Agree!^ The brick is much too nice.

If you look online for photos, most of the "black" houses are boxy/modern in their design and actually dark brown, not black.

Your house is beautiful! If you want a more moody contemporary look, consider painting the trim and garage door a color in the family of SW dried thyme

This is a house in our neighborhood recently painted black. And there are a couple more around the corner. All very cool looking. Sorry, I don’t have the software to mock up your home. But black is a contemporary choice and would stand out. Our house is painted Kendall Charcoal - a dark grey. You will get comments not to paint your brick because it will devalue the house. My story - bought my former house in 2004 for $175K and painted the yucky red brick Kendall Charcoal. I sold it 10 years later for $289K. The girl who bought it did interior upgrades and sold it in 2023 for $600K. Granted, the housing market is hot but clearly painted brick was never an issue. And if comments say painted brick is high maintenance - not true. Never repainted the old house in those 10 years. I might have touched up the brick steps once, if anything. And we haven’t picked up a brush or roller in the 10 years we’ve been in our current painted brick house.

This is not a style of house that would look good painted black. Or with the trim painted black for that matter. The trim may look nice in a color other than pure white, but those don't look like paintable windows.

I'm not sure black would look nice with the style of your house; it suits contemporary architecture more. But what about painting the trim? Here's what chatgpt did. Changing the landscape makes a big difference too. I don't like everything AI did in this picture but it gives you an idea.

Nice house! All you need is some landscaping.

Because the garage is the primary impression I would not use black. The architectural details (windows,doors, other angles) are rather hidden.

Omg! No black—anywhere!!

NOT on brick outside, constant maintenance.

I just helped a neighbor do black trim on his home and white siding. It turned out great and the house is stunning. Similar brick to yours with random black bricks. Everyone in the neighborhood is loving it. Now I am helping two others. But I have to educate each family that we have to work with the brick they have! Plus, we don’t want a bunch of houses all looking the same. Left is “before” picture with light beige/cream colors. We aren’t finished yet due to lots of rain slowing us down but fence and porch accessories next.

No, no, no! Please do not turn your home into a black hole! So many popped up in my former neighborhood in Austin and most were horrible. It makes the house look smaller and obliterates all of the detail. Plus trading a low maintenance exterior for a high maintenance one - paint is paint whether on wood or brick. Painting the exterior black is the refuge of the unimaginative.
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Upload a photo of your house at one of the major paint brand’s website and use their tool to virtually paint your house.

Painting a brick house black is very on trend right now and if you want to hop in that wagon go for it. But consider this:

What you are really doing is creating a modern look to your home. Realize that the black paint is only ONE element of the look you need to create a modern home.

You may need to change the roof color depending on the shade of your black paint, change the front door, change the garage door, change the front window, revamp the landscaping. Why? Because they all have traditional styles to them. Essentially, you can't take cinderella, put her in a black ball gown and call her punk. She needs a mohawk and piercings and combat boots to go with it.

You may or may not have a hard time with resale because this is a trend that will fade. But there will eventually be someone who likes it. I think the main reason people warn against it is because it is such an irreversible decision to paint brick, and black is such a specific look. If you wanted to change the paint color of painted siding, that would be just fine. Anyone could paint over it. But you can't unpaint brick.

This is a virtual rendering of a totally different home but it gives a good idea of just how many things changed in order to make the black bricks look right.

I was not suggesting painting whole house black. Especially don’t like painted brick for your home.

It’s a huge long term decision and is not inexpensive. Hopefully you can get a mock up of what your actual home would look like. It might also trigger a need for other updates that better suit that more modern feel.

Are you just wanting to update/modernize your home or is the idea of painting your preferred option. Maybe consider just changing your garage door and given its prominence it will have a big effect and coordinate its look with a new front door.

Suggest then going with a greyish black which will feel less stark with your brick.

Updating your landscaping will also go a long way.

