once you paint your bricks, you will ALWAYS have the upkeep of painting them. I would just paint your trim

just saw your comment on painting the walkway. IMO, that is not a good idea. It will continually peel and you will have a lot of upkeep on that as well. Brick is more classic in your style of house than painted brick

If I painted, I was going to rock the tyvek and do three closed shutters as fake windows and rock entry. If I leave it red brick I am not sure. I may can do the same and possibly match brick or do some more of the judges paneling look down there. Not sure. I'm at a standstill

Leave it. It's classic and adds to the value of the house.

I agree with many, don't paint the brick. It will not be as durable a finish as the natural brick. I am not a brick lover but you house looks right to me the way it is.

I understand your need to paint over the brick. Here's the deal: you have to paint the ENTIRE outside, not just the front and side...that could be expensive and you need to upkeep it every year...I would paint the shutters, entrance ect first, then use online painting tools to "virtually" change the brick colour. Do some research on what people have done in your area / your type of home. I like light to dark grey.
Robert - hotel inspired living.

I agree with several comments above; don't paint the brick. You will be taking a durable. non-maintenance material and adding years of expense with re-painting. I think your brick is quite handsome and goes with your landscaping. We've occasionally stuccoed over (ugly or difficult to match) brick, but this is a big expense.
What do you mean by "rock the tyvek"? I wouldn't add rock to the outside of this house.

can I double vote on not to paint the brick? :)) Anytime I would see painted brick, it made me think the brick must be stained beyond cleaning, and their best option was to paint to hide it. That may not be the case with you obviously, but I still think natural brick is a lot nicer. I've just seen so many older brick houses painted, sometimes where paint rubs off and you start seeing second colors under it. I'm in the mode now, that I'm doing everything to make LESS work for ourselves in the future. We are all getting older, not younger :) I'd rather relax in my yard every Summer, or go on vacation than repaint or pay to repaint the outside every year or 2.

I agree...don't paint the brick! Your idea of cream shutters/trim and black door sounds lovely. I'd do that first and it might change your mind about the brick. We have a new home with some brick...it's one of the things that attracted us to it.

Don't paint the brick. We have reddish brick too. We just finished a major remodel and our architect gave us a wonderful suggestion which we implemented. We painted all the trim elephant's breath - it's a Farrow and Ball color but Benjamin Moore matched it. We painted the doors Hague Blue(a gorgeous shade of blue that BM also matched). All the window outside trim was painted elephant's breath but the inside of the windows were painted white. The house is absolutely gorgeous. good luck.

Agreed! baby steps! Do the trim and the door and see where you stand from there. I personally think the brick is lovely and painting would, like many people are saying, involve a lot of upkeep. :)

Elms, do you have a picture of your house by chance?

Another nice color with certain types of brick is BM's "Tarrytown Green." I know someone who used it on their all-brick home...shutters and doors are the Tarrytown...inside of windows and portico are white...just gorgeous!

Because it requires lots of additional maintenance, I think it is foolish to paint brick unless the brick itself is hideous, which yours definitely is not.

the nay's are winning lol

BM Tarrytown Green

now that I look, this house posted above looks like Tarrytown Green http://st.houzz.com/simgs/f832955902d01632_7-8884/home-design.jpg

Trust me, that Tarrytown Green is simply stunning with the brick home I mentioned before. Wish I had a photo of the house!

Use siding or Hardie Board on the area with tne Tyvek. Don't fake windows. It will be fine as a solid wall. Remember, It won't be just the house but the fence also that will require the upkeep on the paint. If you paint the house but not the brick, people will say, "So THAT's the color the house used to be".

Don't paint the brick. Your house is very pretty.

Farrow and Ball Hague Blue and Farrow and Ball Elephants Breath.


Pretty combo. Love the Tarrytown Green, too.

BTW, those were the only two pics I could find on Houzz that were of exteriors. :)

Thanks! Happyasaclam!
Soooo, by popular demand-- we are not painting the house!
SO WHAT DO I DO WITH THE TYVEK ADDITION? Siding or brick. Something to match the big white boxed windows? I think it needs a shutter element on it somehow with either treatment. If I do siding I don't want it to be board and bat or regular plain horizontal siding.

My proffesional opinion is that new brick does not have the character of old, but you can give it character by painting it.

Pics of Farrow and Ball Elephant's Breath and Blue Hague - Addition over garage is new with siding and addition in back of house is new with brick matched to 40 year old existing brick - weather hasn't been great to go out and take really good pics.

Very nice, emls! Great combination!

jbade, has your contractor looked to see if your brick is still in production? Is that Tyvek on the upper part of the house on the fence side, too?

happyasaclam, thank you!

