This week we are looking outside as we soak up the last days of summer sun. Join us as we explore some extravagant examples of decorated exteriors and the stories they have to tell…

Samuel Puckey was a Cornish fisherman, who, after retiring in 1937 started to decorate his cottage in the beautiful village of Polperro, adorning it with seashells gathered from his travels around the world as a sailor. There are small scenes depicting sailboats, gulls and a lighthouse – a sight he would have been familiar with when coming back ashore.

Vera Cruz in Santa Barbara is California cool in a nutshell! A zesty lime green frames hundreds of paintings created by the owner Jeff Shelton alongside local artists. The artists were asked to create images depicting where they were from, or a place they loved. The outcome is wonderfully unique and joyful!

Also in Santa Barbara is ‘House of a Thousand Paintings’. Created by Sanford Darling, it was the inspiration for Vera Cruz.

Answan, is a village on the river Nile in southern Egypt where this house was built by the Nubian tribe. In keeping with their traditional architecture, the facades are painted in bright and joyful colours, shapes and meaningful symbols which were believed to have protective qualities.

A ‘House for Essex’ was commissioned as part of the Living Architecture series and created by artist Grayson Perry and architect Charles Holland. A shrine to a fictitious female character, her life and image adorns the tiled façade of this unique structure, using re-imagined European architectural symbology.

La Miason de Celle qui Pient, near Marseille is the work of self-taught artist and owner Danielle Jacqui. She gradually began decorating the edifice of her house studio in 1985 and says “My façade is much more than simple decoration: it is a message, a will expressed in the face of the architectural conservatism of Provence, where the walls ‘have’ to be yellow, well done, and very much like each other. My façade is my liberty.”

We hope you’ve found inspiration to express yourself through exteriors in a way you might not have considered before, we certainly have!