MATTAPOISETT Two months into the pandemic, 7-year-old Eli Rickson decided he wanted to give everyone something to smile about. His idea: a rainbow. But not a rainbow on a piece of paper, nor on a big wooden sign. Eli wanted a rainbow as big as his house. He wanted a rainbow house. One of his other ideas was to paint the entire house like a cheetah, so this seemed like a better choice, said his mother, Sarah Storer.
His father, David Rickson, is a scenic artist for movie sets, where he paints anything from faux wood grain to faux brick. After first asking their neighbors if it would be OK to transform their home, the father and son flipped through a fan deck of paint colors, picking nine.