A fresh coat
Painted brick exterior a popular alternative to mold-prone stucco
The light, clean look of transitional design isn’t just about white kitchens and light neutral furnishings — it applies to a home’s exterior as well. Combine that with Mediterraneanstyle homes trending downward and people tiring of problematic, mold-prone stucco and you have a recipe for what has become Houston’s new favorite exterior: painted brick.
Drive through nearly any neighborhood in the city — at least any known for having brick or masonry homes — and pay close attention to the materials. At a glance, you likely see just the white exterior. Look again and you’ll see that it’s brick painted white, either with a slurry material or exterior masonry paint.
“Painted brick is the flavor of the day, and it’s timeless,” said builder Brian Thompson of Thompson Custom Homes. “You can paint brick, and a lot are white, but you can paint them a lot of colors. Drive through River Oaks and you’ll see a lot of them.”
It’s part of the new transitional style.
“People like … new homes that look old,” Thompson said. “They’ll take a traditional form and freshen it
up with more modern windows, painted brick and a faux plaster on the inside with wood floors to warm it up.”
For older homes in highly desirable neighborhoods, if homeowners don’t like the traditional look of a home, white paint provides an inexpensive face-lift that can make a dated exterior look current, Thompson said.
The popularity of bright, white painted brick began in Texas as modern farmhouse style grew in popularity, said Hannah Yeo, manager of color marketing and development for Benjamin Moore. It spread across the nation quickly and has reached beyond that style into transitional design, too.
Farmhouse-chic style was popularized by Chip and Joanna Gaines and their HGTV reality show, “Fixer Upper,” which finished its fifth and final season in late 2017. (The couple’s new show, “Fixer Upper: Welcome Home,” launched on Discovery+ last month.)
It’s not unusual for clients to come in with pictures of painted brick that they’ve seen on Pinterest or Houzz.com and then ask for it for their own new home, Thompson said.
“We’re doing a ton of them. I’m building two showcase homes right now. One is slurry brick and one is stucco, which is kind of refreshing because I’ve done so many painted houses,” he said.
The trend began in neighborhoods with older homes when homeowners wanted to freshen up dark exteriors. White paint on top of brick could erase the history of old brick colors — say yellow, brown or rust — and make the house feel new again.
When painted brick is combined with a gray or black roof — shingles or metal — and steel-framed windows and doors, the owners of an older home can feel like their house is as new as the construction going up all around them.
The look has become so popular that in the past couple of years, people building new homes are asking for paint — often white — on their brandnew brick.
Benjamin Moore tracks its top sellers by state, and for Texas, the most popular colors for painting exterior brick are “Evening White,” a creamy off white, and “Atrium White,” a brighter white that’s perfect for houses in shady settings. “Shaker Beige” is also a popular choice — and another sign that warm neutrals are popular again after several years of domination by cool grays.
Sherwin-Williams reports that its top colors for painted brick are are “Pure White,” “Alabaster” and “Snowbound.”
Painting brick is a matter of starting with a clean, dry surface and using the right materials, said Mike Mundwiller, field integration manager for Benjamin Moore.
Exterior brick has to be cleaned of dirt and mildew using a heavy-duty cleaning solution, such as trisodium phosphate (often referred to as “TSP”) with bleach, Mundwiller said. Rinse it well and allow to dry completely.
Mundwiller said that a coat of masonry exterior sealer/primer or primer should be applied before using exterior acrylic paint as the color topcoat.
“Painted brick is a good option for people who don’t want the hassle of stucco,” Thompson said. “It works if you like the veneer of brick but you don’t like stucco.”