We all have different tastes when it comes to architecture, interior design, and what it takes to make a house a home, and for some people a run-of-the-mill building with four walls and a roof just doesn't cut it. And thank goodness! These weird, wonderful, and wacky abodes highlight the extraordinary range of homes across America. They celebrate our differences, shine a spotlight on our creativity, and may even inspire us to think outside the box.
Click or scroll through this gallery to step inside the most unusual properties in the United States...
From the outside, this rustic castle looks fairly ordinary, but step inside and things begin to get stranger. Located atop the Seven Sisters above the Connecticut River, Gillette Castle was built in 1914 by notable actor, director, and playwright, William Hooker Gillette, famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in 1916.
Sitting on a 184-acre estate, the magnificent mansion was inspired by medieval architecture but was constructed using steel and local fieldstone.
Gillette designed every inch of the eye-catching castle, including the interior furnishings. According to Connecticut's state website, it took 20 men five years to complete the main structure and Gillette checked every phase of the build, keen to create the perfect house.
Outside, you'll find walking trails that meander through tunnels and feature near-vertical steps, a three-mile narrow gauge railroad and even a private train station known as Grand Central.
Inside, the impressive property boasts 24 one-of-a-kind rooms, overflowing with quirky touches. Every room boasts incredible woodwork, created from hand-hewn southern white oak. There are 47 doors inside and no two are the same. Each has a unique latch, intricately carved from wood by five local artisans.
Undeniably inspired by the complexities and flair of Sherlock Holmes himself, the property is entirely eccentric. The unusual interior re-opened to visitors in May 2023 after closing for several months while the castle's terrace underwent a $500,000 facelift.
The 14,000-square-foot mansion cost Gillette $1.1 million to build in 1914, which equates to around $33.8 million in today's money.
Inside, you'll find built-in couches, a movable table that sits on tracks, and wooden light switches (pictured) that were made to resemble the levers you find backstage at theaters. But that's not all. The house is also said to be filled with secret passageways, hidden doors, and clandestine rooms.
As unique as it is adorable, Pickle Barrel House can be found in Grand Marais, Michigan. It is undoubtedly one of America's quirkiest roadside attractions. The weird and wonderful building was originally built in 1926 by the Pioneer Cooperage Company as a summer home for cartoonist William Donahey.
Donahey created the Chicago Tribune's popular Teenie Weenie cartoon strip and even drew advertisements for pickle vendors Reid-Murdock & Co., who just so happened to sell their product in a small-scale version of the Pickle Barrel House.
Quirky and characterful, the tiny cabin once sat next to Sable Lake, but in 1937 it was moved to Grand Marais and placed on the corner of Lake Avenue and Randolph Street, where it can be found today.
The characterful cottage comes equipped with a living room, a kitchen, a pantry, and a bedroom, spread across two floors as you can see here.
After it was a celebrity vacation home, the property became a visitor information center for the town, as well as an ice cream stand and gift shop. In 2003 the Grand Marais Historical Society purchased the building, restoring it to its original condition.
Today, the bizarre building operates as a museum and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. The Historical Society also put on events where you can learn more about the area's history and meet the people keeping Pickle Barrel House alive. So if you're passing, be sure to stop by to soak up its unique design and cosy 1920s interior.
Luna Parc is the home of American multimedia artist Ricky Boscarino, who designed every inch of the property himself. Located within a sprawling eight-acre wood in the Sandyston Township, New Jersey, the residence was inspired by the Hundertwasser House in Vienna, Austria and Gaudí’s Park Güell in Barcelona, Spain.
Ricky began transforming the property in 1989. When he first bought the quirky house it was an entirely ordinary 600-square-foot cabin.
Over the last three decades, Ricky has dedicated his life to creating a whimsical, fairytale home almost ten times its original size using a variety of media, including metal, clay, glass, wood, and cement. He often shares his creativity on Instagram.
