We’re Painting Our Brick House!

The exterior of our red brick house has been looking a little neglected since we moved in almost a year ago. It’s got some landscaping overgrowth, the bricks are kind of discolored, and at the very least it’s in need of a good cleaning (it is a 70-year-old house). So, this next week we’re going to maximize some time off to tackle a big project: painting our brick house.

Click here to see our white brick exterior.

One thing I’ve learned is people get in their feels about painting red brick. It’s a whole internet debate about whether or not you should paint brick because once you do there’s really no going back, but I also know you should do whatever you want to your house.

I think painting the exterior white will give the home the modern cottagey look that I’m going for on the inside, and hopefully will help make the whole thing look uniform. We’re especially trying to blend in the very obvious addition off to the side that was constructed who-knows-when.

We get to work with a cool paint company, too.

We’re working with Clare paint for this project – they’re a fairly new ship-to-your-door paint company that I had been eyeing for a while and they reached out to work together at the perfect time when we were already planning this project. They sent us a few sample sheets that are like a big stickers you can attach to your surface and move around which is really handy.

We tried out a couple making sure to see the colors on different parts of the house at different times of day (super important to see it in multiple types of lighting), and ended up choosing the color Timeless which is maybe the perfect neutral white.

Next up will be prep. Some friends are letting us borrow their professional-grade paint sprayer (one of the many benefits of having DIYer friends!), and I’m planning to spend the next week watching hours of YouTube videos titled variations of “how to paint your brick exterior.”

We’ll be going around the whole exterior and pressure washing the soffits and face of the brick to remove any grime, and will use exterior grade paintable caulk to fill in any gaps or holes around windows or the brick.

One thing I’ve learned about painting is that prep is really what takes the longest time, especially when you’re using a sprayer. In addition to painting, we’ll be taking down the old, warped shutters and building new ones in a moody green color (Field Trip by Clare). We’ll also be rebuilding the stair railings and adding planter boxes but it might be a little ambitious to commit to getting that done in the first phase of the makeover so we’ll see.

Painting the exterior will really boost the overall curb appeal of the house and doing it ourselves saves a ton of money, plus we get to learn some new skills.

Here’s a little moodboard I made up so you can see the vibes:

It’s going to be so good. We’re so excited to get started and to see how much of a difference it makes.

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