Jbade, our brick was no longer in production and so we had the contractor buy from two different "batches" and the mason combined the bricks and they built a sample wall to confirm that the new addition would be as close to the original house as possible. We were very pleasantly surprised with the end result. The only reason we opted for siding on the upstairs was due to the cost to add structural beams, etc. Good luck!

Saratoga, is correct in what she says. You have two posts going on this same topic. One you started in December and got many replies. Now you have even more replies with this post.
You should have kept just one open because now no one here knows what was suggested on the other post and the original posters, who spent lots of their time with you, have been dismissed. : < (

jbade, go to the other dilemma and post a link to this dilemma and the all the posters can get up to speed! :)

I actually think your brick is beautiful. It's the other colors that are bringing it down. Once you paint everything else you may discover that you like it as is. I would start there before making any drastic changes.

The surface of brick will last many years...like this house. It just seems like paint will make it look flat and lose the unique quality of a brick home. Won't you have to repaint and maintain this surface over the years? Try other ways to update this home before you make this kind of drastic change.

JudyG designs
I had the posts open on my computer and my little one clicked around and I could never find it again. Never meant to disregard anyone! The brick is staying red for sure!

yeah, that is one thing about houzz, hard to find your own posts that you started. Most boards I know you can click and say search all threads I started. I started bookmarking mine. Because unless someone leaves a recent message, and I am notified by email, I can't find posts either

My personal opinion, DON'T PAINT THE BRICK. The brick is classic and has a natural beauty. Paint the trim to your heart's content. If you paint the brick, you are going to be stuck painting it forever.

I am glad you decided to keep the brick.

Don't paint the brick - it is quite lovely. Paint the trim and spend the money on some nice landscaping that will add interest to the yard & you will be happy that you haven't increased the maintenance of painting peeling brick every few years :)

Once you pint brick, you will always be re-painting brick. I wouldn't go through with that expense. People buy brick because it is so easy to care for. Your house is beautiful and the brick walkway is great. You are over-thinking it :)

Mission Accomplished!

Yay! :) Happy news. Can't wait to see the end result!

I looked into painting my brick and found that it can lead to water problems with the brick and cause some huge problems. I think changing the trim and the shutters will make a big difference. Good luck!

Don't paint it. Think about one thing. The beauty of brick construction is that you can see & feel the labor of man on it. Each brick being part of a whole, for ages.. Don't break it.

Lot's of good comments about the brick and paint colors. In the following project the customer's yellow brick didn't work with the new siding they added. Instead of painting or staining they opted to apply thin stone veneer brick directly over the stone. The stone is maintenance free and there are so many options of stone. Typically a customer just adds stone to the front of the home as an accent.

Feel free to contact us if you any questions about using stone veneer over your existing brick.

Beautiful idea -- the stone veneer!

paint the brick a reddish terra-cotta...nothing looks better than this 18th century till now...on the other hand red w/ white splotches mixed brick is so dated & didn't look good even when it was in vogue...good taste is ALWAYS timeless...the putty is alright on the siding...paint facias & shutters & soffits a satin Navajo white...door-red...please don't do anything black...designing you home toward a trend will look terrible & dated-way before you need new paint job...your hip roof always makes a house look mid/century-cottagy if its a lower pitch ( the tudor style hip roofs-started in 80s would be different...its not hard to extend ridgelines on a 4/ 12 pitch like yours & have a 3' to 6' setback to a " dutch gable"...& these look fine w/ the low pitch...consider a white metal roof-w/ the dutch gables...giving your house a more pleasing- height/ length ratio...I think the solid colored- painted brick w/ a reddish terra cotta on the mortor joints & all...maybe white metal roof & toned/down " Navajo" white trim will both compliment & blend w/ the putty color, you like....

if you can find a paint tough/nuff for foot traffic, same color as brick - your winding walk is great...really- the brick you have was never tasteful & your hubby probly hates brcause it appears a sick pink....love your walk- wouldn't it shine w/ dwarf evergreen, smooth/leafed hollys,in a bed w/ weed/fabric underneath & a tasteful mulch over...talk about yr/round & low/matenance beauty-on both sides of your rich terra cotta walk...like the entry porch you added w/ columns...thanks for this opportunity for fun ,

Definitely paint it. It will change the whole look of the house. The putty color is a good choice but make sure it doesn't have any pink tones in it.

Paint ll the brick and stucco a light taupe gray. Paint the shutters a darker and all trim shade of taupe gray. Happyasaclam's image of the Amhurst courtyard is a good example. Paint the fence as well the same color as the body of the house. You won't believe the difference this will make!

Don't paint!!!! Huge long term project on the sunny side of the house. Instead paint the trim to match the brick mortar grey.