MONTREAL -- Festive coloured balls decorated Montreal’s Gay Village for seven years but now they’ll be decorating living rooms.

On Saturday thousands of the balls were put up for sale at the Espace Village gallery. The rainbow orbs were sold for $5 per ball.

Designed by urban designer Claude Cormier, the balls were originally meant to go up for just one summer but became so popular that the city ultimately used them for seven straight years. Originally all pink, the design was switched to balls of all colours in 2017.

The balls were originally supposed to come down permanently before last summer but a meeting between Cormier and Mayor Valerie Plante ended with an agreement for one last hurrah.