You can often tell a lot about a home from the outside. But, as the old saying goes, you should never judge a book - or, in this case, a house - by its cover. Sometimes the most innocuous looking homes contain the most jaw-dropping interiors, and we've compiled a list of nine of the best which will make you want to sell up immediately.

Located in various countries throughout the world, they are a testament to the power not only of imagination but interior design - and in one case, prove that sometimes not updating your home can be a lot more powerful than trying to keep up with the Joneses.

1. On the outside, this is just a plain ol' barn...

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Inside? Well, that's a completely different story.

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This incredible home, based in San Antonio, Texas, is the brainchild of Morton Buildings.

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It's a company which specifically builds these "giant, hangar-type properties", Buzzfeed reports. 

[[imagecaption|| Credit: Morton Buildings / mysanantonio.com]]

2. A fairly standard looking home in Newport, Oregon, that's equipped with three bedrooms and three bathrooms...

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Judging by this view of its yard, it's the drabbest of the drab...

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But there's a secret that will take your breath away inside. It looks like something from the Forbidden City in China!

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Then, when you step further inside, it could quite easily be Dracula's castle. Look at that chandelier!

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And that kitchen! Those hanging vegetables are to die for. Talk about stepping back in time...

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This looks fit for Royalty. Literally.

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Sure, the Sistine Chapel has a better ceiling, but this is a pretty awesome counterpart that's actually obtainable.

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Honestly, this home is on the market for $399,000. You'd expect something this beautiful to be worth millions. 

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3. What looks like a shack in the French Quarter of New Orleans is actually something else entirely...

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And the first hint that there's more to it than meets the eye is hidden behind its window shutters.

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And the inside? It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase open plan living. That swirling staircase is stunning.

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That marble kitchen unit must have cost a fortune.

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And while this bed looks like it could be a little chilly in the winter, we can only assume that this place comes with underfloor heating. It does, after all, appear to have just about everything else.

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It's even got a gorgeous looking garden - complete with a plush patio set and lantern.

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Oh, and it's also for sale - albeit for the slightly higher price tag of $1,160,000.

4. This Toronto home also has a secret - but unlike the others it's not it's size, and it doesn't have decor that you wouldn't expect to see in a run of the mill home. 

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Instead, it's a virtual time capsule.

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Can you guess the period?

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It's the Swinging Sixties! Unbelievably, all of its decors has been completely untouched since then.

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It's a vintage lover's dream and came with a price tag of $699,000. 

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Sadly, however, it's already been snapped up. The good ones aren't on the market for long!

5. If you're worried about the end of the world, or a zombie apocalypse, this home in upstate New York will be right up your street. 

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It's got all the comforts you'd expect in a modern home and a very useful surprise should, y'know, the worst happen.

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Can you guess what it is yet?

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How about now?

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Or now?

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It's not a bunker... It's an actual underground home.

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Check out this map to see how extensive it is:

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Even in a Walking Dead scenario, you could just burrow deeper into the ground.

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And you can guarantee that you'll survive the end of the world, at least for a while, if you happen to have a spare $1,760,000 - seriously, there's a silo so you can even store grain too. 

6. This one's based in the UK

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It looks very English and wet, doesn't it?

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But inside, well, if you're a fan of the color purple, you'll have hit the jackpot in terms of houses.

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Seriously - everything is purple.

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Even the kitchen floor!

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And the floral arrangements...

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And while this home won't be to everyone's taste, someone was willing to cough up $400,000 for it.

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7. A pretty, average house...

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But you know by now that it's going to have a secret.

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So what is it? The inside looks pretty average too.

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Seriously, this is as bland as you can get.

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Even the garden looks like nothing special. But wait, what's that at the bottom of it?

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A pub. A personal pub. Ever beer fanatic's dream.

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Can you imagine the parties that the owners of this house must have in here?

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It's fully functional, and as you can tell, is surprisingly spacious!

