Good lord no, and I have CC&R's that will prevent anyone else from doing so in my neighborhood too.

The light makes a big difference. What works in Italy doesn't work in northern Switzerland, for example. Our neighbours painted their house in a dark reddish colour similar to shades in Bologna (though the darker ones their) but what looks lovely there is just a bit too dark for Switzerland.

I love this post. I might not pick a neon looking colour but if I could it would be a rich, warm, colour. I live in Northern Alberta where six months of the year it is snow and cold. I don't understand why people keep their houses so bland and neutral. If I had it my way the whole city would be full of colours.

didn't this post just get made like a month ago?

I live in a HOA community and yes, all of our houses kind of look alike, but our houses are from the 80s and there isn't anything particularly historical or architecturally significant about them. They would look really great if they were all painted something subtle, but still bright, but the nature of an HOA kind of hinders that. The board would have to approve any large scale changes with a 3/4ths majority and most of the time, these changes cost homeowners money and I totally understand not wanting to be shoehorned into a $4,000 expense just because a lot of people wanted to change the look of the whole neighborhood.

The houses in the picture looks awesome. But this wouldn't work in my plain Jane suburban neighborhood.so, no I wouldn't paint my home a vibrant color and I would hope my neighbors wouldn't paint theirs one either. The majority of my neighbors don't even maintain their yards,keep their cats out of my garden or pick up their dog poop from my front yard. On the other hand, if vibrant painted house eliminates the issues mentioned then I'm all for it.

It depends ... vibrant colors don't look the same in all parts of the world.

I just realized that I didn't answer the question. My answer is YES, I would paint my house a vibrant color, but it has to be done in a cohesive manner. Like CreativePix and JamieO2 said, it might not work everywhere. I think it would be great if my neighbors banned together to change all of our siding to different shades of yellows, tans, and whites, but that's a lot of money. I would paint my house a mustardy golden yellow, but not bright pink or even bright purple. That's just a little too loud for my taste.

My mom and I were just having a conversation about this last weekend. We were discussing how the houses on the West Coast seem to have more color, the Midwest seems to be more neutral, and from my experience the East Coast has a lot more reds, blues, and whites (patriotic colors). I love the vibrant, pastel colors in San Francisco, but I'm not sure those would look as good on houses in the Midwest. Same with the beautiful colors I saw in Cinque Terre. It's funny how we use color in different parts of the world.

Absolutely, yes. I have always planned to do this when I get my first house. The color would depend on the rest of the houses in the neighborhood - I would want it to coordinate. I'm a little in love with pinks and peaches right now though.

I'm just going to pull up a chair and get some popcorn ready for the painting houses debate part 2...

Just take a look at the houses of Greenland...

Hmmm... funny question as it seems to only relate to specific neighborhoods (as others have said) obvs, if you live in San Francisco, it can done (and maybe the argument could be made that it SHOULD be) but if you lived in Connecticut and painted your house violet or pink, you'd really seem, well, selfish is the only word I can think of.

When I lived in LA I was so taken by what little concern home owners had for the cohesive look of the neighborhood... Colonial houses next to Greek revival next to a Swiss chalet. It was terrible. I feel the same about painting house a crazy color. It would be giving the middle finger to the rest of the hood.

Now a fun door color... that's a different story. xo

I most certainly would - if it worked with the area and the architecture of the house. I would even go with something really bright like the colors in the picture above.
I have cedar shingles stained Caribbean blue (the color is somewhere in between blue and a greenish grey, depending on the light, very much like the ocean) with red doors, not terribly bright, but as bright as we could go without the house looking ridiculous. It looks great on grey winter days too.....

ladyearl0803 - If I lived in Alberta, I would consider a barn red or rich yellow house with white trim (think Sweden) - so pretty in the snow!

Oh I love this. Here in the frozen north, I love love love a house that stands out in the snow in winter and creates a colorful backdrop to gardens in the summer. Love love love. I would do this in a heartbeat. In fact, I can imagine myself sitting in the window of the blue one in this picture like it was my childhood home.

