Need exterior paint ideas!!

[MrsDM]

Dan and I hate the outside of our house. It has no curb appeal. We are confident though, that with a little landscaping and fresh paint, it will be more of what we are looking for.

That being said, one of the main things we hate, is the brick color. Its not a solid red brick, its like one cream brick, 2-3 red bricks, one cream brick, etc. We decided we are going to paint the brick! The question is..what color? I guess I'm leaning towards a tan/grey, but is that too much on the right side of the house which is completely covered in brick?

Here is our house -

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll63/FutureMrsDM/House.jpg?t=1240357908

So here is our plan/goal.

We need to decide on a brick color, overall color and shutter color (we are adding shutters)

I really like the sage green/white look in newer homes:
http://bp2.blogger.com/_R2q6hzF41-E/SJieuVJrLrI/AAAAAAAABuo/fegiVq9H-Tw/s320/Paint_03b.JPG

http://www.herhome.com/magazine/articles/content/images/2006/summer/exquisite-exteriors-choosing-a-color-scheme/home-plan-8555-ansley.jpg

Another idea, but I feel it may be a bit bland:
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll63/FutureMrsDM/tancolor.jpg?t=1240358947


My problem is I have a lot of brick to cover and I'm not sure what colors to paint the brick, the house and the shutters we want to put up. Any thoughts? Suggestions?? Pics???

[NOTKT]

I really like the green/white look. It's fresh and clean and will hardly go out of style. Very classic.

[Nekochanpurr]

I really like the green/white look. It's fresh and clean and will hardly go out of style. Very classic.

Ditto this. Its very pretty! :)

[mitch]

OMG Your Garage is bigger than My entire House. :bbeek:

I personally wouldn't paint the Brick. One of Our Neighbours has done that on the side of their house and it looks pap.

I would paint the Cream bit a Terracota Colour to give it some ooomph. Then add a few shrubs and pots. Your Lawn is very large and appears to be very flat. (Wish My Garden was like that lol) This in itself makes the House look further away than it maybe really is.
A Colour on the plain walls would pull the bricks into the equation and make it look one house.

I have a tiny strip of plain wall that runs across the top of My House. That too is a similar Colour to Yours. The rest of the House is Brick. One of Our Neighbours has painted theirs Terracota and it looks the dogs nuts.

Infact We used to live in a Flat (Apartment) that over looks where We live now. And i used to look down on that Terracota and wish i lived there.

Just My Tuppence. :)

[Kfancii]

Jeanne- I'm with Mitch. I wouldn't paint the brick either.

Brick is carefree and once you paint it, you have just added alot more maintenence to owning your home. Paint has to be redone every 8-10 years and since brick is a porus surface, it is going to be tough to get paint to adhere to it correctly so that you don't have a problem even sooner. The picture you posted of the sage green home shows brick almost the same color as yours. Maybe you should change the color of the rest of the house and leave the brick alone, add the shutters and trim in white and you would probably be much happier with the curb appeal.

[MrsDM]

See my problem is this - the brick is ugly!! If it was a solid red, brown, or whatever, I'd be fine with it!

I'll have to wait until I get home tonight and take a better picture of it. Its like they mixed two different kinds of brick.

[FFC]

Jeanne, can you sandblast the brick? Then maybe seal it with a tinted sealer to make the bricks all match? I would avoid painting the bricks if possible.

I can't see most of the pics you posted, but I love the sage/beige you posted!!!!

[MrsDM]

Jeanne, can you sandblast the brick? Then maybe seal it with a tinted sealer to make the bricks all match? I would avoid painting the bricks if possible.

I can't see most of the pics you posted, but I love the sage/beige you posted!!!!


That...may work! Did I ever tell you I loved you!? LOL!!!

I may go to just a little more of a cream color for the house and then use some sage colored shutters for the splash of color. I'll have to ask Dan to see if that is something we could do.

The other option is like some other suggestion is just do what we originally wanted to do by re-painting the front and putting the shutters on and landscaping to see how it turns out.