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And the price tag? A cool £249,950 ($329,799) - not bad for a home and a pub.

8. This Chicago apartment

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And it's seriously groovy secret. It looks like something straight out of an Austin Powers movie!

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Proof that a groovy look isn't necessarily tacky.

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This living room actually reminds me of Beetlejuice.

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We're not quite sure what the theme of this room is meant to be, but hey - each to their own.

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And while you might expect an apartment like this to have a huge price tag, it's actually surprisingly cheap and can be yours for a mere $168,724!

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Now that's what we call a steal.

9. And finally...

This house was listed for sale in the UK. Unlike the other homes on our list, it looks perfectly normal on the inside, but the outside certainly had a few people talking...

[[imagecaption|| Credit: Zoopia / metro.co.uk]]

Because who doesn't want a giant fish sticking out of their roof?

As if searching for a new home couldn't be stressful enough, one property's online listing has been leaving potential buyers very creeped out.

Per RealEstate.com.au, the property - located on Station Avenue in Blackwood, Australia - is currently for sale and selling agents were required to share photos of the house "as is".

Now, on the outside, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the property is simply in need of a quick paint job:

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And I'm sure many of us will be creeped out by the very outdated decor the home boasts in the kitchen and bathroom:

[[imagecaption|| Credit: realestate.com.au]]

[[imagecaption|| Credit: realestate.com.au]]

However, it is this bedroom picture that looks like it could be a still out of The Shining - as it appears to show a creepy blonde-haired child in a white nightgown clutching a teddy bear and lurking in the doorway:

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If I was on a viewing, there's no doubt I'd be running out of that house as fast as possible. In fact, I'd probably stop looking for homes in the area and move out of Australia altogether.

However, selling agent Peter Jeffrey of Harcourts Packham, assured it is much more innocent than it looks.

"It’s actually a painting on wallpaper," Jeffrey said. "It's a solid, bolted shut, used-to-be sliding door.

"There were eight girls brought up in that house and one of the daughters … put that there many years ago."

But despite just being a picture, Jeffery admitted: "It’s certainly getting a lot of attention."

In fact, the property agent says the picture has led to him being inundated with emails and phone calls from potential homebuyers wanting to be assured that it wasn't a real ghost.

The three-bedroom, one-bathroom house has had the same owners for 57 years, but now they're selling up after moving to a retirement home.

The property is currently listed without a price guide and is scheduled to go under the hammer at auction on November 28.

And another property which has left people baffled recently is the "skinny house" in Chicago,  which, despite its slender appearance, is much bigger on the inside:

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It's like having your very own TARDIS.

A house in Chicago has left people completely perplexed as it seems way too "skinny" for somebody to live in.

If you've gone through the utter stress that is moving house, you'll understand that sometimes it's best to settle for less than your dream home.

That doesn't mean that you can't spend time renovating and turning it into a forever home but having a property immediately tick all the boxes is pretty rare.

But one thing that is usually for certain, is that a house will look like... well... a house.

One property in Chicago has left people in utter disbelief due to its size, as from the front it looks pretty normal, but when you venture around the side the secrets are revealed.

More on the house below:

Aptly named "the pie house", the property is extremely skinny, looking more like a corridor posing as a family home.

The home is located on a 3,876 sqft plot of land in Deerfield, but its dimensions are pretty baffling.

As per the Daily Mail, the home holds two bedrooms and three bathrooms, but one side of the home measures just three feet.

The home is shaped like a wedge, or a slice of pie as per the nickname, and at its largest it stretches to about 20 feet.

The property offers 1,600 sqft of living space and it includes a fully finished basement... are you sold yet?

A TikToker who goes by the name of Eli went and visited the house to give everyone a closer look at the exterior, and he was pretty spot on when he referred to it as the "skinny house".

Viewers of the video were left completely baffled at what they were seeing, and quickly flocked to the comments to pose the questions on everyone's mind.

