A kind and spunky mother of two faces a massive fine after she painted the front door of her home the color pink. Apparently, Miranda Dickson, 48, violated council rules that are “thirty years out of date” by painting her front door a loud color.
And now the woman with the Georgian home located in Edinburgh’s New Town faces a fine of up to $23,000 for getting her door professionally painted a color that the city does not approve of.
Because Dickson lives in New Town, which is classified as a World Heritage Conservation Site, she is forbidden from painting her front door color like pink. However, she feels that this rule is out of date and should be updated to reflect the climate of the modern world.
Dickson inherited the Scottish home from her parents in 2019. And she recently completed a renovation of the home that included a new paint job for the front door by a professional company.
However, city planners with the City of Edinburgh Council have rejected the color of the door that Dickson has selected and are now insisting that she get it repainted to a more conservative color. They suggest that she have her door colored with a white gloss to make it match the other homes in the area.
Although the city planners want her to change the color of her door, Dickson claims that other homes on her street of Drummond Place have brightly colored doors. Because they exist on other properties in the area, she feels that she should be able to have a pink door.
She compared her part of town to other British cities with colorful homes like Notting Hill in London. She also suggested that Bristol was an example of a town that had the same type of design as her home.
“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 pink door has become so popular that it has its own Instagram page. Many people snap photos of her new pink door as they travel through the touristy part of town.
However, the city planners are threatening to fine Dickson nearly $2,300 if she does not have the paint changed to a white gloss. They suggest that the pink color is “unauthorized.”
However, she might be charged with a fine of as much as $23,000 if her paint job is considered to be a breach of the conservation rules of the area.
“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.”