The Travel Channel video at the end of this will give you a better glimpse into the house than any of the photos I saw online; if you’re interested, I suggest giving it a watch. — Dan

A Different Type of Mug Shot

Collettesville, North Carolina is a small, unincorporated town in the northwesterniish part of the state. It’s tiny — only about 150 people live there — and it’s rather remote.  (Here’s a map.) If you’re wondering where to get a good cup of coffee in Collettesville, well, I can’t help you. But if you just need something to put the coffee in, that’s not a problem. Just go to Avery and Doris Sisk’s house, seen below.

Yes, that’s a house covered in coffee mugs.

The Cup House of Collettsville — or simply the “House of Mugs,” as it is often called — is just a regular old cabin until the summer of 2000. That year, according to North Carolinian publication Our State, Avery Sisk and his sister Ruby “went to a flea market to buy an antique oil lamp,” but came back with something more. They found “a bargain they couldn’t resist: 750 coffee mugs for $15.” And while two cents a mug is definitely a bargain, what is someone supposed to do with that many coffee mugs? You almost have to put them on display.

So, that’s exactly what the Sisks did. They took the hundreds of mugs, hammered nails into the porch wall, and hung them one by one. The first one — in the top right corner — reads “I love New Jersey,” even though neither Sisk seems to have a clear affinity for that state.

The Sisks kept up their original hobby of going to flea markets and estate sales and, over time, created a new one: decorating every nook and cranny of their property with mugs. Each trip to a yard sale or the like yielded a few more cups, and after a while, the Cup House became a tourist attraction. Visitors came to not only see the mugs, but also gift the Sisks one of their own. You’re welcome to do the same today, but beware: you may have a very hard time finding a place to hang your mug.

That’s because there are mugs literally everywhere on the property. There are mugs on the porch, of course, but also on the other exterior walls, on the ceilings, and hanging off the roof. There are mugs on the fence — four rows of cups on the front side and two on the back — and covering the arched gateway in that fence that leads to the yard. The Sisks also have a second, smaller building on the property, and it, too, is covered in mugs. In total, there are more than 30,000 mugs on the property.

Avery Sisk passed away in 2023, but a few years before that, he sat down with the Travel Channel to give a tour of the house, which you can watch here. As Sisk — wearing a custom baseball cap reading “Cup Man” — told the host, he has a favorite one: a mug with the mug of Ronald Reagan. The Travel Channel host left empty handed, but didn’t arrive that way — he gave the Sisks a Travel Channel mug as a gift.

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More About Coffee and Mugs ☕

Today’s Bonus fact: If you want your coffee to feel a little stronger in the morning, you don’t have to change what you’re drinking — you may be able to get a similar effect by changing what you’re drinking it out of. According to a 2014 study, drinking coffee from a white mug may make you think the coffee is more intense than if you drink it from a transparent mug. The research team, according to Gizmodo, gave a few explanations as to why this may be, including that “contrast is a crucial determining factor in how we perceive taste,” and white mugs contrast with the dark coffee, making it look darker and therefore bolder.

From the Archives: The Swedish Coffee (and Tea) Experiment: This isn’t very ethical.

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And thanks! — Dan