Explore The World's Brightest Houses

Seriously stripey

This London townhouse in Kensington was painted in a eye-watering red and white stripe, that's been branded by locals as reminiscent of a beach hut or circus big top. Why paint your home in a such a garish combination of colours? There can only be one reason. Revenge.

Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring took great offence when her plans to demolish the property and replace it with a five-storey mega home with underground swimming pool and cinema were objected to by neighbours. Owners of nearby houses feared disruption and structural problems to their own homes due to the work. Mrs Lisle-Mainwaring's innovative and devious response was to leave neighbours facing an eye-sore in their otherwise lovely Kensington street.

But it's bad news for the property owner; Mrs Lisle-Mainwaring has been ordered to paint the property white as it is located in the Kensington Square Conservation Area. And to replace the window frames, too, as they are in poor condition. So that's game, set and match to Kensington Council.

Painfully purple

This large family semi looks lovely from the outside, but one peep inside will leave you speechless. Or with an odd craving for Cadbury's Dairy Milk. The whole house – and we mean the whole house – is decorated in enough purple to make you want to poke your eyes out.

Purple carpets; purple walls; purple curtains. It's taken the entire concept of colour scheme to a whole new (purple) dimension.

A rainbow of colour

What's even more glorious than one colourful home? You got it... An entire town of colourful homes.

Image by chensiyuan (chensiyuan) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)

This postcard-perfect place is Manarola, a small town in La Spezia, Ligura, in northern Italy. The glorious view is as enticing as a traditional sweet shop, with its rainbow assortment of colours, precariously balanced on a cliff edge against the natural hues of the sky and sea. This is one of the Cinque Terre towns, which is extremely popular with tourists, yet due to its cliff edge position, can't be accessed by car. Gorgeous.

Whether you are looking to attract visitors, make a sale, splash your own personality both inside and out, or simply annoy the living daylights out of your unwitting neighbours, a coat of pain could be all it takes.