Gray goes good with brick

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I don't have much time this morning to play, but here is a very rough idea

I would darken everything, trim just a hair lighter than garage and front archway, rest of the stucco dark

I would do everything in white.

I would be up for painting the brick too! Love the idea of new lanterns too. Maybe something bigger?

I like the lime washed brick.

Are you sure gray paint would be considered an updated color? I thought the gray trend was spent . . .

Yes, to painting the brick. Would advise you to paint brick and stucco the same color. Also. yes to changing the garage door to one with glazing (glass) so that it doesn't present such a solid facade. It sounds like you aren't ready to make large structural changes yet. So, I won't suggest any. Will suggest that you rethink the landscaping. That could have a big effect on the look of your house.

I love this combo it might work well. Only as alst resort would I paint the brick I honestly think doing so instantly devalues your house. Definately change the windows and no shutters anywhere. I agree about the landscaping.

Thanks! We are not sure how long we will be in the home to commit to structural changes, unless they would be minimal. Do you have a suggestion on the garage door?

Something like this?

Do you have an example of the windows that you would suggest?

The brick exists only in the front. The rest of the house is siding.

Celerygirl- would you be able to mock up an all white look? I love the green suggestion to but worried about how it will look on stucco.

OP I would be flattered if someone called my house an "anything" mansion. :) I'm in a 1500 square foot brick ranch with even more exterior issues than you. I don't even have the guts to post it here because people would probably say are you like retarded or something.

PAINT - One thing we have in common is trim that is too creamy/yellow and that doesn't really relate to anything else on the house. (Also, the trim directly under your roof (facia or whatever it's called) should have been the same as the rest of the trim.)

Would a greige or light taupe match your mortar? That would look fresher. Celery Girl's #2 pic is my favorite of the bunch. Someone else said look to your darkest brick and your roof and that would be interesting to see. However, the dark grey I thought would look good is for me a hard NO so a charcoal color may be harsh looking.

Love the painted or lime washed brick and have you seen the German Schmear thing? OMG. I know my husband is going to be a hard sell on any of those. But these days, 99% of the brick I see just looks dated to me and it seems hard to get a pleasing look with the brick throwing in so many different tones and colors.

WINDOWS - the expensive windows with the thick wood stuff around them would be SO GREAT for you because you have SYMMETRY in your windows. I bet that would really take your house to the next level. Shutters I don't know much about.

I saved the below photo because it showed cheap windows like I have vs nicer windows. I was thinking about just getting the nice ones on the front and side and the vinyl ones on the back. The only thing is these both have those fake lines inside and I don't want those again. At least you have the clear windows which I think looks better. One of the pros probably has something better but this was helpful to me in seeing the difference between my cheap a$$ builder windows and the nicer windows.

One tiny thing you could do w is window treatments inside that don't all look different from the outside.

And yeah...landscaping. I had a guy come over and pull up all my crappy bushes and plant a few things to get me started and I'm upgrading it some every year.

Good luck! I'd love to see what you end up doing!

Oh and forgive me for "hijacking" here but I have this same kind of "recessed" door and I'd love to hear tips on that. Paint it a REALLY bright color I guess? Anything else?

@Janie Willis - I chose this door because of the light that comes into the house. The house came with a solid green door that stood out from the street but not in a good way! I like the idea of painting the door so it stands out.

This is the inside view. Unfortunately the dark brown doesn’t stand out too much from the outside.

Outside view

Usually the most people here do not like to paint the brick. What happened? :-))

Here is entire house is white

Woah!!!

The garage doors would look good with the wood too!!!

I like the 3rd and 4th picture celerygirl posted above. Its a pretty house.

Carbie, i painted my door brown too on the advice of a friend/designer. It was an ugly pinkish beige but now just blends into the shadows. Mine is even more recessed and not as pretty as yours. We're early 90's and builder grade from top to bottom.

I love the soft white painted brick but it needs some kind of accentsomething - shutters, fancy garage door, tricked out landscaping...something...and definitely bigger light fixtures. Like the kind that have gas run to them. Those are bomb. Evrrybody here is doing white with black shutters.

I typically am in the camp of "DON'T PAINT BRICK", but there are exceptions to every rule and I think this may very well be one of those exceptions.

I may still not paint the entire home and all the trim bright white. might pull some gray in to break things apart or use a light beige or creamier darker white, but I do like the idea of painting the brick so it isn't so choppy.

May be we paint garage door to coordinate with roof or front door? So not so blah?

What you guys think?

I LOVE the dark grey contrast!! Do you think it will have as good of an impact with dark brown? The door is already brown. 😔

We can go with brown. I just can not see clear door color. I think it would be ok. The door is not so color visible.

But I think dark gray is better look.

The grey garage door looks way better because it ties to the roof. Did someone suggest a garage door with windows in it?

I think you need something brighter than grey or brown for the door. BM Wythe Blue? A Red? Whatever you choose, you could repeat that color in your flowers or other accessories so it doesnt look random. Plus the big fancy light fixtures.

White looks nice, but that’s a lot of upkeep! How often will you have to repaint? I would look into iT.

Not paint!!! Limewash. There is a BIG difference.

I added windows to the garage so it's not so flat.

I added larger lanterns on the hous.

I like the white and added a bit more landscaping that is necessary when you have a white home.

Examples of landscaping and please note the windows used.

@Beverly - thanks for adding the lights, they make a BIG difference! Do you think the lime wash will look good on the front of the house only? The brick is only on the front and 3rd garage. Here is another view of the house with all garages. I didn’t include it at first because of the garbage cans! Lol

Full image

BeverlyFLADeziner hit it out of the park with her last rendition of a white house with white stucco, white garage door with windows and white trim. The lanterns are just the perfect size. I like the plantings as well.

Houssaon - how do you tag someone when you send a new message? Sooo many great responses on this one. 🙏

Agree! BeverlyFLADeziner hit it out of the park. Had not thpught about white needing more landscaping but can definitely see how that would be true. Would love to hear her thoughts on door color but I too do not know how to tag someone in a reply.

@BeverlyFLADeziner is a superstar designer....awesome in white, Beverly.

carrbie2000 I copy their id (Cntl C) into the message.

OK, I'm back. Thanks for the compliments. What else do you need Carrbie2000?

House color should probably match the siding color Romabio offers these as standard, though they can be applied in a solid color. It might be interesting to have some of your brick show through the limewash to add texture to the house. Not totally see thru but enough so that it might hide any dirt that accumulates on the surface.

Maybe upgrade the garage door in the future.

Wow @BeverlyFLADeziner

what a transformation!!

houzz://user/beverlyfladeziner absolutely beautiful! Any recommendations on the brand of the garage door?

Our siding is tan right now. We have been wanting to update anyway!

Sorry I thought the siding was white. Can you paint it?

Yes, but we tend to get hail here!! We got hail here pretty bad last year and there’s a little bit of damage still on the backside.

OP, will you please post a follow up on what you decided to do? I like your home as it is, I think it’s pretty but I understand wanting to change things up. I have a 20-ish year old McMansion style home (and I LOVE IT) and I am also thinking of new colors, windows, garage door, etc as well.

Thanks for the follow up on this!! We actually had someone offer to buy our home so we sold! No changes were made, they liked it as is!