Miranda Dickson, a spirited mother of two, is facing an exorbitant fine after she chose to paint her home’s front door the color pink. The 48-year-old Edinburgh resident violated outmoded city regulations that forbid people from painting their doors in loud colors – and now she could be slapped with a whooping $23,000 for daring to give her Georgian dwelling a modern touch!
Despite living in the World Heritage Conservation Site of New Town, Dickson believes that the outdated regulations should be revised to reflect contemporary times. Consequently, she would love to paint her front door a cheerful pink shade!
Upon inheriting her parent’s Scottish abode in 2019, Dickson completed a full renovation of the property – including having a professional company give the front door a fresh coat of paint. However, Edinburgh Council officials have dismissed this new color choice and are now commanding that she repaint it to something more subdued; they suggest utilizing white gloss for uniformity with nearby residences.
Dickson insists that she should be able to keep her door painted pink, as there are other properties on the same street of Drummond Place with brightly-colored doors. City planners have asked her to change the color, yet Dickson contends that this is simply because hers stands out against their uniform expectations.
Comparing her area to vibrant cities like London’s Notting Hill, she highlighted Bristol as possessing the same style of cheerful architecture. Her words served as a testimony that beauty and charm existed in every corner of Britain.
“There are cities in the UK like Bristol, Notting Hill, and Harrogate which are brightly colored. Coming home and seeing my front door gives me joy, I’m proud of it. It’s my house, I own it. It’s not like I wanted to build a glass box. Georgians loved pink – in that era, all the windows were painted grey or black, and people had different-colored front doors. I’ve had overwhelming support from people saying ‘it’s amazing, and ‘it makes me smile.”
Dickson’s vibrant pink door has become such a celebrated sight, that it now even has its own Instagram page! Whenever passersby explore the touristy district of town, they quickly pull out their camera to snap an unforgettable shot.
Despite this, the city planners are trying to impose a large fine of $2,300 on Dickson for not changing her paint color from pink to white gloss. Unsurprisingly, they have deemed the pink shade as “unauthorized”.
Nevertheless, if it’s determined that she has breached the conservation protocols of the region with her paint job, then a penalty as grave as $23,000 might be charged to her.
“I don’t want to paint it white, I’ll paint it dark red. People are saying ‘why don’t you paint it a rainbow of muted colors.”
