From the moment we laid eyes on our home, I knew we would eventually paint it white! Like all good things, getting through most of our interior remodel took the majority of the first two years of living in our home(and counting). Outside renovations were at the bottom of a very long list of repairs and renovations.
After OBSESSING, no really, OBSESSING over every white house that could be found on the internet, we were finally getting ready. A few things to consider before painting your brick house white:
How much natural light hits your home?
Do you have a lot of green cast? This is where the trees/grass in your yard reflect a lot of tint up onto your home.
Casting occurs more often in shady locations in my experience, so we didn’t experience much of that, but I see many homes where it should really be held in consideration. In our case, it is nearly FULL SUN all day. The back side of our house IS full sun all day, really something to take into consideration. The front sits on the shady side, but irregardless it is very bright up here on our hill nearly all the time. I think one of my biggest fears of painting our brick white was that you would pull up and it would BLIND you! I was more worried about that than picking the wrong color. I was afraid of choosing a blinding white that you couldn’t even stand to look at.
Another thought we briefly considered was white washing, or German smearing, but ultimately, for our “country club” style home I believed it was just begging to be solid white. Many doubted if painting our brick was the right choice (ahem, my dad), but as you know me, there was no stopping the idea once it started! After many a deliberation, we landed on Alabaster by Sherwin Williams. This white has the tiniest bit of cream to it (If you’ve been around for more than 5 minutes you have heard me talk about this color and my undying love for it- and part of that love started here!) and I truly believe this tiny bit of cream is what makes it look true white in the bright sun. The best way I can describe Alabaster is “white with a little bit of the white knocked off”. It still stands out from our trim, which is simple “trim white” from Sherwin Williams as well. I wanted there to be that slight difference and when paying close attention you can tell that the trim and the brick are two different colors.
Naturally, when it was time to begin the house painting- something we hired out…..we…..went to the beach???? I still can’t believe we did this, but the weather while our trip was scheduled turned out to be perfect and our painters wanted to capitalize on that. So, off to the beach we went and the painters came and painted our red brick house white! This is the most unlike me thing to ever happen, but I guess between having a 8 month old and just wanting my house painted, I rolled with it! Someone did snap us a few photos while we were away which is where some of the in-between shots are coming from.
Our guys also did some repair work. While painting the exterior of your home is not necessarily the most expensive home project you can take on- it’s rather affordable as far as projects go for impact, it does tend to lead to what I like to call “project creep”. This is where one project creeps into the next because one thing leads to another. We had to fix some boards/fascia and decided to change the vinyl siding pieces out to board and batten while we painted the exterior, leading to additional costs. Also, take a look at the front porch. We knew those columns would eventually need to be changed out because they were obviously rotting(not surprising because our house was built in 1966), but it was not something we were wanting to take on at the time because of costs, and honestly, decision fatigue. All this to say, we did things MAYBE a little out of order, but I am still glad we went ahead and painted the brick because it made such a huge difference and allowed us to get down the road on other projects. Also worth noting, we still need to replace our windows.
Now is a good time to point out the things that did go wrong! I’ve learned no project goes off without a hitch. Life never seems to be that easy! Best just to roll with mistakes as they happen and not let them get you down. I’ve learned that very rarely can mistakes not be fixed, and also to not be afraid to point out things I don’t like or that didn’t turn out as I had hoped. It’s your home, always speak up.
The first mistake was the painters painted the front side of this top brick. I wasn’t here, so I wasn’t even mad it happened, I just knew I didn’t like it. If not painting the porch floor, this should have remained brick. They came back and somehow got it off- I think a combination of paint thinner and pressure washing.
I picked out these shutters from online and ordered all new shutters. They are paintable plastic and should last forever. The original color I picked out was Pussywillow by Sherwin Williams. After they painted up the shutters and I held them up, in our bright sunlight this color was entirely too washed out and looked almost white in the sun. Oops! We had to repaint them and I chose Dovetail by Sherwin Williams and I have loved it!
Here’s where we landed post painting our brick house white! This was before our big porch renovation and before we had our landscaping done. Also as a reminder, we had been living in our house 2.5 years when this happened, so things take time! The internet makes major home renovations look like they happen in a blink, but they really do come in phases! If you have painted your brick house white, drop your paint color in the comments so folks can look up those whites! It’s a tough world out there coming up with the perfect white for your home and it could maybe help someone out! So, what do you think!? Should we have left her red brick???