I just tried doing trim in SW Iron Ore, and I don’t think the black trim works due to your roof color. If you are replacing your roof and could do a black/grey roof color it could work. I think your curb appeal value added would be in removing the plantings near the house with better landscaping. Things are overgrown and we’re not properly pruned so everything is “leggy”. Not sure your location but a Little Gem Magnolia on left corner out about 2’ from house in its own bed curved into a bed curving along front and opening into a nice shape over to the driveway would be great. If I have time later today, I will play with sone concepts. I stopped working on this mock up because it just doesn’t work for your house IMO.

IMO painting brick is the fasteset way to devalue your home and black woudl be a continual upkeep isse forever so a big NO for me for painting the brick. Get rid of all the stuff hiding the house to start . A new garage door with some windows and a nice new front door not the builders grade one you have . All things a lot better than painting the brick for sure .Start with a black front door after all those plants are taken away you can actually see the front door . Then a garage door maybe black

Your house is quite nice right now. Perhaps pleasant rather than a wow, but pleasant sells homes. Black is, IMO, ugly. It might look cool to some people, but it's going to turn off a lot of potential buyers when you go to sell. Meaning you'll be investing a lot of money into something that will devalue your home.

It's also worth noting the attractive pictures you see are almost always taken by professionals with good lighting and a bit of photoshopping. Note the bright windows in the after @Kendrah posted. That's photoshop. With the windows as dark as they are in the original, the after would just look like a big, dark hulk.

I'd focus on the landscaping for adding a little pizzaz. Those scraggly shrubs look pretty sorry.

Should I paint my house black? No.

Instead:

--Change out the garage door to classy wood garage door with pergola to soften visual impact of it. (Not barn door style, though)

Modern Board and Batton Farmhouse · More Info

--Put your budget into great landscaping

The Green House · More Info

NO

I think you could limewash the red brick and paint the windows black instead. An all black house ti way too trending unless the house style is Farmhouse style.

Another possibility is to paint the house one of these unique green colors.

The use of a dark sage green with your brick will change your home style into a British Cottage.

I was thinking of German Schmear application on brick too. Just depends on what look you are going for and what’s acceptable in your area?

No, I would never paint your very nice brick, but, if I did, it would not be black. I love black , but, its not right for your house.

No. Do not paint your house black:

- Black houses are a trend /a flash in the pan, and getting rid of the black later would be difficult /expensive.

- Black is very taste-specific. If resale matters to you, black will cut down on your pool of potential buyers.

- Extreme colors like black will fade in the sun and require maintenance later. Whereas, right now you have the lowest-maintenance material: Brick.

- Black is hard to get right, so I anticipate it would cost more than painting with other colors.

I love Kendrah's punk Cinderella analogy!

And I think this trend of black houses is as about as appealing as the nose rings and black garb my teenage students wear lol.

If you live in a warm climate black will just up your AC bill.

Black accents like doors and shutters would work with your nice red brick. You could add back planters with bright flowers

I like Bev's British Cottage looks with sage or British racing green.

I have not read the comments. TBH, I am too afraid....which is actually not a rare feeling for me to have around here... but in this case, I think I would need some type of really strong medication to read through the thread. :)

A black house is a bold choice and one that can definitely work in some scenarios.

My main issue with your plan is that I do not personally like the idea of painted brick, generally speaking; and it looks like you have a nice brick house. My other concern is, I don’t know if the style of your house lends itself well to being painted black - and then also to be the only black house in, what looks like it might be, a pretty typical suburban neighborhood setting.

However, it is not my house. :)

What do you think you're going to do did you make your decision?

My house is bricks painted in black abd looks beautiful, but the difference is that my roof has red tiles

Keep in mind that when you paint a house black you tend to lose most of the details (trim). It can also make windows disappear since in many cases the windows already appear as black holes.

my windows remained white, and my tiles are red, which makes a nice contrast with the black paint

I love Kendrah's punk Cinderella analogy!

Yes, that's an excellent analogy.

Your brick is pretty. I wonder if you are in a warm climate? Looking at your lawn, I wasn't sure if that might be a warm-season grass.

A black house in the South doesn't sound very easy to keep cool. It's partly why they make roof materials in lighter/"cool" colors for our climate. When we lived in Scandinavia, some houses were black, but the style of the buildings was different than the American classic of yours.

The green trim color suggestion was a good one; it would make your house unique but still inviting.