If I lived in the Caribbean; yes.

agree, depends where you live.
Here in south florida it's a YES!

Define vibrant. Our house is a deep rich blue with equally deep red trim. And we have a metal roof. I don't really care what the neighbors think, although everyone who comments on it loves it. Most of the houses are white or brick around here but fortunately we don't have a HOA and I wouldn't live anywhere that did if at all avoidable. I'm also landscaping the front with mostly natives, lots of stone, to my own taste. The neighbors love that as well, but even if they didn't I would do what I wanted.

totally... if there were 2 or more other houses next to mine that were also painted brightly. I college I lived in a pink duplex there were three other brightly colored duplexes surrounding it, it was great!

I'd do it in a heart beat regardless of what my neighbhors did. I hate conformity when it comes to color.

In college*
One of these days AT will add an edit button, right?

My home (in Buffalo) was painted a bright blue by its last owner, similar to the color of the third house in from the left in the main picture. It was high on my list of "Things to Change" when I moved in, but with all the other repairs needed for my little fixer-upper, 6 months in and its still bright blue. It has grown on me a little and it will probably stay bright for a while yet, but I still look forward to toning it down a bit.

It's all about context in this case. In the photo, the house adjacent are all painted in bright colors and look good together as a group. A single house painted bright blue among white or grey houses wouldn't look so great.

Depends on the house, but there aren't a lot of colors I would avoid altogether. Maybe orange. But a deep plummy purple, barn red, rose pink, ocean blue, medium green -- absolutely, why not? As long as it's tasteful rather than neon, I'd love more than just white or tan. I'm pretty sure I've seen all of the above colors within a two-town radius in New England.

Of course there are other caveats: I would make sure any trim didn't clash, I wouldn't use more than two colors on a house, I probably wouldn't do it if my house was 2' from my neighbor's, I wouldn't go pink on a rural house that was designed to fit into nature (but it might look great on a downtown Victorian), etc.

At the same time, I wouldn't be so daring with interior paint. I guess because I'd have to look at it 24/7 and there's a lot more potential for clashing with furniture.

I'd do it for sure, if I were in the position to do so!!
When I was in southern India, all the houses were painted fluorescent yellow, bright green, blue, pink, etc. It was great!

Definitely! Montreal is a pretty dark place come wintertime, but Drolet Street (from Roy to Mont-Royal Ave) is one of my favourites because the houses are all beautiful colours!!

http://www.monquebec.net/photos.php?show_heading=detail&dir=Le%20Quebec%20en%20Hiver&photo=48

I would love to look out at the hill opposite mine and see a sea of color. Instead, most homeowners (or flippers, or developers) use 'safe' dull palettes. I see a lot of gray and putty with white trim. Yawn.

Just one more reason to be grateful I live in New Orleans - a city that appreciates color, especially on the houses! My house is lavender. The neighbors are melon. The guys across the street are turquoise. Within a block I can find jade-green, burnt orange and bright pink houses. Why in the world more people don't decide to live a little and have some fun with color, I'll never know.

I'm considering it. I'm buying a brick row home with a dormer and front porch that are painted. On the block of the dormers/porches are basic white, a few have done color. My favorite home on the block has pink with red trim on the dormer and front porch.

LOL northstory. Pass the popcorn please!

Theoretically yes, in reality no. We live in Vancouver, similar light to Seattle, and I don't think it would look okay. Think of clothing you or your friends have brought home from places like Hawaii. They looked great there but except on the brightest summer days they look garish here.

Reminds me of the Bo-Kaap houses in Capetown!

i want a white house with all rainbow colored shutters and a rainbow picket fence.

