This leopard print house sits on a street near my own home, and each time I pass it I think wow. It also inspires me to wonder — where does quirky stop and eccentric begin?
Now, full disclosure here, I am probably on the eccentric end of the spectrum. At least, according to my husband I am. When I innocently commented to him that I was probably going to become an eccentric old man he shot back with "become eccentric"? Ouch!
So that has me wondering — is there a line that separates quirky and eccentric designs? If so, where is that line? And how do you know if you've crossed it?
Take this leopard print house, for instance. I can imagine the owner thinking that it would be whimsical and outside the norm to paint a pattern on the house. Does that make the owner eccentric? Or is the owner merely an individualist who perhaps has a penchant for animal prints?
I actually like the animal print house but, then again, I'm in love with prints in general. I can see myself someday painting a houndstooth design or stripes on a house. (Hmm, maybe my husband is right!) But for some reason stripes or a repeated pattern like houndstooth seem to fall on the quirky but tasteful side of the scale. Why is that? What is it about the animal print that seems so eccentric?
Image: Jason Loper
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is it such a big deal to express ones personality...as such why should the house blend in or say not stand out...we are ok with someone dressing like that right..infact i find most of the top celebrity clothes quirky..can i help it!! lol
Well, while the house in the picture is not something I would do myself, i don't mind it! I like it better than people who paint their houses tarp blue or bright orange. I have been told many times I a "quirky", and I take pride in that! I always think of "eccentric" as quirky people that have decided they don't care what the neighbors think anymore and just do what they want without worrying about what others will say. But that's just me.
I never take off points for tacky. It's just too entertaining.
On my walk route near my last house, there was a house with no lawn. Instead, there were objects of all kinds surrounded by foliage and flowers, some 6-7 feet tall. The objects varied from rocks to reindeer which stayed out all year long. All kinds of things hung from the trees. It was all I could do to keep moving near that house because I wanted to see everything. It was on a curve, and I always wondered if it ever caused an accident.
Wow, which neighborhood in Chicago is this in? Not my style, but unlike anything I've ever seen!
I don't think there's a bright line that separates quirky from eccentric. Personally, I see a leopard-print house and think, "Whoa! That person must be way cool!" At the same time, though, I can think of other loud colors and patterns that would conjure up visions of crazy cat lady spinsters.
As for matters of taste, things most people would consider "tasteful" tend to be understated, as anything that appeals to a broad swath of humanity is likely to be about fitting in rather than standing out. If you want to do something loud and different, go ahead and be a diva about it, and let the style gurus kvetch about it all they like!
The only differences are knowledge of color theory and attention to details.
Masterfully done leopard print can be an Alexander McQueen. Poorly done leopard print can induce vomit.
I think that "quirky" and "eccentric" are pretty much synonymous, and that -- in any case --both are desirable qualities. ("Tacky" is something else altogether.)
That said, I think that this quirky/eccentric house is AMAZING, especially when contrasted with the two UGLY buildings that flank it.
I can't say that I would do this to my house but it definitely makes me smile.
@MonsterGirl - It's in East Rogers Park, Chase ave. (maybe Estes). I live in that hood. To be honest with you, it does not stick out crazy. I think the picture makes it look brighter than it is. It's not something that is blaring at all and the nobody in the neighborhood really minds it.
To me, the big difference between quirky and eccentric is that "quirky" has the connotation of youth, while "eccentric" implies elderly. The leopard print house could be either.
Love it!!! Life is too short to be too staid.
quirky/eccentric = not dull/boring/predictable
It is a giraffe.
The reason that house works - it's set back and framed by the two anonymous apartment blocks that flank it.
On a typical suburban street, with similar houses around, it would edge away from eccentric and into eyesore.
Having expressed that, I'd like to add - that person has done a fabulous job with the pattern - the execution and spacing work perfectly.
As someone said above - poorly done patterns are not pleasing.
