ONE of Oxford’s quirkiest houses is to go on the market — but not before the owner strips all the rooms to the bare bones to help make a sale.

Don Smith has owned the property at 50 Aston Street, East Oxford, for 20 years and converted it 10 years ago from a traditional Victorian terraced house into a psychedelic assault on the eyes with black walls, ultraviolet lights and wall-to-wall paintings.

But, despite spending about six years transforming the property, he has decided it is time to move on — and the artwork is all coming down.

Mr Smith, who turns 50 next month and works in IT, said: “Some people said I could sell it as is, but I took professional advice that it would be rather difficult and I didn’t want to go through a long process.

“There was no other house like this in the world, and I would have spent months and months with people traipsing around the house, then they would go away again and I would still have a house to sell.”

About 20 people helped Mr Smith create his home, including graphic designers, street artists and gifted amateurs.

Most of the walls were painted black with psychedelic forests, sea scapes and other fantastic images depicted on the walls.

One of the toilets appeared to grow out of the roots of a tree, and some of the bedrooms had hammocks for beds with a squashy floor underneath in case the sleepers lost their balance.

Mr Smith has already pulled down much of the plasterwork and will soon start painting the walls white, ready for sale.

He is hoping to put the four-bedroom house on the market in April.

He said: “We have done a lot of knocking stuff out and, yes, it has been highly emotional.

“A lot of people have been coming up to me and saying ‘you shouldn’t have done it’, but you would never sell it as it was to a family.”

The home was well-known locally as a party venue, with about 500 parties held there in the last decade. It also threw open its doors for the last five years during Artweeks.

Mr Smith estimated that about 40,000 people visited the house since he converted it.

He said: “I’m not going to miss living under black lights because I’ve done it now.

“There were two main groups who loved the house, people who came during Artweek who loved it but would never dream of living here, and people who came here to party, and would never have had the money to run it.”

He said he would not decide on the asking price until work on the house was complete, but estimated it would be in the region of £400,0000 to £420,000.

fbardsley@oxfordamail.co.uk