This Artist's Home Was Deemed Unsellable Due to Its Bold, Rainbow-Like Decor
There are numerous reasons why a house on the market might not sell. Perhaps the price is too high, the property needs some work, or maybe you just don't have the best real estate agent for the job. The list goes on and on, but the reason behind the home of artist Mary Rose Young is unique. As it turns out, aspiring homeowners were really just not digging her rainbow decor.
LADBible spoke with the 61-year-old, pink-haired creative, who owns Mary Rose’s Gallery and Workshop in Gloucestershire, England. Back in 2014, Young had put the home on the market after living there for almost 30 years. While she had purchased the cottage back in 1987 for £30,000 (≅ $37,247 USD), she had hand-painted and redecorated the home's interiors, raising the home's value upward of £250,000 (≅ $310,391 USD), as estimated by her real estate agents. However, when the colorful property where Young lives with her husband Phil Butcher, was put up for sale, nobody wanted to buy, and only one person came to check it out.
Over the years, Young transformed the white-walled home into one straight out of a fairytale. Her main form of art was pottery, which inspired her home's eccentric style. She painted every wall, ceiling, and floor, a bright shade of yellow, blue, pink, orange, green, and so on. She painted polka dots, stripes, and floral patterns across every surface she could find. She adorned the home with only the most eye-popping of decor. “It became a really fun project for me on the side of my pottery business," she tells LADBible.
While she had thought that perhaps a collector of her work would snatch it up, the home received little attention despite its lively and cheery aesthetic. "I made this house around my own life and I wasn't thinking about it being sellable," she says. While painting over the home in a more neutral tone could help facilitate a sale, she refused to do so.
When it became clear that the house was not going to sell, she decided to turn part of it into a gallery and open up a workshop in her courtyard—which is currently open to the public. While at the time, it was disheartening that her home was unsellable (she wanted to sell in order to open a boutique hotel nearby), it seems she's developed a newfound love for her masterpiece. "I love my house and the house really works for me," she says. "I like it more and more as I get older."
You can shop Mary Rose Young's colorful creations here, and see more photos of her home below.
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