Sticks Out Like A Sore Thumb

We are painting our house. Externally. We live on a street of terraced red-brick houses and we thought we would go all ‘coastal’ and whimsical with a faint pink exterior and castle gray door. Very Farrow & Ball; very Cornish; very Scottish Isles etc.

What has surprised me about this personal and rather uninteresting bit of information is how much it has engendered reactions from neighbours and locals. Mixed reactions to be fair, as much love as dislike, but a common expression from both sides is that the house ‘sticks out like a sore thumb’.

I have been struck with two parts to this, the first wondering why does anyone really care that much. If my neighbour painted their house fluorescent yellow or had gigantic purple dragons in their front garden, I can’t say it would bother me. If it affected the sunshine, sure. If it actually affected me somehow, maybe. But how would it? It’s just their choice, a little bit of their self expression.

The second is closely linked to that, in that it represents a departure from the ‘norm’. It sticks out. This seems to be a bad thing, even from the mouths of those that like the transformation. Why is sticking out a negative?

Yet perhaps it is simply a microcosm of our society, where ‘sticking out’, being different in anyway has become quite frowned upon. Even the celebrated who were once the epitome of difference and uniqueness are now formulaic in their white teeth, stylists and PR lines.

Have we forgotten that it is those that dare to be different that have made such extraordinary changes in this world? Those that think beyond the neighbours and the party line have transformed lives from the smallest to the largest scale.

I’m not trying to imply that my husband and I are undiscovered visionaries but simply that we like to remember that we are still individuals who have a choice. Our little bit of coastal whimsy is all it is and it is nothing to be scared of…..