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Renowned Artist Turns Her Santa Barbara Residence into a "Rainbow House"

Rainbow House
(Photo : Mattystar1 / instagram)

This Santa Barbara home is not your ordinary dream house. They call it "rainbow house," but the house is painted with more shades than the rainbow could offer. And to achieve its constantly vibrant look, the owner spends $5,000 for its yearly paint job.

Jane Gottlieb, 70, has always been fascinated with colors. Not surprising, though. Gottlieb is a renowned painter and photographer, but her love of art took to another level when she decided to paint her house with a mix of exuberant colors.

Gottlieb and her husband David Obst, 73, purchased their home in Santa Barbara, California, in 1997. The house was built circa-1977, and it offered a stunning view of the ocean and was originally beige and brown in color and modern in design, the Curbed LA report said.

The 4-bedroom house was modern, which was quite unusual considering that the Santa Barbara neighborhood is lined with mostly Mediterranean-style houses. But the original owner was not actually a fan of its modern lines, and so add-ons were put on, Gottlieb told Daily Mail.

Immediately after purchasing the home, Gottlieb and her husband started tearing apart the add-ons and renovate the house, adding a studio, and installing large windows. Only then that she discovered the beautiful modern lines that were previously hidden by the ill-fitted previous makeover, and she realized that the house needs some brightening up with colors. 

She said it wasn't hard to choose the colors, as it took her two months to do so. They started out with lavender and lime green, she said, but more colors were added over the years, and they have gotten brighter each time. 

Read also: Need Some Home Renovations but Don't Know How to Start? Check This Out

The color scheme was conceived using graph paper to create the layout of the house and then fill the colors in each room, accentuating every detail. Now, none of the rooms' original colors when they bought it remains. 

Inside, purple and blue are the dominant colors, while colorful Italian furniture and her own artwork add a few more touch of color to its interior. Outside, there are more colors, three shades of pink, two shades of purple, two lime greens, one blue, and one yellow.

Photos shared by Curbed LA show her master bathroom adorned with Chinese and Japanese vases which surround the emerald green tub, while a collection of Murano glass line up in her shelves and on tables.

Gottlieb is happy and satisfied with her home's transformation as it always elicits a smile from people who sees it for the first time. But she admits that her neighbors aren't fond of it; her rainbow house clearly - and brightly - stands out from the rest of the "beige" houses in the neighborhood.

Jane Gottlieb's claim to fame is her hand-paintings on Cibachrome prints, which have already been exhibited and won fans worldwide. She now uses the power of Photoshop to create new artwork by reimagining her scanned hand-painted prints. Yet, Jane's biggest artwork so far is her brightly colored, rainbow house. 


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