Those with a creative eye....help with house colors

[emer95]

You might find useful info in this blog post:

https://www.younghouselove.com/?s=Painting+brick+

I would have been totally against painting brick until I saw the results of this house. They share great pictures and tips here.

 

[cedricandsophie]

If you’re committed to painting the brick, I would get pints of the colors you like best and paint three foot squares of the colors on the brick up next to the roof and the shutters and see which one you like best. I would do the same on the shutters so you can mix and match the colors, the investment in a few small cans of paint is well worth it so you can see the finished look.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Great Link emer95!
Good to see that there are products MADE for painting exterior brick.
If this is no / very low maintenance... I don't mind painted brick.
I love the lighter look and solid color, but still with all of the texture and character!

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I don’t have color suggestions for you, OP, but I definitely support your decision to paint the brick. Brick is just so ugly, IMO. Anything you pick would have to be an improvement.

 

[tcufrog]

A lot of what I’ve read about good architecture recommends removing obviously fake shutters because they cheapen the look of the house and replacing with properly sized shutters that look functional or just leaving them off.

I recently saw a ranch style home where they removed the fake shutters and put in window boxes. It really freshened the look of the home and didn’t look very expensive. They also updated the porch railing and lined the concrete walkway to their home with bricks.

A big problem you have is that color of the brick and shutters clashes with the windows. If you still wish to paint the house you need a color that goes well with the window frame color.

 

[old feller]

View attachment 394094

riverway looks nice

 

[amberpi]

I love painted brick and cool grays. I’d change that ugly butt roof (since it’s already kinda in the pipeline) and you’ll have a gorgeous place! Shutters confound me so I’ve had to have my decorator friends make recommendations. I think you’ll love your modern, updated house

 

[Wishing on a star]

If a new roof is planned.... START with that.
You have a totally blank palette now.
Choose what you want.
I would not put time and money into matching a roof, if the brown/orange existing roof is not what you like.

What color of roof are you considering.
Brown/warm
Neutral beige tones
Or Black/Charcoal

To see how it would look in the meantime, pull up photos of the roof/brick combination.

IMHO, to many cheap spec, and untalented home design planners, are trying to like 'match' the roof to the primary color of the home.
That always ends up in a boring monchromatic box look.

We put a dark roof (charcoal/blackk) on our neutral tan house.
I would never go back!

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

I agree with the above poster. Start with your roof replacement first. Then see how your brick looks then and go from there. You might be able to get away with just changing your shutters and the color of your front door. But if you still don't like your brick, at least you'll have a better idea of the color you'd like to paint it once the roof looks good.

When we replaced our brown roof we went with something called Moire Black. It's used a lot around here on houses, and seems to work with lots of different shades of brick. It's definitely black, but softer than a stark, obvious black. We love it. It definitely upgraded and modernized the look of our house. You don't see a lot of brown being used for roofs in new construction now.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Here is an idea of what the brick with a dark roof, and just classic white shutters to go with your white window grids and trim would look like.
If I had an image of the greige painted brick, I could try to put that together....

 

[Pea-n-Me]

In looking at things for this thread, I noticed there were a LOT of Before and After pictures online of houses that had brick painted over. (Google.) Many of them looked incredible! I think if I were in your shoes, I'd do it, too.

But I was also one of the people concerned about maintenance of painted brick. Last time we painted our house (over relatively new shingles that were never painted before), within a couple of years, the paint was peeling, and what a pain it was! We fixed it but the color somehow was a little different so it looks like polka dots. Grr. We have to work on that again this year. It's just that going into it, you expect things are going to be great for a good, long time, and sometimes they're not. Before you paint the brick I would do a lot of reseach into how to do it right and how to cut down on things like mold and such.

The other thing I just thought I'd add, since this is always a concern with costs, is just to remember that adding a new roof and updating the outside will only add value and curb appeal to your house, not to mention making it a very enjoyable place for you to live day to day, so don't worry too, too much about costs, as you should be able to recoup them in the long run, even if you stay put.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Here is something I threw together with the color chips you had mentioned.
I had to actually snap a pic of the comuter screen to upload, as my screenshot thing is not going to work to post to the dis!
I don't think the colors came out true... In the this photo the beige color you are looking at looks really lighter than it is.
It seems to be a bit darker and browner, which is to 'warm' for this roof.
But... You can see with this, that these are actually Neutral colors, (not really 'cool') and IMHO, are not 'cool' enough if you do go with this type of charcoal roof.
I would go a bit lighter and cooler on the beige, and a bit cooler (and deeper) on that neat blue-green shade.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Here is the sanple of the Worldly Gray...
I finally got it to post!
The photo above did not come out anywhere near true.

 

[Elle23]

I must have bad taste because I don’t think the brick looks bad.

Is probably switch the trim/ shutter color and leave the brick.

 

[Feralpeg]

Our house is almost exactly the colors you posted. In the photo, they appear more blue, but they are really shades of grey. The front door and garage door are a dark grey. Our roof is a dark grey.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Let's see if this works...
Even though this color is called Worldly Gray, it is a neutral taupe/tan, and is not a real or 'cool' gray.
Very different than the color of the paint chip.

The house pictured above appears to be gray.
Looks like it might be something close to this, based on the shade of gray seen on the second level, on the sunlight.

 

[monica9]

Here is something I threw together with the color chips you had mentioned.
I had to actually snap a pic of the comuter screen to upload, as my screenshot thing is not going to work to post to the dis!
I don't think the colors came out true... In the this photo the beige color you are looking at looks really lighter than it is.
It seems to be a bit darker and browner, which is to 'warm' for this roof.
But... You can see with this, that these are actually Neutral colors, (not really 'cool') and IMHO, are not 'cool' enough if you do go with this type of charcoal roof.
I would go a bit lighter and cooler on the beige, and a bit cooler (and deeper) on that neat blue-green shade.

Thank you! This is similar to what we did. I have to take a picture of the finished project to upload. We picked riverway for doors and shutter and I think ligotta is the name of the house. It’s almost a khaki but lighter.

 

[monica9]

I must have bad taste because I don’t think the brick looks bad.

Is probably switch the trim/ shutter color and leave the brick.

It actually wasn’t that bad once we took the shutters off. But we still wanted to paint it.

 

[monica9]

In looking at things for this thread, I noticed there were a LOT of Before and After pictures online of houses that had brick painted over. (Google.) Many of them looked incredible! I think if I were in your shoes, I'd do it, too.

But I was also one of the people concerned about maintenance of painted brick. Last time we painted our house (over relatively new shingles that were never painted before), within a couple of years, the paint was peeling, and what a pain it was! We fixed it but the color somehow was a little different so it looks like polka dots. Grr. We have to work on that again this year. It's just that going into it, you expect things are going to be great for a good, long time, and sometimes they're not. Before you paint the brick I would do a lot of reseach into how to do it right and how to cut down on things like mold and such.

The other thing I just thought I'd add, since this is always a concern with costs, is just to remember that adding a new roof and updating the outside will only add value and curb appeal to your house, not to mention making it a very enjoyable place for you to live day to day, so don't worry too, too much about costs, as you should be able to recoup them in the long run, even if you stay put.

Yes Definitely getting a new roof next year. We actually have someone coming to give us a quote tomorrow.

 

[tcufrog]

Do you prefer warm or cool colors? The window trim is a cool white while the bricks are warm colors.