I think you would loose a lot of value painting your brick. It is the main feature to your front façade. Once you paint it, there is no going back. Be sure.

I'm usually 50/50 on painting brick. Yours isn't special or historic, and is clearly just a veneer. Go ahead and paint. Nicer garage doors will be great since they are so prominent.

Go ahead and paint the gray siding with bright white primer. There are two colors of white in your inspiration house: look closely as the trim is a brighter white than the vertical wood siding. You'll need to pick two new whites for your trim and siding.

If you have the budget to repaint the brick every five years or so, and you don't mind removing the nicest distinguishing feature of your house, then go ahead with painting the brick. You may well find you like two colors of white on the wood trim and siding while leaving the classic brick as the architectural accent it was designed to be.

Your home looks nice. It's not going to look like the White House without some major work. How much do you want to spend re-doing the exterior?

Part of the look is the shake roof on the WH.

You also need to consider the neighborhood.

Is everything on the inside all modern and spiffy?

I’d do it! House is good looking, but dull and there is so little brick to maintain after you paint.

You are going to have to do something with the windows so they don’t look like black holes...

You need this effect:

Life is too short to live with something that bothers you. Maintenance on such a small area shouldn't be a problem. Inquire of others how long you can expect it to look nice.
It will update your home!

CAUTION: Please make sure to price out all the bits and pieces of redoing and painting this brick because this can be a domino situation where one thing leads to another and another. Are other homes in the area being "upgraded"? Do you plan to stay here another 10 years? Keep that bigger picture in mind and understand how much you want to invest and what you might or might not get back from that investment BEFORE you start any part of this project. Just saying that planning ahead can save a lot of grief down the road.

Don't end up with the most expensive house in the hood. You won't get your money back.

My HOA does not allow for painting of brick. Is that something you need to check out?

Thank you to everyone who has responded.

We would stain the brick, not paint, stain last 10 to 15 years, paint sits on the brick that is why you have the maintenance, paint will just peel off.

This is our forever house.

There is no HOA.

To answer one question, yes we did a full renovation inside 3 years ago, which is all modern and spiffy.

This house has three facades on it, the back is stucco, sides are cedar siding, front is brick and cedar. My husband and I have talked about having the brick and cedar removed and stucco applied to front and sides, not sure.

Most people here in Canada that are renovating are having the old fashion brick removed, and new current stone work applied.

Found the photos of the white houses to be refreshing, not cluttered.

Your inspiration shot is good in that it takes into consideration the 3 finishes you have going on. A good clean white paint will be your best friend. But do invest in a real wood door and garage door like your inspiration shot. End result will be close and a definite improvement. Good luck!

Stone glued on the flat to a wall will always look tacky. Stick to your brick and paint it white. Colored stucco sounds great, but it's hard to predict how it will behave on a remodel in specific areas of detail. Most people end up painting it to hide cracks.

If you get the garage door first and paint the trim, then you can always decide down the road what to do with the brick. I would say a new color on the front door would also be great rather than the wood slatted look in the inspiration pic. We have orange reclaimed brick and I went with a yellow door. It is a traditional house but I wanted it fun. New house numbers and modern planters could also be small ways for you to kick it up a notch. I am very much a fan of modern and I try to find ways to get both styles working together.

I vote for yes, go all white. Make sure that if you are staining the brick it will become white, not pink.

Can anyone photoshop what it might look like? I wish I knew how.

Thank you everyone for commenting. I've tried paint visualizers, but it comes out horriblely.

It would would be wonderful if someone could do photoshop for me, I don't have the program.

The front door was replaced 3 years ago, with new modern door with modern door handle it's just you can not see it because it, comes out as dark cave in that spot in the photo. I have included a photo of door from the inside looks exactly the same outside, looking to match garage door to it to give the modern clean look.,

I really don't advice painting the brick.
However, the garage doors are certainly changeable!
A more modern look would be stunning.
Maybe a white garage with a fancy window maybe in black?

I say go for it with the garage, but the brick, I vote no.

I believe do what makes YOU happy, you live there now not someone else. I like the look of painted brick too, unpainted is also nice in some circumstances. I like your house as is, but also think it would look great with painted brick too. I don't think you can go wrong either way. There will always be someone who comes along who does like it & someone who doesn't. You can't please everyone so I say please yourself --it's your house, your life.

Ann, that is a gorgeous front door.

I saw a 50 year old cape cod house yesterday when I was out and about that had white painted brick, black window frames and a cobalt blue garage door. It made it look so modern.

I think Artsy is completely right, do what works for you.

I would find out the cost of removing the brick veneer and replacing with new siding. Then I would compare that price to the cost of staining the brick (and make sure the stain will turn WHITE...not pink).

And then I would ask myself if I can afford to RIP OUT the brick if it doesn't work. That's the other reason why you get a basic quote for "remove and replace". You need to know how much MORE money this will cost if the brick goes badly wrong.

Just a thought. When brick is painted properly, it can look very handsome. When it goes wrong, it looks HORRIBLE and needs replacing.

The other thing I'm "seeing" is the vertical structure of the siding in your inspiration photo. This matches the vertical stripe of the door (both in the photo and your own door). The vertical direction is making up 50% of the "look" you are after. Your brick and your current siding are HORIZONTAL.

I'm worried that the "vertical vs. horizontal" appearance has been over looked. Think hard about the remove and replace option to get the update you are looking for.

I don't believe you can stain your brick white. You could whitewash or paint it. Here it is painted white:

You could stain it dark:

I'm not sure how your home would look if it was dyed & painted white, I think it would probably look pretty good-if it worked. I'm posting for a slightly different reason.

A lot of people in this thread keep referring to "painting" the brick white. The OP really isn't considering painting the brick white. I had no idea brick stain actually existed until very recently, but it is very different than paint. Brick staining is similar to any other stain, the colour is absorbed into the material and it is fairly permanent.

I bought a small amount of brick/mortar stain because I didn't like the look of the mortar in our flower bed. As it turns out I ended up wanting to try staining one of the bricks themselves, and I ended up loving the results. That being said it was -very- difficult to maintain colour - the product needed to be constantly mixed.

I very strongly suggest buying a sample pot of the stain and ideally locating a spare brick that is exactly the same as the ones on your house. Then attempt to obtain the results you are looking for, on the test brick. I have no idea if brick bleach or lightener exists - but if it does you will probably want to test that out as well. The existing colour of your brick will very likely have an effect on the final colour. You may not end up with the look you are wanting.

For what it's worth, I was very doubtful about even trying to stain brick, but I truly love the results, and wish you luck.

Thank you Groveraxle for photo shop the brick white, would you be able to do the rest of house so I would have an idea, if the house suits this color, please keep garage door wood color, thank you again.

Your house is pretty but I looove the inspiration photo of the white house. Your door is already gorgeous so that's a plus. I say go for whatever you need to do to get the look of the white house that fits within your budget.

Ann, I assume you want to see the brick and the siding both in white:

Groveraxle, Thank you it's wonderful to see what the house could look like.

Thanks everyone who has left a comment, it's interesting to hear what other people have to say.

I do think my house with some modification could look very nice white.

Last question to everyone, do you think the garage door on my house would look better as the inspirational photo (wood) or white, and just have front door wood? I do like all white houses.

I'd definitely paint! I'd also bet that the new garage doors you'll choose will pop beautifully once you do if you go with wood. Very crisp and clean. Good luck!

I think it will look good. Although your house doesn't look like your inspiration house I think it will look nice. Right now your front door recedes and painting the house will draw that out