The Color For Today is Gray: Firehouse Dipping Time

Amherst History Month by Month

A small home on Pine Street has recently been given a new lease on life. The historic wood-framed firehouse that was built by the town in North Amherst in 1920 is now a private home. During the early 1990s, when it was listed in the North Amherst Historic District, it was vacant. Its owner, artist-activist Phyllis Labanowski, recently hired a painting crew from Leverett to work with her, and instead of picking from a range of common house colors like brick reds or buff-colored hues, they took the step of “dipping” their entire house in one color. Gray. 

Dipping is all the rage for household objects and decor. With hydro-dipping (see also here), acrylic paint resting on the surface of water is then transferred onto an object through dipping the object into the paint, producing a marbling effect. An analogy of the technique has been extended to room painting by using a single color for the walls and trim. Salvaged household goods, furniture, and homestyle items are also often dipped in a single color paint. In the case of this Pine Street house, it looks like a fairy has picked up the entire house and dunked it into a pot of paint.

I had a chance to talk with Kalpana Devi, the business manager of Lion Paws Painting, who told me that her partner, Manou Africa, who supervised the job, and the crew were really pleased to be involved in such a special project so close to the historic (North Amherst) center. “The color is really beautiful, a mid-range soft gray,  and we respected the dignified yet non-conformist creativity [shown].” The accents on the wood sash of the windowpanes are fire-engine red. 

Lebanowski explained to me that she sometimes watches HGTV type shows to unwind (I think many of us do,) and that was where she saw interior designers dipping rooms. She had been contemplating what might work in the five years since she has owned the firehouse. I know it is hard to imagine how it might work for an entire house to be dipped in the same paint color, but Lion Paws Painting was inspired by her vision, and every wooden surface received several coats of gray paint, with the exception of the red front door and the window frames. 

The use of fire engine red for the trim is appropriate, since the house served as the North Amherst Fire Station from its construction in 1920 until the North Amherst Fire Station was built at the top of Eastman Lane in 1975. The older building is close in style to the Amherst Central Fire Station built in 1930. The “steeple” on the North Amherst house was used for drying fire hoses after use.

All the house painters who worked on the house double as musicians in a band called ReBelle. If you are wondering where the name of the company came from, you can credit Manou and Kalpana’s daughter, who came back from school one day bubbling over with love for a poem by the great 14th century Sufi mystic, Hafiz.*

Everyone involved has helped to make the building sing with a new “skin.” ”And,” Lebanowski said, “tons of people, as they’re driving by or are stuck at the light, waiting for it to change, yell out their car windows, ‘We love your house!’”