The outside of a home is purely expressionist - I've always found it interesting that people are concerned with what the outside of their home looks like and what they want to project, but the truth is that their view - unless they live in their yard - is of everyone else's homes! For that reason, I do fall into the possibly stodgy camp that it does matter how the outside of your home looks...I am proudly eccentric, quirky, whatever you want to call it, but if making a statement means that you are at total odds with the aesthetic of the community collective, then I fall on the side of at least trying to express individuality while also blending in.
Whoever those people are, I want to buy them drinks and hear their stories. I bet they're awesome.
I'm moving to New Orleans, a city not known for playing it safe with home exteriors. I'm thinking melon with honeysuckle trim, and I now feel like a conformist wimp compared with these fine people.
I love it, but then again I grew up in home owned by two artists who chose to decorate with rusty art works, so...
It's on Estes. I lived a block away - for four years I walked by that house nearly every day. In the "RP", it's a fixture that hardly gets noticed. Gosh, I love that neighborhood. Thank god I still get to spend about one weekend a month hitting up the Red Line Tap, Duke's and the Oasis (if I'm feeling really naughty).
(HI, old neighbors!)
i love the matching flowers.
I'd personally rather see a well cared for home like this one that is painted in a somewhat outrageous way than a run down house/yard that conforms to the norms.
I don't think it's quirkiness so much as quality that's the deciding factor. Good quality quirky, like this house, is kinda awesome. Given the cohesion of the overall scheme, with the spots well spaced and designed, and the trim carefully matched, it's clearly the product of taste and thought (albeit quirky taste and thought).
Bad quality quirky would be some borderline bipolar dude suddenly deciding to have leopard spots on the house, and making a real hash of it. THAT'S the sort of thing that gives quirky a bad name.
I love that this house exists. Just knowing it's out there enriches my life, even though it far away. It's a well tended, thoughtfully carried out scheme. I can find no fault with it.
Whereas.... I know a place in the midwest where the neighbors circulated a petition because a house was going to be repainted in a different shade of beige. It was going from a warm yellow beige to a cooler, greyer shade.
I'd much rather be neighbors with the animal print house.
It's on Estes, in the Rogers Park neighborhood. I live nearby and absolutely love it--it's completely charming and was a total "plus" when deciding to move into my current location.
A-freakin-dorable.
Ekk! Thank God for neighborhood associations and city council.
Christ.
My first apartment ever was on Estes, ages ago. Is this house on the block just west of the L?
Sorry, H.B.--some of us could never live in a "neighborhood" with an association. I would rather have to look at a leopard-print house or a Pepto-Bismol pink house rather than an endless sea of "tasteful" beige and gray and matching mailboxes.
"where does quirky stop and eccentric begin?"
Actually, I don't know that it's quirky *or* eccentric. But I do think it's amazingly cheerful and awesome.
C'mon, Jason, go knock on the door and see if they'll give us a house tour!
Crazy is as crazy does. I don't know, we have similar Victorian homes smushed between similar low rise blight and it's hard to know who's side to be on, if anyone's at all. I think that quirky and eccentric are both applicable terms, but how about "Statement: Pebbles meets Bam Bam". Discuss.
Well I admire that it actually looks like animal print. I tried to do animal print in my bathroom and it just turned out looking like amoebas on the wall.
This only works because it is so well done. I'm impressed the owners managed to pull it off.
Skillfully applied and unusual is what I'll side with every time. Then just plain unusual, for the amusement value.
Then legislated shades of beige-or-greige-or-gray (see we like choice in this subdivision, you can have ANY of these...) dead last as I slip into a coma of ennui.
And housing associations generally enforce bad, dated, thoughtless design.
I have always thought of quirky and eccentric as the same thing. I always say that normal is a cycle on the washing machine.
I love it, and I want to know who lives there and what the name of the painter is.
Ugh, give me that house and I will treat it right.
I kind of like this, although I'm not a prints person in any form. On either side appears to be a boring apartment building, so I would think it's a nice break to neighborhood blah...it's also well done and well tended, which makes a difference. My nightmare neighborhood is the one from the opening scene from Poltergeist.