One person questioned: "But like...how do the stairs work? Are they just an entire corner? Are they spiral? Is it just a LADDER?"

A second added: "How does someone live there," while a third said: "WHATS INSIDE I WANNA KNOW."

Credit: TikTok Credit: TikTok Credit: TikTok

According to the Chicago Tribune, when the home was built it was met with a lot of backlash from residents who didn't like the design - but the designer simply wanted to make good use of space.

Well, it would seem that this house is more than meets the eye!

Featured image credit: PhotoMIX Company / Pexels

The Simpsons has had a monumental impact on television, and our culture in general. When you think about it, it is likely the biggest TV show of all time, as there are very few people out there that don't know who Bart Simpson is, even if they have never seen a frame of the show (don't know how you would manage that). Despite the show's decline in its later years, it's still going strong, with a ridiculous number of episodes under its belt. Since its debut on December 17 1989 it has released 626 episodes, while its 29th season began on October 1 this year. In 2009 it surpassed the previous record-holder Gunsmoke as the longest-running American scripted TV series. And with rumors that they might even make a sequel to 2007's The Simpsons Movie, it doesn't look like they'll be stopping any time soon. Over the last 28 years (it's really been that long), it has gained a lot of followers - with the fans of the classic episodes only growing more vocal with Facebook groups, Tumblr and Instagram. As we all know, fans can get a little obsessive, leading to ridiculous feats such as this house, which was created to look exactly like the Simpsons' family home: The real 742 Evergreen Terrace was brought to life by Kaufman and Broad homebuilders in 1997, in which it served as the grand prize in a competition. If you thought that this creation, which is located in Henderson, Nevada, was weird enough - wait until you see the interior of the house. The winner of the competition was given a choice: take the house, or the immediate cash prize of $75,000. The winner, Barbara Howard, chose the cash prize instead, which disappointed many Simpsons fans who would have loved to have lived there. To be honest, even as a Simpsons mega-fan I'd find it a bit odd to live here, but you could likely sell it for far more than $75 thousand. Unfortunately, the property was too far away from her farm, where her family raises cows, ostriches and tobacco. "Honey, I'd give my eyeteeth to pick up and move there," the competition winner told the LA Times in 1998, "but my family being in the shape it's in, I can't." "What I'd really like is to have Kaufman & Broad build me the house just like it is with everything in it, right here...I'd give anything to have it here and have people go through and pay a small fee that would go to the cancer fund." When the home was officially unveiled, thousands lined up to see it. "It's adorable, I'd like to buy the furniture," one couple told the Las Vegas Sun. "We were here the first day it opened, but the line was so long we left and came back today". Apparently, the designers focused on two rooms specifically, Bart's room and the living room, and ensured they were as accurate as possible. But the supervising architect is adamant the whole property is about 90 percent replicated from the show. After being sold in 2001, the house doesn't look nearly as colorful as it once did: The original home apparently had over 1,500 Simpsons-themed props around the home, including Duff beer cans, and had Bart's treehouse build in the backyard. Whoever is living there now, you have to wonder how much they have changed.

