Unique Homes: Beer Can House

If you were to renovate your house just to get out of having to do a certain chore, what would be the dreaded task to drive you there? One man in Houston, Texas hated cutting the lawn so much so that it resulted in transforming his home into what is now referred to as the Beer Can house.

The owner, a retired upholsterer named John Milkovisch created this art icon in the late 1960’s. The project originally started off small, as John was tired of mowing the lawn and wanted to transform his yard space into a maintenance free surface. He replaced all of the grass with cement and fashioned fences and a patio from laying out marbles, brass figures and odd end metals in concrete.

Inspired by his garden innovation, John decided to expand the project onto his house. Using over 50,000 beer cans, bottle caps and other drink paraphernalia, John covered the entire exterior of his home in a span of approximately 18 months. Not only did this create an interesting folk art attraction, but these materials served quite well to insulate the house quite effectively.

Today, the residence is owned by The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, a non-profit organization dedicated to art preservation as well as encouraging your visionaries. The home is open on weekends for tourists for a small fee as well. For more information, visit https://www.orangeshow.org/beer-can-house