I have to talk about the brick for a minute now. I have been pondering it and even went so far as to buy small samples of paint at Home Depot. Did I mention that in a previous post? You can buy 8 oz. samples of paint to try it out before you invest in a gallon. Hooray! What a brilliant idea. So, I took some bricks up to the paint department and talked to Les, who turned out to be a nearby neighbor! We talked about my hatred of the amount of white brick and discussed some options.
Actually, I think all the brick has overwhelmed me. Originally, I thought we’d paint the house. Never thought for a moment we’d keep it since it had all this white on it. But, we really love the “old mill brick” kind of look. Just too much white. I suspect the original owners went back at some point and added white to some places.
There are actually six different types of brick on this house:
- Main house brick
- Fence brick (Which may actually be the same as the original brick before the white enhancement. I suspect this because the white shows above where I cut the bushes down to half height and not below that point!)
- Front step brick
- Addition area brick
- Back patio brick
- Back covered patio brick.
We saved the brick from the fireplace inside to use when we build the front porch and new chimney so those new items will look similar to the front. Green thoughts indeed!
Did I mention that I am not afraid of paint? I painted a first coat on some of the more offensive white bricks on the covered patio area. Can you see the pieces of little blue tape? I am hopeful that when I am done, you will need them to tell which bricks I painted!
For obvious reasons, I ended up going back to do a second pass at it. Much more to my liking! Showed it to Jeff, and he said it looked fine! Now, I just need a day with a bit of time when I can attack the front, entry and side!
I do like a bit of white on my brick. In fact, as I was driving through Charlotte yesterday I saw the perfect example of this! I wish I’d snapped a picture! What I liked about it was that there was some white brick and that the white trim really set it off nicely. On our home, there is too much white and too much white siding.
Today was the big day! I got started painting it. I must admit I am a bit nervous about how it will turn out. I mean, brick is so permanent! Of course, it was painted white in places before, so I guess I am just “enhancing” what was previously in place. I stopped before I got too crazy with it figuring that “less is best” since I can always add more brick color paint after looking at it with fresh eyes. Of course, now that I see these pictures side by side, I think it still has too much white!!! What do you think?
Before (Above) & After (Below):
Renovation Projects 