I'm getting so impatient..can't ya'll tell!? LOL

[Kfancii]

See my problem is this - the brick is ugly!! If it was a solid red, brown, or whatever, I'd be fine with it!

I'll have to wait until I get home tonight and take a better picture of it. Its like they mixed two different kinds of brick.

See...I don't think it is ugly at all. Down here alot of the houses have mixed brick patterns or gradients of color throughout the brick themselves.

If you want to see ugly, I need to take some pictures of the new construction they are building next to our subdivision. They are now mixing red brick with brown flagstone on the same two story house. The colors in the stone and brick are not in the same family and it looks horrible! This same house also have little can lights all around the house under the roof soffets. It is a very interesting looking house. I actually like the little lights, but my DH thinks it looks stupid and he is an architect so he has been "trained" to know what looks good and what doesn't!

[FFC]

That...may work! Did I ever tell you I loved you!? LOL!!!

I may go to just a little more of a cream color for the house and then use some sage colored shutters for the splash of color. I'll have to ask Dan to see if that is something we could do.

The other option is like some other suggestion is just do what we originally wanted to do by re-painting the front and putting the shutters on and landscaping to see how it turns out.

I'm getting so impatient..can't ya'll tell!? LOL

:rofl:

I like the idea of painting the house (not the brick) then seeing how it looks - if you still think the brick needs fixing then worry about it once the house is painted.

I feel ya on the impatient thing - I hate not being able to get stuff done in my house, but like you said before - the house will always be there :)

[MrsDM]

See...I don't think it is ugly at all. Down here alot of the houses have mixed brick patterns or gradients of color throughout the brick themselves.

If you want to see ugly, I need to take some pictures of the new construction they are building next to our subdivision. They are now mixing red brick with brown flagstone on the same two story house. The colors in the stone and brick are not in the same family and it looks horrible! This same house also have little can lights all around the house under the roof soffets. It is a very interesting looking house. I actually like the little lights, but my DH thinks it looks stupid and he is an architect so he has been "trained" to know what looks good and what doesn't!

OMG - those lights under the soffets..I've seen that in newer subdivisions here. I'm with your DH, I don't like the way it looks at all!

[MrsDM]

:rofl:

I like the idea of painting the house (not the brick) then seeing how it looks - if you still think the brick needs fixing then worry about it once the house is painted.

I feel ya on the impatient thing - I hate not being able to get stuff done in my house, but like you said before - the house will always be there :)

We are almost done painting the kitchen and living room! I hope this weekend we can get the curtians/shades up, put furniture in its right spot and start putting stuff on the walls. I may have somewhat of a real house by the time the weekend ends!! :)

[FFC]

We are almost done painting the kitchen and living room! I hope this weekend we can get the curtians/shades up, put furniture in its right spot and start putting stuff on the walls. I may have somewhat of a real house by the time the weekend ends!! :)

It's so exciting to make some progress!!!! I can't wait to get internet at home so that I can look at your progress pics and ideas!

[mitch]

OMG - those lights under the soffets..I've seen that in newer subdivisions here. I'm with your DH, I don't like the way it looks at all!

OK lost in translation. I give up. What's a Subdivision?? :bbredface:

[MrsDM]

LOL its like a little community within a community.

Like this -

http://www.planningwithpower.org/images/photos/Aerial/subdivision-2.jpg

Here are the plans for a subdivision :

http://www.midwtech.com/images/subdivision-platting-layout.jpg

Its basically a development of anywhere between 10-100 houses in a certain location.

[mitch]

Aha!! A Borough. :rofl:

We have something like that on the edge of Town. They are so snotty there they refuse to say they are from the same Town. Even going as far as saying they live in a Postcode that is Three Towns away. :bbeek:

But that's OK coz We don't want to be associated with them either. :rofl:

[amisteratwisterandme]

I wouldn't paint the brick either. If at all in the future you want to sell it, that may be a big contention with buyers.