I wouldn't paint it ,I like your brick ,maybe paint the door and add new outdoor lighting and landscape,dark mulch and flowers in large pots...or hurricane type shutters

Your original, Roman brick seems to be in great condition. I would choose siding and door colors to show off the beauty of the whole house. Paint companies have suggested exterior combos you might consider.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

@groveraxle, I'd be curious to know why painted brick is a maintenance headache. And thanks for mocking up the colors. As we just painted, we want to keep the color we have, which looks great on all other sides of the house that don't have brick.

Thanks again y'all.

-Bill

Use redomydigs.com - he isn't afraid to suggest brick painting!

the preference would be to make them blend by painting the board and baton portions with a darker color. A "Charleston Green" color would recede to the back allowing the brick to be featured and as a foil for the showcase of the landscaping plants to bloom and visually work off of. Nice bones.

Bill, painted brick can be a maintenance headache if, as in many cases, it isn't prepped and applied correctly. It's a porous material and can be susceptible to mildew behind which causes the paint to peel off then have to be reapplied often. Staining and white washing the brick are other options. Since the whole rest of your house and the front batten is wood I would color the brick with one of these methods, I think it would look great! Either using the color you used and like on the wood or a warm gray on the brick would look great against the lighter color. Good luck and please post your "after".

My second post didn't take. I want to echo previous poster about porosity of brick. Also, since your home has brick on only one side and is only one story's worth--painting or staining won't be much trouble to maintain. If you don't color the brick, the front could take a prairie or Asian style of landscaping. Love grover's thought to expanding the front porch/steps. It'll not only look great, the step will be safer.

Painting brick is never a good idea.

If you ever paint your brick you'll have to continue to repaint it forever. I would NEVER paint brick.

Paint the brick the same color. Refer to Fixer Upper for ideas.

Not all brick is the same....not all brick accepts paint very well. Check with reputable house painters for both estimates and recommendations. Once you paint the brick, you will have to maintain it, just like any other painted exterior surface...shutters trim, etc.

you can do a masonry wash on the brick but that will only hold for about 4 years then have to be touched up. Brick is a "Final" finish in most cases. Brick is suppose to breathe with your walls to let water vapor travel through if the paint used on the brick clogs the pores of the brick one would be setting ones self up for some bad moisture in wall issues.

Bill, your brick has lasted for over 40 years with possibly zero maintenance. From what I'm now reading, you'll be scraping and reprinting the brick ore often than the rest of the house. Perhaps I appear to be waffling, but it'd be so cool if you kept the brick original and showed it off with a great paint color on the front door and created the wider front porch. Then have a great landscape plan and any other adornment that fits with the style you wish to achieve.

We owned a brick house in Dallas several years ago. It was built in 1927, and we had it painted gray with white trim. What a difference. We lived there for 10 years and never had any maintenance done on the brick. It looked just as good as it did 10 years earlier. I say go for it!

Thank you all very much for your suggestions! We're going to take a month to "think" about it and see how we feel about the brick after that. Given that it's a limited amount of brick, mostly a facade, we're less concerned about the maintenance, though I understand that if/once we paint, we can't go back.

Will post photos if we decide to paint the brick, front door, or expand the front steps.

Paint it!

im in the same boat, not sure if the B&B will go well with the brick. siding and brick is tough.