While the exterior of the home is loud and colorful, decorated with characterful faces and giant mosaic artworks, the interior is reminiscent of a fairytale castle. You'll find porthole windows, cozy reading nooks, handmade furnishings, and hand-carved statues. No matter your thoughts on the property, it's clear a lot of time, care, and love went into building it.
Now open to the public, the 5,000-square-foot building houses thousands of absurd and exotic artifacts for visitors to discover. The unique home comprises living quarters, a museum, and a workshop, which is generally open on select weekends throughout the year, although guests must book a timed reservation slot. How's that for unique?
America is home to some truly fascinating roadside attractions, but the Haines Shoe House in York, Pennsylvania, might just be the most bizarre of them all.
The weird and wonderful home was constructed by eccentric millionaire and footwear tycoon (of course) Mahlon Haines in 1948. The self-made businessman was well-known for his odd advertisement campaigns, but this 25-foot-tall shoe-shaped property might just be his most outlandish.
The home even has a mini version of itself which acts as a postbox (pictured). To create the three-dimensional billboard/house, Haines constructed a wood frame with wire lath, then coated that in cement stucco.
Inspired by a high-topped work shoe, the home spans 48 feet in length and 17 feet at its widest part. Decorated with tiny stained-glass windows, the inside is cosy, bespoke, and totally befitting of an eccentric millionaire.
Inside, there are five floors, complete with a living room, kitchen, three bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Haines originally opened the property as an unusual vacation home and even allowed newlyweds to stay in the house for free, according to Hellam Township, where the property is located.
After changing hands many times over the years, the property became a popular roadside attraction for people passing along Route 30. In fact, the home became so iconic that it's fittingly has Shoe House Road as its address.
It was open for tours with the gift shop selling "shoe-venirs" but now you can actually stay in the house. You can rest your weary feet by the firepit or in the hot tub!
American architect Harry Gesner was known for his innovative architectural designs, for which he often drew inspiration from the environment.
Some of his best-known unconventional builds include the Wave House, the Triangle House, and his long-time family home, the Malibu Sandcastle. Gesner built the Sandcastle, known as "Malibu Sand House" for his fourth wife, Broadway actress Nan Martin, in 1961.
As its name suggests, the house was built to resemble a sandcastle and was constructed almost entirely from reclaimed materials, with natural materials integrated into the structure to echo the surrounding environment.
Some of its reclaimed elements include old telephone poles, maple from a high school gym, old-growth redwood harvested in the 1800s, and windows and doors from one of Hollywood’s silent film theaters.
Meanwhile, the home’s architectural opulence continues inside the property, which features built-in furniture, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, a dramatic spiral staircase, stained glass windows, eyebrow windows, and a solarium.
In addition to the main house, the property also includes external "treehouse" and "boathouse" apartments, both complete with a kitchen, living and dining area, bedroom, and bath.
A life-long surfer and self-taught architect, Gesner poured his heart and soul into building this dreamy beach house and it’s not hard to understand why. The atypical property boasts six bedrooms and six bathrooms, with panoramic ocean views and 122 feet of Pacific Ocean frontage.
Producers Chris and Roberta Hanley may have developed a reputation for cutting-edge artistry in the film world, with their collaborations on projects including American Psycho and Sofia Coppola’s directorial debut The Virgin Suicides, but their architectural innovations are no less forward thinking.
Inspired by the sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, the pair hired renowned architect Tomas Orsinski to design their dream home in Joshua Tree, California.
The unique home ultimately took shape as a 5,500-square-foot mirrored rectangular prism designed to reflect its surroundings. And by doing so, it blends seamlessly into the desert landscape.
The glass panels are specially engineered, heat-reflecting Solarcool glass, which helps keep the interiors temperate as well as shielding inhabitants from intense desert UV rays.
Talk about breaking the fourth wall – the home’s walls open on three sides to create the ultimate indoor/outdoor living experience.
Luxury features include a 100-foot indoor heated swimming pool complete with a 224-square-foot projection wall for film screenings, a chef’s kitchen equipped with Miele, Sub Zero, and Wolf appliances, and a Flos lighting system capable of creating colorful ambient lighting for any occasion.
