Colour Me Dotty

Original 1952 caption reads: "As Jernquist puts a finishing touch on one of the last dots, his neighbors (foreground) gaze in wonder at his multicolored home"

Now THAT takes commitment!


I saw this house on pinterest and went in search of the its original source - the 14 April, 1952 edition of LIFE magazine.

The brief article reads:

SPOTTED HOUSE

A man who likes to be different comes up with a polka-dot home

When people up New England way set out to paint a house, they generally stick to tidy white and plant hollyhock out front to keep it as New Englandy as possible.  But not Emery Jernquist.  When he bought his house at Warwick, R.I. it was cream-colored. He painted it gray. It was nice but it didn't seem to have much zip.  He considered painting it plain black but thought this might look a little too somber.  

Then came Jernquist's inspiration. He and his family painted the house black, then decorated its walls and white chimney with bright-colored polka dots - and it looked just fine.  At first people were skeptical but, as he answered their questions politely, Jernquist conducted a private poll and came up with a confident statistic. Seventy-two percent of the critics, he says, like the dots just as much as he does.

Would you polka-dot your house?