The house painted with 'spiteful' smileys, and other emoji rows

A California woman has insisted that painting huge emojis on her house was not an attempt to get back at her neighbours - but it's not the first time the Unicode characters have caused controversy

A neighbourly dispute in the laid-back Californian comminuty of Manhattan Beach has deteriorated into pulling faces. Giant, grotesque faces, on the side of a hot-pink house. As first reported by Mark McDermott for Easy Reader News, homeowner Kathryn Kidd says her intent in covering the walls of her two-level duplex with two gurning yellow emojis was to bring her neighbours joy, and definitely not to get back at them for reporting her for illegally renting it out on Airbnb. Kidd said: "Instead of everybody being so gloomy, always so depressed, always in other people's business, I just wanted to send a message to be happy."

THE EMOJI HOUSE @ztheart @thegoneman #TheEmojiHouse