Positioned at the end of the house, the master bedroom is a real show-stopper, equipped with an oversized glass bedframe, soaking tub, floating vanities, and rain shower. The bedroom walls open out onto 67 acres of private desert, offering the ultimate seclusion and privacy.
An architectural masterpiece, the unusual home has featured in numerous film projects, including Netflix’s The World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals.
Would you be brave enough to live on the edge? Perched precariously in a rock outcropping on Bear Mountain outside Evergreen, Colorado, this remarkable home is another which blends seamlessly into its surroundings.
The improbable property was constructed in 2000 and boasts views of the surrounding mountains which are as breathtaking as the staggering altitude of the house itself.
The eight-bed, nine-bath house spans 8,398 square feet, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows throughout making the most of the home’s unique position.
The first floor includes a chef’s kitchen complete with an island and breakfast bar, all surrounded by glass walls to give the impression of dining in the sky. The living and dining rooms, meanwhile, are built around rock outcroppings which make prominent natural features in both spaces.
The home also comes with plenty of bonus features, including a home theater, gym, game room, bar, sunroom, and, best of all, a sunken hot tub overlooking the surrounding landscape, giving the impression that you’re relaxing in a luxurious mountaintop spa.
The home also has plenty of outdoor living space, with a large deck cantilevered out over the cliff face for al fresco dining in the sky. While we can’t recommend this property to anyone with a fear of heights, it would certainly make a magical mountain escape for anyone looking to retreat into a rocky oasis.
This outlandish property was once owned by equally outlandish former girl group singer and American sweetheart, Phyllis McGuire. With numerous hits in the 50s and 60s, the McGuire sisters were once as ubiquitous as the Andrews Sisters, with Phyllis as their undisputed frontwoman.
The youngest of the sisters, Phyllis frequently made headlines for her high-flying lifestyle and celebrity affairs, which included the renowned mobster Sam Giancana.
Phyllis’s Eiffel Tower-inspired Las Vagas mansion was built for her in 1967 by Giancana’s successor, gambler and oil tycoon Edward "Tiger Mike" Davis. The singer’s taste for all things glamor and opulence are clearly reflected in the 26,000-square-foot property, which features a 44-foot replica of the Parisian landmark rising through its center.
With no children and no official husband after her first (married and divorced when she was still very young), Phyllis made sure the home was ready to entertain on a grand scale…
The house’s entertaining spaces include a French Room, an Oriental room, a basement disco, a cabaret, and "Phyllis’s Place," complete with a grill, ice cream parlor, and soda fountain. Every room was amply proportioned to host enormous parties, including the occasional sit-down dinner for 500 guests to which many of Las Vegas’s biggest stars were invited.
To work off the calories, guests could transition into one of two pools, the lagoon, or the tennis court, before retiring to the guest mansion. Ever mindful of her mobster ex, Phyllis also equipped the mansion with bulletproof windows and electric shutters which would slam closed at the touch of a button.
Remarkably, the singer was never able to offload the unique property and so remained there in style until her death at the age of 89.
This funky dome home in the heart of Joshua Tree National Park manages to both blend seamlessly with the landscape and put us in mind of some otherworldly dwellings. The cleverly designed bubble house is comprised of a large adobe dome and several smaller domes, totaling 1,339 square feet.
The largest dome, pictured here, comes complete with a kitchen, living area, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms, all decorated with curving walls and ceilings, quirky nooks, and sleeping alcoves. The smaller domes, meanwhile, function like sleeping pods, accessible by means of a small wooden door you have to crawl through to get inside.
As a building material, adobe is excellent for keeping spaces cool, making this home the perfect place to escape the California heat. The property also includes a meditation temple and an adobe swimming pool and firepit to complete the perfect desert retreat.
If you fancy a Flintstone-style vacation, you’ll be pleased to know that the Bonita Dome Home is available to rent on Tripadvisor. Enjoy an evening of stargazing by the pool, then curl up in one of the cozy sleeping pods for the night. It's an unusual place we'd definitely love to spend time in.