I don't like that house painted that way and I'm glad I don't live next door. My next door neighbors have a bright pink & yellow color scheme that I have learned to (shudder) ignore, but I will never like it. They love it, it's their house, whatever. But it's ugly and I think this is ugly too.
i would love to live near that house. heck, i would love to live IN that house! i wonder what the interior looks like. someone who goes the extra mile to make something this bold an unique will most likely have one of the best maintained houses, despite taste. it's just paint, folks; granted it's a LOT of paint, but...
i'm not against bland hoa designs, i just hate the idea of being stifled and strong armed into conformity. if plane jane and understated is your thing, more power! if orange spots and yellow trim is yours, rock on!
Tackeh! So many said "wow, I bet the owners are cool!" -- I think they're just as likely to be self-consciously outre. Good news is that with y'all out there, they'll never want for plenty of delighted company.
A Jersey Shore MUST live here!
I LOVE IT! I would love to live near that house, it would make me smile every time I look at it. Normally I don't like eccentric exterior paint, but this is an exception. If it were always done this well I'd love to live in a neighborhood full of quirky homes.
Personally, I love this house. But, even if I it did not appeal to me (for example, if it was painted cotton-candy pink with lavender trim), I would not mind. I don't understand why people get so judgy about other people's houses in their neighborhood. As long as a house is well-cared for, and is not decorated with anything hurtful (like racial slurs or something), I think individual expression is a wonderful thing. Thank goodness I have never lived, and will never live, in a place with a neighborhood association that gets to approve which shade of beige I may be permitted to paint my house.
If nothing else, it makes me smile. I wouldn't mind living near this house.
@ek76 - I agree.
Something about it is very pleaseing... And dare I say soothing. It IS well done, the colors/style all work, and it has fresh, pretty landscaping. Love it!
This house belongs to one on the world's most wonderful people. To me the spots reflect his courage, creativity, sensitivity and rebellion against the status quo. If you knock on this door, Mr. O'Reilly and his co-inhabitants will engage and enlighten you.
yeah i think it may be giraffe...
either way, at least it's well done! and as others have said, well maintained. i like this much more than the louis vuitton one anyway....
Right here.
What's quirky about it? Then again, I think polka dots are cool, too. And yes, as an exterior paint job. Sure is easy to give directions... Drive down street, when jaw drops, stop. :-)
Not a fan. Be quirky indoors so your neighbors don't have to suffer.
it's about society. does the community agree that they want to see this? if yes, then cool. if not, then no.
there's a time and a place. this bee girl needs to go find the other bee girls.
I can't believe that there ARE communities where the majority has to decide if they 'want to see' this. Seriously... so much for freedom of expression. Several decades the concept of someone telling you how you can/can't paint your house would be unheard of (I think, no?). THESE days, we'd freak out if people said they had the right to tell us which colours/patterns to *wear*... but in 2050 will that be the norm?
I love interesting homes and interesting neighbourhoods. And yes, won't you knock on that door and see if the inside is interesting too?
House tour!!!!
It's the home of the Chicago Radical Faeries - I'm sure they'd do a house tour. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Faeries for more on them.
One of the downsides of living in a hisotric district is not having anything like this in my neighborhood.
Looks like it belongs in Disney World.
At the risk of of being the only naysayer... Yes, it's quirky, yes it's eccentric, and I would be major ticked off if I was trying to sell my house next door.
This is just awful. I'm as quirky as they come but unless this house sat on a beach front lot with other houses around it painted as unique it's in bad taste. I can't but wonder if the owner painted it this way to bug one of his neighbors. It looks confrontational to me and intended to disturb the 'hood or someone in particular.
In bad taste is just that, it doesn't have anything to do with with anything else. The paint job is tacky and I can only imagine how it must look in the winter covered in snow, yikes! There are millions of ways to be quirky and express being a creative individual without being obnoxious. Painting this home in odd solid colors with contrasting trim would have let it stand out as well telling the world that non conformists live here but still been tasteful.
