White Brick Exterior Reveal

This project was one of those classic “we’re going to knock it out in a week, easy” situations, but after a full month, our white brick exterior reveal is finally here and it was worth the wait.

It’s bright, fresh, and honestly looks like a whole new house! We always knew when we bought this home that we wanted to paint the brick (even though a stranger from Instagram said I was making an “expen$ive mi$take”) but had talked about putting it off another year to prioritize more functional indoor projects.

In the end, we went ahead and did it now for a couple of reasons: We had a week off work for winter break that we’ve never both had before, Clare Paint reached out wanting to work together, and I want to spend a lot more time outside this coming spring and summer and I know if I have a cute outdoor space we’ll be much more likely to do that. I honestly smile every time I pull up to the driveway now and it looks just as amazing as I had envisioned a year ago when we closed on the house.

To recap: we painted the brick (obviously), made new shutters, cleared out some overgrowth, removed the old post lighting and installed a new light that not only made sense but wasn’t a total fire hazard, and got a new front door.

Let’s dive into the very satisfying before & afters:

White brick exterior: Paint colors

It’s hard to find a white paint, you guys. Especially on an exterior, it’s easy for it to look too stark and sterile but it’s also easy to be too yellowy-beige.

I had a lot of thoughts about this before starting, obviously, but as soon as we got the sample for Clare Paint’s Timeless on the brick we knew that was the one.

It’s the perfect shade of white and looks great on all sides of the house and at all times of day.

• Brick, soffits and porch steps: Timeless by Clare Paint (see this post for how-to spray your exterior brick)
• Shutters: Field Trip by Clare Paint (see this post for DIY window shutters)
• Windows: Rustoleum spray paint, Soft Iron

Details

• Planter: This was thrifted from Goodwill years ago! We’ve used it for shoes, as an umbrella stand, for decorative logs by the fireplace and now I feel like it’s finally found its perfect home on the porch.
• Plant: Don’t come to me for green thumb advice but I have kept this guy alive for like three weeks now so I’m kind of a big deal. This little tree is a Tea Olive that we just got at Home Depot and honestly I just picked it for the aesthetic because it had a good color and size and, like, leafiness?
• Porch light: This little cutie is the perfect size and amount of light for our space. It looks like it always belonged there.

Next steps

So, even though we’re calling it our white brick exterior reveal, it’s actually got a couple more phases to go in new railings, a new pathway, window planter boxes, and landscaping in spring when it’s a good time to plant so stay tuned for the for real reveal.

In all, I’m so happy with how the white brick exterior painting process turned out so far and it’s truly not a difficult process to tackle for even a fairly beginner DIYer. We’ll update in a year or so to let you know how it holds up (and if the internet strangers telling us our house will crumble are right) but for now I’m going to take the win and revel in this white brick exterior reveal.

If you liked this post about white brick exterior painting, make sure to sign up to our newsletter to follow along with projects, and follow on Instagram for more day-to-day shenanigans.