How Painting Your Brick Exterior Can Make It Look More Modern
A brick exterior is kind of like a leatherbound book or a beautiful framed photograph: classic, timeless, rustic, and valuable, even if not the most practical or up-to-date option out there. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine that brick homes will ever go out of style. That said, there’s no denying that other types of exteriors have outpaced brick homes over the past several decades. Today, modern homes are typically outfitted with vinyl, wood, metal, stucco, or fiber cement siding. These options offer aesthetic and practical benefits while typically costing less than masonry. That said, if you’re currently blessed with a brick home but wish to make your property more competitive in the current market, you’re not out of luck. Painting your brick house exterior with quality products and procedures can serve to protect your property from harm and modernize its appearance in multiple ways.
How Painting Brick Modernizes a Home
Classic Texture, Modern Color
As previously noted, brick has a timeless appeal. The reasons for this appeal, however, aren’t easily explained. Some might have a romantic notion of brick exteriors from reading old books and watching period-piece television shows and movies. Others might simply appreciate the pattern and texture afforded by brick construction. Whatever the case may be, bare brick’s beauty can become an anchor to the past, which is the opposite of what you want if you wish to modernize your home. Fortunately, homes with painted brick exteriors coalesce the classic and the contemporary by retaining the texture of brick while concealing its old-fashioned, natural coloration. In other words, properly painting your brick exterior grants you the best of both worlds. Onlookers and potential buyers (if you plan on selling) will appreciate your property’s character and composition without feeling like they’re staring at an early-20th-century home. Of course, the paint color you choose will determine just how modern your home looks (these trends can vary from one region to the next).
Establish Striking Contrast
Sharp contrast is one of the defining features of a modern home exterior. While unpainted brick can certainly be accented by various shades and colors, your design options are limited by your brick’s natural reddish-brown hue. By painting your brick surfaces, you suddenly open up a world of contrast possibilities. For instance, painting your brick exterior black will allow you to establish powerful accents with near-infinite lighter shades on your trim, shutters, and other features. Conversely, a white brick home works well with virtually any color scheme you desire. With all that in mind, you don’t want to go overboard with accents, as subtlety is still a feature of most modern homes. Still, balancing your exterior with juxtaposing colors can quickly refresh your home and boost its curb appeal -- this is made much easier by painting your brick exterior.
A Touch of White Goes a Long Way
White homes have retained their prominence for as long as anyone remembers, and they continue to trend today. And if you’re unsure of what would be the best color to paint a brick house to make it more modern, you can’t go wrong with white. There are, of course, many types of white paint to choose from for your brick exterior. In addition to the endless variants (i.e. pure white, yellow-white, gray-white, etc.), you must also contend with how many coats to apply and the consistency of said coats. Whitewash has become a recent trend in brick painting (especially for interior brick), offering a subtle, light finish that allows a touch of the brick’s natural color to poke through. For exteriors, though, most homeowners who wish to paint their brick surfaces white go for multiple coats of thick paint for full coverage and increased protection. Either way, white paint and brick go well together and certainly provide a modern appearance.
Keep Your Exterior Clean
The initial aesthetic benefits aren’t the reasons why painting exterior brick is a good idea. As mentioned earlier, a quality coating helps protect your exterior from the elements (i.e. wind, rain, sunlight, extreme temperatures pests). The porous nature of bare brick makes this material highly susceptible to intrusion and erosion, so installing any protective layer is a wise investment. Moreover, a proper exterior home painting job will provide your exterior with a smooth surface that is much easier to clean than unprotected brick -- consider how challenging it is to successfully scrub and remove the dirt from a coarse brick surface. In other words, the protective benefits of painted brick translate to less maintenance. Not only that -- the easier it is to clean and maintain your brick exterior, the better it will look and the longer your paint job will last. This is yet another way that painting your home’s brick exterior makes it look more modern.
Are There Any Downsides to Painting Brick?
So far, we’ve only touched on the many reasons to paint your brick exterior. Despite these benefits, though, it’s worth noting that brick painting might not be in everyone’s best interest, especially if they’re not prepared to undertake such an endeavor. For one thing, brick painting is somewhat of a one-way street. Once you paint your brick surfaces, it is incredibly difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to undo it -- you can touch-up the paint job and add new coats, but the removal process is another story. Additionally, painted brick can conceal underlying issues that require attention. And finally, the painting process itself (and all the prep work that precedes it) is no walk in the park. Residential exterior painting professionals should be called in to ensure that you get the best results.
Making a More Modern Home, Brick by Brick
Drawbacks and difficulties aside, painting your brick exterior is a solid way to protect your property, boost its market value, and, if nothing else, make it look more modern. Before you commit to this project, however, reach out to Nash Painting, the painting experts that serve Nashville, Brentwood, and Franklin, TN. Through thorough cleaning and preparation, powerful priming (Sherwin Williams Loxon XP), complete caulking, and two quality coats, our brick painting experts deliver striking results that last longer than our competitors’ -- up to 20 years. To learn more about us, our services, and our values, call us at 615-829-6858 today!