"Quirky" is something that makes you smile, maybe admire it even if it's not your style. "Eccentric" is when it brings down property values!
I love this house - it's whimsical and easy to give the pizza delivery boy directions to - but can it bring down the property values of it's neighbors? I don't mind freedom of expression, but devaluing 'my' half a million dollar investment due to your paint job isn't right. I honestly don't believe that would be the case in this instance, but I've seen houses (owners) who have devalued their block for their 'freedom of expression'. I hate housing associations most of the time, but sometimes it can be a help for your investment. When is it fair for either side? I can't answer that and usually, I believe that most deviations from the norm are 'Quirky', not 'Eccentric' but I also don't believe that my 'quirkiness' should harm anyone either.
In old urban industrial areas there were no rules, so things were painted any which way, looked great and made for wonderful photos. Quirky. Now these neighborhoods have been gentrified, everything is "tasteful," prices are astronomical and exteriors are visually boring. TriBeCa was great back in the day. No more.
We used to live on the same block and the "cheetah house" as we called it was the perfect landmark. I once told a friend driving to our place, "If you pass the cheetah house -- and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when you see it -- you've gone too far." Sure enough I saw their car zip by our place, then back up down the street moments later. Un-missable. We liked having this house on our block as part of the personality of the neighborhood. And I confess that when our neighbors in the cheetah house had a yard sale we went over...not because we really needed to buy anything, but just to meet whoever lived there! And they were really nice folks!
It's so funny to see this house up here. My coworker and I drove by it a few months back and had to get out of the car and take pictures to share. The design is initially shocking to see on such a large scale, but I like when people take risks and don't feel the need to be so reserved. I wouldn't paint my house like this, but I appreciate it.
It's so well done, and very cool! I'd love to do something like this with my house...Maybe one day when I'm in a house I know I won't be selling...and if my husband would ever let me, haha.
Fantastic. I'm inviting them over for drinks immediately!
i happen to like this, VERY MUCH.
@Blandwagon, i am sure you didn't mean your comment to be rude in any way, but saying that someone who has bipolar would be a bad decorator could really insult someone with the illness. a good friend of mine has bipolar disorder and she is one of the best decorators i know.
I can imagine certain patterns being awesome on a house, but leopard print is a pattern I just can't stand on anything but an actual leopard. Props to them for having the balls to do it though.
Eccentricity and quirkiness expressed with TLC in a home can enhance it. The giraffe (or cheetah?) house is cute. I wouldn't do it, but I like it. Besides, new visitors always can find their house.
Wow, I live near that house too-in rogers park! I just passed it on a walk recently and thought, GAH, this is over the top!
OK, so I like it. A lot. But... my first thought was - gads, that's going to be a bear to paint over!
Ballsy. I love it.
Amazing. Amazing. Amazing.
I have been walking by that house for years and it makes me so happy. It's a wonderful addition to the neighborhood and has had such a positive impact on the surrounding block. I wish more homeowners had such chutzpah!
And, while Rogers Park might not be as visually eccentric as some other neighborhoods, it is well known for people who think independently and out of the box. Being different is a point of pride. It's a diverse, working class part of town where folks don't give a rip if the lawn is trimmed or the paint is peeling or the holiday lights are on in March --just don't litter or spit (I once saw an old Polish lady chase a gang banger down Paulina St. for spitting on her sidewalk!)
And, while I can't speak for them all, I think most RP residents appreciate the leopard house. I also think they would have a great laugh at the dozens of strangers getting together on the internet to poo-poo another man's home. Call it quirky or eccentric...what is the difference? NEWSFLASH: IT'S NOT YOUR HOUSE. Who are you to judge and criticize someone else for using their home as a form of expression? So what if you don't like leopard? You don't have to live in it. Huzzah!
Nobody asked me, but I will say it anyway: Good Taste is for the feeble. To each his own. Long live the leopard house!
1623 W. Estes (Rogers Park -Holla!) I LOVE this house. :)