Is that your natural house color?

Towards the beginning of the movie “The Banger Sisters,” Susan Sarandon makes a comment to Goldie Hawn about their outfits; “I’m dressed in the same color as the walls of the DMV and you…you look like a flower!” Sarandon’s character is distressed that she doesn’t feel fun anymore and her wardrobe is a reflection of her slip into the beige humdrum of suburbia.

The outer appearance of buildings is also a reflection of their inner character. At Emerald Isle, NC I noticed that a good percentage of the beach houses are unnatural colors. Bright oranges, reds and teals make the streets look like a fruit salad instead of a development. Why is it ok to paint your beach house in Barbie Dreamhouse colors, but your everyday home is either brick or gray?

Newfoundlanders living in St. John’s have good reason to paint their houses in tropical colors. When I was visiting the large island occupying Canada’s eastern coast, our guide informed us that for a long time the only paint imported to Newfoundland was white. When they finally had access to a more diverse palette, they decided to paint the town red…and aquamarine, banana yellow, Nemo orange.

But back to beach houses. My theory is that home owners choose such outlandish colors in rebellion. Nobody wants to choose from the DMV color palete for their vacation home and rightly so. Vacation home owners plan to eat, drink and be merry, so why shouldn’t their houses reflect that? I wish I saw more funky-colored houses in other parts of NC-houses trimmed with beach grass, cacti and rusted out rowboats. There’s nothing wrong with a little character.