When someone says "McMansions" to you, what do you imagine? Probably a house made of fried food, right? Well you're not far wrong. But when we think about design, we often neglect to think about architecture, because most of us are largely unaware of what an ugly building looks like. When it comes to fashion, or music, or any number of other aesthetic principles, people can be extraordinarily discerning about their personal tastes. Just think about shoes like Crocs or Ugg boots if you want an example. In the fashion world, these two brands have become the butt of many a cruel joke. Yet when someone builds an ugly house? Nothing. Nada. Not so much as a peep from Mr and Mrs General public. It's a double standard that's largely down to ignorance. Oh sure, maybe we all give a cheer when a particularly miserable-looking tower block or brutalist shopping centre is forcefully demolished, but by and large, as long as the domicile boasts four walls and a roof, the vast majority of folks who aren't realtors or architects themselves barely seem to notice. But for those people who do take an active interest: the knowledgeable silent minority, the mistakes made by people who build homes the same way a toddler might construct a clay model are obvious and deeply repugnant. What's worse is that the collapse of the housing market in 2008 has done nothing to stall the seemingly-inexorable rise of low-quality homes, hastily constructed using a clashing medley of materials. If anything, the real-estate crisis has only served to exacerbate the problem. The US now faces a veritable plague of McMansions. I know you're probably thinking "what the hell is a McMansion?" But believe me, it's got nothing to do with fast food. A McMansion is the architectural equivalent of a mongrel dog boasting all the worst traits of every breed. But what makes them so contemptible to designers is that they try to pass themselves off as being opulent, even though it's plain to see that (although vast in size) they're generic, mass-produced, and invariably gauche. Estate agents make a brave attempt to disguise these spurious properties through euphemism and innuendo, using terms like "tract mansion" or "executive home". Anyone with a basic understanding of architectural fundamentals refers to these buildings as "Persian palaces", "garage Mahals" or "Hummer houses." McMansions first started cropping up in California; typically in large, gated suburbs catering to the upper-middle classes, usually on disused lots near a waterfront or golf course. The design is faux-modernist; they superficially resemble Old Worlde mansions and country houses; of a kind built with solid oak timbers and ivy growing up the walls. These homes, by contrast, have all the surface details right, but none of the fundamentals, and come across more like poor facsimiles of the real deal. But what is it about these houses that makes them such a massive eyesore?  As Los Angeles Times writer Greg Goldin once described, "A complete Persian Palace - there are many minor variations and lesser imitations - is distinguished by its exaggerated mouldings, numberless layers of cornices, elaborate grillework and columns galore. A Persian Palace brazenly combines motifs and wantonly disregards proportion and scale." McMansions are seemingly designed from the inside out and not the outside in, thus while the interior is usually appealing, the house's exterior appearance suffers in due proportion, and features oddly placed Palladian windows, uneven roofs, and in general looks like an unattractive mishmash of several different styles and forms. They have quoins, multiple roof lines, complicated massing, pronounced dormers and wide garages to store multiple SUVs . Recently a blog entitled McMansion Hell, run by Kate Wagner, has sprung up. It aims to document the various architectural sins committed by these buildings, and has managed to popularise the term online, as well as gain thousands of avid followers. Despite the bad press this blog has given McMansions in general (and threats of legal action from real estate website Zillow), McMansions don't look like they're going anywhere. On the contrary; they're becoming more commonplace across the country. Much of this is to do with the fact that construction companies see the McMansion as a cost-effective way of using the available space. As Kate herself explains in her blog, "when big building corporations such as Toll Brothers and Pulte Homes, consistently push the 'More House for Your Money!' angle, it’s a safe bet that corners are being cut somewhere ... McMansions tend to use the cheapest materials possible, installed in dubious ways in order to satisfy their builder’s profit margins." But McMansions aren't just aesthetically unpleasant - they're also bad for the environment, since they tend to be oversized, incongruously designed and poorly insulated, they are notoriously difficult to heat and maintain. They use more materials to construct as well - large quantities of wood, concrete, steel and tile are wasted building utterly pointless features for the various residences. But ultimately, the most depressing thing about McMansions is how large and lonely they are - filled with interior and exterior voids. They're homes built without heart or passion; as bland as oatmeal and completely lacking in character or charm. They loom large over the landscape like Overlook Hotel in The Shining; with floor plans that defy understanding and geometry that would make your brain bleed just thinking about it. They seem to be representative of a desperate America, one eager to sacrifice decent living space for affordability and profit - representative of a society that seems to be regressing into itself; gradually becoming hermetic and remote. Frankly, the sooner they end up demolished, the better. Maybe then we'll finally realise that size isn't everything.