Happy to see lots of color on lots of homes

BRIGHT colors are not new to our Santa Monica neighborhood [“Painting the Town Red, Tangerine, Cobalt

” July 19]. I’m sorry that writer Joe Robinson didn’t travel two blocks east of Ann McGuirk’s cobalt-blue house to see the cobalt-blue, mustard-yellow and lime-green bungalows all in a row.

When I first saw them, I hated the colors. Then the landscape was completed and it all made sense -- homey and whimsical Caribbean cottages that are a cheerful asset to our neighborhood.

Deborah Pomerantz

Santa Monica

A

neighbor, walking by, asked, “Do you know that you have four colors on your house?” I replied, “There’s actually five.” (Did she not count the white trim?) She wondered, “Why?” and I said, “Life is too short for beige.”

She walked off, shaking her head. I didn’t volunteer that the back of our place has seven colors and we lovingly call it Joseph House.

Jan Driscoll Long Beach

I

vastly prefer a whimsically colored house to those beige, boxy behemoths that have erupted in my neighborhood, sucking out all life and grass and sky colors in the process.

Unlike those forbidding McMansions, small, colorful houses are friendly, and they cheer me as I pass by. Then again, I drive an orange car.

Laura Drabkin Studio City

ONE of the most wonderful things about California is its diversity. There are plenty of communities in the Northeast and Midwest where every home is beige or white; let California continue to welcome people of all colors!

Mary Willard

Encino