing and I was sure it was strawberry flavored.

This house screams "I'm owned by a 20 something graphic designer who needs a lot of attention".

it made me smile too

reminds me of a friend in college that took a black permanent marker to his mom's white lap dog. the poor dog was labeled DOG for weeks!

The house is located a block over from me - it has been sold & painted

I guess I'm the one on the outs, this time, because while the paintjob does make me smile, I don't entirely get it (not having lived in the midwest in the 80s probably doesn't help)... but I think the door is awesome.