This house in glorious technicolour is the perfect antidote for the grey days of a British winter — so why don't more of us live in brightly coloured homes?

Why are your work shoes black? Why aren't school blazers canary yellow? Why are 80% of new cars these either black, white, silver or grey? And why can't you buy an office chair in sky blue, or bubblegum pink?

Ironically, this question arose in the Country Life office on a day when no fewer than five members of the team were dressed in plain black turtlenecks. And no, it wasn't Steve Jobs Tribute Day*: this was just a normal day in the office, and my jumper in a daring shade of charcoal felt positive jazzy. Modern technology means that we can create almost any object in any hue we like, and yet the vast majority of things are sold only in the most dull, unremarkable and mundane colours imaginable.

The question of 'why' turns out to be wildly complicated, so much so that there are teams of scientists who have spent years looking at the phenomenon. We're not going to solve that on a rainy Monday afternoon (more grey, right?), but we can at least answer the question of what prompted these musings about humans' arbitrary use of colour, and our general preference for muted shades. It was the appearance of a bright blue house on the property market in London.

The Blue House, for sale at £3 million in Bethnal Green, is special for far more than its colour. It was the brainchild of an architect called Sean Griffith, whose company FAT Architecture is well known for its playful creations. This, square-box outline of the original bricks and mortar were transformed with a cartoon-style cut out façade that makes this family home look like a frame from a Snoopy comic strip.

With just under 2,300sq ft of space, and up to five bedrooms depending on how you organise the space, this is absolutely a liveable home; that Griffiths has lived here happily for more than 20 years is testament to that fact.

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There's a large living room and a kitchen on the ground floor, currently three bedrooms and an office on the first and second floors, and a sitting room with an adjoining roof terrace on the third floor.

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The price might seem steep to those to whom the location doesn't mean much, but in this well-heeled and trendy part of East London even a modest terraced home is likely to end up paying the new Mansion Tax in a couple of years' time.

For all that, though, what really catches the eye isn't the Derek Jarman-style stony courtyard garden, or the number of different configurations made possible by the space. It's the colours: sky blue inside, darker blue on the ground floor within, and a fearless mix of pinks, greens and yellows as you move through the rest of the home. It's the sort of joyous palette you'd end up with if you employed a four-year-old as your interior designer — and that truly is meant as a compliment.

As Sean Griffiths himself explains, the whole project had an element of 'thumbing its nose at the architectural establishment'.

So that leaves us with one more burning question. Why don't more of us choose to live in houses of such vivid colours?

It's not as if there aren't precedents beyond hipster-heavy East London. Notting Hill's streets of colourfully-painted houses are reckoned to be among the most photographed domestic buildings in the world.

And the harbour at Tobermory, beautiful as it is, would simply be one of may pretty Scottish harbours if it weren't for the glorious rainbow created by the homes on its waterside.

There are colourful homes out there, and we've collected a few below. If nothing else, let this serve as a reminder next time you come to repaint your own home: don't be afraid to follow your inner four-year-old. You might just end up living in an iconic home that one day ends up featured in Country Life.

The Blue House is for sale via Hemingway+K — see more pictures and details.

*For avoidance of doubt, there is no Steve Jobs Tribute Day at Country Life.

Colour me intrigued: Three homes which break the mould