Every house in our local neighbourhood is double brick, and therefore not paintable externally. They would have to be cement rendered first, and for most people, this would be cost prohibitive, especially given that most houses here were built in the late 90's and all are in really good condition. In saying all of that, we also have protective covenants put in place when we all bought our land that prevent us from painting the exteriors (including pipework, fences, sheds and patios) in colours not harmonious with existing neighbourhood structures, and if someone complains, we could be forced to either repaint or pull the structure down. There are plenty of colour variations across the neighbourhood, just nothing vibrant (we ourselves have variegated limestone coloured (with hints of peach, tan, gold, red, terracotta, grey and other earthy/autumnal tones) clay bricks, a terracotta roof, magnolia fascias, outbuildings, gates and downpipes and heritage green guttering - to look like an old Australian homestead in a modern suburban setting. Any other colours would look horribly out of place.

Can I move in to this neighbourhood? Please, please, please?

(Obviously, that's a yes, for me.)

It's not a hypothetical question for me. When the light hits my house just right, it is pretty much the same color as the orange house in the picture. My house is a DC alley house so it isn't visible to regular street traffic, but even if it were, it would not stand out all that much. Where I live on Capitol Hill, none of the colors in the Italian picture would cause anyone to bat an eyelid.

Although it was repainted to more conventional colors some years ago, when I was growing up there was a house a couple of blocks away that was painted lavender and pink, complete with little ledges (mounted to the house exterior) by every window each holding a wrapped present. No, I don't have any idea why, but it was the wrapped presents that really made the house stand out, more than the colors.

I have lived in a neighborhood like this. It is called Prospect in Longmont Colorado and was on the cover of Dwell at one point. It worked well because all of the houses in the neighborhood were painted fabulous colours.
If you want to get some pictures of Prospect (it's only a few miles from Boulder) let me know. I can get you in touch with some people who might let you in their homes.

p.s. I went on a tour of New Orleans Garden District once. The colors were blah but the tour leader told us that back in the day, victorians were painted purples, pinks, etc...colors just like this. This wasn't unusual when America was more european influenced. Now we've all gone to band-aid colored homes...houses made of ticky tacky on the hillside imo.

If I didn't live next to a graveyard, I would paint my house black with bright white trim.

I wish more people in my neighborhood would go bright, then again my neighborhood is a bit of an artists community with shotgun houses and such so it wouldn't be that outrageous. My neighbor 2 doors down has a pepto bismal pink house with green shutters. I want to paint my house a bright funky color, but the yellow paint with green trim and red door is fairly new and there is a lot that i need to do to the inside before spending money on the outside.

We have lots of color in our neighborhood, though nothing as bright as the picture. But I can think of several red houses, navy, charcoal, eggplant, yellow, dark brown. Of course there is taupe and beige, too. People get more colorful with the trim -- we have many houses that are painted in a fairly conservative color but with trim in chartreuse, fuchsia, mustard, etc.

The more colorful you go, the more individual the taste. I like a colorful house, but when my neighbor chose salmon pink with deeper pink trim I was dismayed. Luckily I could only see a bit of her house from our yard. Really, really didn't like that color. And then she needed to sell and the color was a negative issue for buyers.

As the only Romany in my neighborhood, I try not to live up to the stereotypes. So, as much as I love the look, my house's exterior will remain as neutral as that of my neighbors'.

Absolutely.

If I was painting a house I was going to live in for along time - I would go crazy with color. But since it's so expensive, painting the house is one of those resale value things, so I have always been a little restrained in my color choice. My current house is light slate blue, with white trim and navy blue accents. But I love my color, so the front door is a bright orangey-yellow called "goldfish". Easy to paint when it comes time to sell.

Reading posts above reminds me of why I am so glad I don't live and will never live in a neighborhood with CCRs!!!!

I live in a new apartment building in Seattle with several colors on the exterior. Not as bright as these, but brighter than most of the apt buildings in our neighborhood which seem to have been built in the 70's. I really like coming home to a bright and colorful building each day.

Well, as for me, I will still use the safe colors, which is neutral and pastel color for my house. Though these houses look great, but it will not work the same way with my house so I will not use vibrant colors. I still preferred the colors I found in Denver house painting!