How To Paint Exterior Brick Home – Jane’s landlord wants to paint her brick house a dark red. Awful, awful and looks like an old corporate building. Nothing exciting except “good bones”. Big Josh insists that brick, like stained wood, shouldn’t be painted. (They also discuss dark and stained kitchen cabinets.) Who is right?
Painting brick may appear as sacrilegious to some as painting stained wood. About a decade ago, interior design trends took a turn. Many owners are tired of all the colors of the earth and the heaviness of the “Tuscany” stage. People with colored wood in their homes (especially in cupboards) now want it painted white. The owner wanted a fresh, bright space rather than a dark, cave-like space. But many of you are on a real mission to convince your significant other that it’s “okay” to paint stained wood. There’s something about the naturalness of painted wood and brick that appeals to a lot of men. But over the past decade, we’ve seen enough before-and-after photos to prove that painting stained wood is a great idea in most homes, and there’s no reason to avoid it.
How To Paint Exterior Brick Home
Likewise with bricks. There are some “unpainted brick” purists out there, but some brick homes have now been revamped by being painted with less “peer resistance”. In fact, if you do a search on Houzz for “exterior brick house ideas”, MOST pictures will be painted brick, not raw! You’ll also see some in a Google search (and all the unpainted brick houses that come up are great candidates for a paint change!). Given the choice to keep the red-and-brown home or change it to white or beige or gray, most, if not all, people will choose to upgrade.
Painted Brick Reveal
But do you need to paint your brick house just for design reasons? Is there any other reason to paint the bricks or not? I’m also a huge fan of painted brick houses, so I’d like to start with the “cons” to rule out any practical considerations.
If your brick house isn’t painted properly, moisture seeping in can cause the paint to crack and, in a worst-case scenario, damage the brick over time. You don’t want water seeping under the paint through any cracks or crevices, such as near windows and doors, so it’s important to prepare your home well before painting. (Moisture issues aren’t a problem if it’s inside your home, such as a brick fireplace or privacy wall.)
How do you make sure water doesn’t seep under the paint and damage your bricks over time? Use a professional painting company to paint your brick exterior. And don’t use the cheapest ones either. This is not just self-serving advice. Professional painters often have a keener eye than homeowners when it comes to identifying gaps or gaps that need filling or filling. They will also use the proper pH balanced masonry primer and paint to allow the brick to “breathe” while protecting it. And they’ll apply these products in an even layer that’s thick enough to protect your brick exterior from the elements, but not so thick that it will crack over time. Painting a rough, porous surface like brick is much more complicated than painting a house with plaster or wood veneer. This is one area where you don’t want to use shortcuts.
All that dirt and mildew that you never noticed before because your bricks are a mix of different reds and browns? Now you will see. It’s entirely possible that you will need to wash your home from time to time, but this will work for painted exteriors, not just brick. This is because the dirt and mold that tends to accumulate outside the home can be more visible when your house is painted. On the plus side, if you’re unhappy to find that your porous, unpainted brick house is like a giant lint trap for dirt and grime, you’ll feel much better off with a freshly painted exterior that’s easy to clean!
Painted Brick Houses To Inspire You In 2020
Should you paint your brick house? Yes, as long as you understand that this process is irreversible. You can repaint and change color along the way, but you can’t go back to unpainted brick. No, unless you want to remove the paint with chemicals or sandblasting, but these bricks will never look the same and you’ve definitely worn bricks.
If painting your brick house is the way to go, don’t let its permanence scare you. It’s like remodeling an old house. . . Once you’ve torn down that wall, removed the old floor, or promoted your crappy kitchen, there’s no going back. But your home will be much better for it!
Exterior brick painting can make a dark and gloomy home look fresh and beautiful like no other.
Classic or modern, stately home or tiny cottage, nothing beats the charm of painted bricks. This beautiful house? This is how it looked before we painted it!
Is Painting Your Home’s Brick Exterior A Good Idea?
No full paint job can transform a home like this one. If your home is historically important, you may need to leave the brick alone and make minor adjustments, such as painting the shutters, the gable, and the front door. Adding a bit of contrast brightens up the deep reds and muddy browns. But these minor adjustments will hardly have the effect that painting a brick facade can have.
After all, someone chose the brick color when your house was built. This color is a deliberate design choice. Now you don’t have to live with a red house forever if you don’t like (or don’t like) this design choice.
A key element of good home design is contrast. It’s a playful combination of light and dark elements, including landscaping, that gives a home a lot of appeal. Start looking for contrast when evaluating homes and you’ll see examples of them everywhere. For example, whitewashed wood trim, black metal windows, copper drainpipes and sewn metal roofing. Or a blue beach house with lots of fresh white wood like windows, patio railings and shutters. Classic Mediterranean view of white plaster house with red tiled roof. Landscapes, when designed well, add multiple layers of texture and contrast.
The brick exterior often blends in with its surroundings. They are in the same intermediate range (light/dark) as trees and shrubs. And some of the bricks are very “stained” or busy. You’ll need to work hard to make features like doors, windows, and landscaping stand out against a mid-range brick exterior.
Painted Brick: New Exterior Trend
But with painted brick houses, it becomes easier to design to be attractive. Now you’ll get more attention from your doors and windows, and if you’re looking to enhance your curb appeal even more, a bright front door color or contrasting shutters could be just what you need. In terms of landscaping, it would be much more visually prominent than a painted exterior. Now that you can actually “see” all the leaves and branches in your front door, you can decide to prune or clean, or plant flowers for the burst of color to really pop!
It takes place in the beautiful San Antonio house above, by the way. Shawna Percival of Styleberry Creative chose Sherwin Williams “Shoji White” for the facade and “Inkwell” for the doors and shutters. And begonias add beautiful color to the landscape.
Aesthetics aside, there are practical reasons to paint your brick home. Paint allows bricks to “breathe” while also acting as a coating to protect your home from rainfall and other seasonal climate changes. The caveat is that this project should be done by an experienced rock painter who understands the importance of using the right paint products and sealing any cracks that may allow moisture to enter.
Back to aesthetics. Is there a good design reason why you shouldn’t paint your brick house?
Paint Colors For Your White Brick House
If you can get enough contrast between the various elements of your home and the existing bricks, and the color of your bricks appeals to you, you can leave it as is. The key is that the contrast element is quite significant. It’s not just the thin edges of your white vinyl windows that are going to cut it. Here are examples where design features such as the gables, framing around doors and windows, and shutters carried enough weight to lighten the width of the brickwork. (I painted the woodwork for this house in Alamo Heights Benjamin Moore “Pure White” and the shutters Sherwin Williams “Tricorn Black”).
And here’s an example where design features like columns contrast sharply with brick, but homeowners prefer a lighter, brighter look. Designer Mika Pope chose “Super White” by Benjamin Moore for our painting.
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