Saturday, June 5, 2010

Printable Street of Houses


Here is a free print-out for you- pardon the pencil smudges!

(click to enlarge, then go to "file" and "print." Best printed on cardstock)
These little houses are designed to be colored and cut around, but not apart. Bend the area between the houses, and the row of houses will stand on their own.

These are not authentically drawn Victorian or Queen Anne styles, but they are close (they are actually the little-known LilyBeth style). I have colored them in two ways with pastel colored pencils:
The cheerful pink cottage in the middle belongs to a very romantically minded homemaker, who loves her lace curtains and collecting tea cups. However, her garden needs a bit of care; all the rabbits in the neighborhood thrive there and pester her sedate neighbors in the green house on the left (where everything is in tip-top-shape). The big house on the right belongs to a cheerful family, who would also rather not have rabbits in their garden. But no one says anything, because they would rather get along and swap tea sandwich recipes.
This second set is actually using colors specified for "Victorian" type houses, from the book "Turn-of-the-Century Houses, Cottages and Villas" from Shoppell's Catalogs. In this reprint of house plans from the 1880's to the 1900's, I have not yet found a blue house, curiously enough.

Here are some of the combinations listed in the book for late Victorian house colors:
Colonial yellow with white trim
Buff with dark bronze-green and mahogany brown trim
Dark green with red and drab trim (sort of a beige)
Oiled shingles with cream trim, roof in oiled shingles as well
Cream with red trim and dark red roof shingles
Brown with maroon
Tan with red trim and roof
Yellow with silver shingles and white trim
Green with dark green trim, red shingles
Olive with dark green and bright red

I'll admit, some of these combinations do not appeal to me, and I like to see the new colors we have today to paint houses with:) And, with all the wonderful spectrum of colors available to us to use, I never like to see a gray house with black shingles!

Try using crayons or art markers for brighter colors. You can even glitter them for Christmas!


Thank you for your interest in The Pleasant Times Printable Street of Houses! It is free for you to print! If you found it useful to you, please consider giving a donation to help fund my craft room:)