I white-washed my red bricks about 25 years ago. Easy and I think it looks great. Still did when we moved out 4 years ago. I don't recall having to wipe anything off. I did most of it just during my kid's afternoon nap time. And my brick was about 6 feet wide, floor to ceiling, 9.5' ceilings. I just thinned white paint with water, sponged it on, and had plastic on my wood floors with towels layered on top to catch any run-off. If I recall correctly, there was a little but not much. The plastic without towels probably would have worked fine. I worked from top to bottom so I was able to quickly sponge any lines of paint that did stream down the brick. I'd say give it a try. If you don't like it but were going to paint the brick anyway, you can always paint over it. Personally, I hate the look of painted brick so I was a bit worried but hated the cheap brick (really Z-brick facing bricks) in my 1908 house with all the original, unpainted woodworking. It was a modernization attempt gone wrong. Might have worked better in a different style house. What I really liked about it is that the brick looked like real white brick when I was done, not like bricks that were painted. The paint was thinner in some areas than others so a little bit of the brick barely showed through but just looked like darker spots, not like red brick. It looked very natural. I received many compliments on it. Give it a try. You really have nothing to lose if you don't like your current brick.

I would love to go with the plugmold under the upper cabinets and an airswitch for my disposal no matter what kind of backsplash I end up with. I guess my main concern with that is that I don't know what the current state of the brick is, since it's covered now. I don't know if there are holes where the current outlets are and, if there are, whether they could be patched decently. I'm doing soapstone countertops, so if I left the brick for the backsplash, I was picturing possibly having a four-inch backsplash of soapstone. Would this make sense or would it look better without it? Could I put outlets into the backsplash? As for the code, I'm not sure what that says here, but I'm sure the GC will know. The brick wall is the wall where my sink and range are. The left wall and bottom wall are cypress paneling, and the only part of the right wall to be exposed will be the backsplash, and I guess that would have to be drywall painted the same color I paint the brick. I am picturing the coffee maker on the little bit of counter between the range and eating area and, possibly, the toaster in the area to the right of the sink but more likely closer to the fridge. Other than that, I won't have any appliances out and plugged in all the time. As far as the number of outlets in the kitchen, there should be plenty of outlets on the wall to the right, as well as in the island. The cleaning I'm not so worried about because it would be painted with a masonry paint and, therefore, pretty easy to wipe clean. We currently have the painted brick in two of our showers, and it's super easy to keep clean there. So, I figure if I can keep mold and mildew off it, grease won't be that difficult. I'll try to get a pic of the painted brick wall in my bathroom to give you a better idea.

If you are redoing the floor, I think the time to take out the half-wall is now. If you do it later, you will have to patch the floor. Does it separate the entryway from the living area? I like having some separation, but if it were me I might replace the brick planter with a framed half wall. No more brick and no reminder that people in the 70s thought that permanent built-in planters were a good idea. I'd want some contrast between the wall and the brick, but I don't have enough personal experience with whitewashing to know whether you can get that using the wall color on the brick.

Gonna answer this old question just for fun. The wall provides great character, and shouldn't be painted under any conditions, but it is *A LOT* of dry/old/earthy/dark/texture and is over-dominating the room and needs to be balanced with strong gloss/modern/smooth/white elements, especially in a North facing room. The first thing that comes to mind is gloss white mod canopy bed so that the brick wall isn't dominating - this will ameliorate the lopsided vibe of the niche on the wall, too, because the lines of the canopy bed will be bright and assertive and strongly delineate the space with symmetry. Likewise, bright saturated color and clean-lines for the nightstands - campaign chests would be ideal with their clean lines and bright metallic delineating detail. Either bright royal blue or white in gloss would both be great. The place I'd bring in more interest would actually be the lamps, switching those out for something with a wet/flow/rounded character. Let the mod lines come from the furniture, which are big enough to keep the wall from dominating. The chandelier needs to be changed, too, into something not so dainty and old-fashioned, again light, bright, and any metal here shiny (silver preferably here?). Sidenote, contrary to what some others have mentioned, the brick wall isn't "cold" - it's a whole lot of warm. It's rosy sunset-colored terracotta baked in a kiln to keep us warm from the cold. With the above styling, it will actually look really great and cozy in the winter adding sheepskins in the room and blankets with bold patterns (whether modern or vintage, so long as it's bold pattern and saturated colors).