I'm pretty sure I just heard something groaning in my kitchen cupboard. You would think I'd be startled wouldn't you?
I was not.
Which in itself is kind of disturbing.
An unusually high tolerance to mystery noises is just one of the skill sets that develops from living in an old house. How old? Mmm. Probably about 170 years old. That's North American old, not European old. To someone in Europe where houses can be 500 years old, a 170 year old house is akin to living in a sparkly new condo.
It's gone through a few changes over the years including having all of its bricks being painted white probably some time around the 40's or 50's. Wild guess there.
Whenever I can't put a time frame on something be it clothing, furniture or events, I always go with the 40's or 50's. It's right about 60% of the time. I find I can apply the same method and odds of being correct to Trivial Pursuit by using the answer "Lucile Ball" whenever I'm stumped.
Some time in the 1980's whoever owned my house had the white paint sandblasted off to reveal the original red brick underneath. I am thankful every, single day that someone else had that job to do and not me.
Having a painted brick house reverted to its original brick is a P A I N I N T H E A S S. Both for the owner of the house and the neighbours. Sandblasting is messy, messy and stripping an entire house can be toxic, toxic.
So I was intrigued a few years ago when I saw a beautiful, old, brick building in my town that had been painted white for as long as I could remember, suddenly surrounded by scaffolding. I figured something was going on. I'm pretty perceptive like that.
Through the power of Google Maps (and some astute readers) I was able to find a picture of the building before the scaffolding went up.
Within a week or two, the stately white building looked like this ...
It wasn't sandblasted. It wasn't stripped. It was painted.
Every single brick and mortar line was hand painted to look like the original brick.
Now, I thought that was fascinating enough. But last month I ended up talking to the owner of the building.
As it turns out, this isn't your average every day paint job. The bricks are painted with a special clay that penetrates the substrate. Over time the clay, which is more brittle than paint, will peel and take the original white paint with it, revealing the original, unharmed brick underneath.
Because the painted brick is very close looking to the natural brick, you don't even notice the peeling. The process isn't an overnight thing. It can take anywhere from 10 - 40 years for the process to occur.
The fact that it takes so long really doesn't matter though because for those 10 - 40 years (and even throughout the peeling process), the building always looks great.
I have NO idea what this process costs and I definitely wasn't paid to write about this. I just thought it was such a unique and interesting process. This is the company that performed the work by the way. They do all kinds of different (environmentally friendly) stone and masonry work.
I have no idea if they have any process to deal with groaning cupboards. Which I suspect has been a problem in my house since the 40's or 50's, leading me to believe I might just have Lucille Ball trapped in there.
Jodie
this is amazing!
Candice
another really neat way of fixing up nasty-ass brick is staining it. Because brick is porous and needs to 'breath' staining works wonders to beautify an awful choice in brick colour ( I do wonder who on earth picks pale pink for a house... really?!?!)
Jackie
Amazing! I have been looking at houses and have found so many with what must have been beautiful brick mantles and fireplaces...painted a variety of horrible colors. It is great to hear that there are a few options for fixing situations like that--thanks for the information!
Toronto Male
This was an interesting story. But to be honest, I lpreferred the old grey (off white) color better. It looked sleak and more modern. Even though the landscape was quite basic in it's design, the positioning of the grey boulders accentuated the lines of the building itself. In my estimation, the only thing taht needed to be done was painting (or cleaning) the eavestroughs and window frames white in order to retain it's modern appeal.
Greer
hmmm... Lucille Ball? I usually go with Flock of Seagulls
designlove
So amazing!!! I have a painted rental here in town, but probably wayyyyy out of my price range. This was a fabulous transformation.
Lucille Ball.....love it!
Cindy
Lori
I have seen some old homes with painted brick, that look fantastic. Others...not so hot. This process of painting the bricks(done very well by this company) in various brick-y shades, is brilliant. If you had not told us, I would never have guessed from the photos, and maybe would not even up close. While the process of how the bricks will eventually peel, leaving the bare bricks exposed, sounds a little odd...I trust you to keep blogging updates throughout the peeling/baring stuff going on. Sounds exciting, yes? In the meantime, the house looks great.
I will have to remember this info for when I buy my next brick mansion. Or when I am in a group and have the opportunity to sound all-knowing in all things brick. Things like that could come up more than you might think...
Nikki Kelly
I wonder if you could use that other kind of sandblasting, dry ice blasting, to remove paint from brick. I've seen it on Holmes on Homes a few times to remove mold from the rafters in people's attics. The nice part is there's no sand to clean up, just the fine sawdust from the wood. Or paint from bricks if it could work for that sort of thing.
Nikki Kelly @ the ambitious procrastinator
Elen Grey
I am totally blown away by this process. It looks fabulous. Thanks for sharing such an interesting technique. Can always count on you!
Shauna
You teach us so much. Daily I'm impressing my colleauges with some random factoid I learned from you. Most of the time, I give you the credit, but sometimes I just sit and smile taking the credit & secretly patting you on the back.
sera
This is amazing! And when I clicked on my email this morning, I thought you were going to tell me what to do with my god-awful brick fireplace. It's original to my 1905 house, but is really strange with little painted murals of boats in yellow and brown set into the brick. And then it looks like someone sealed it with epoxy in the 70s. It's pretty much a love it or hate it type of thing. My step-brother thinks it's awesome, I do not. I keep telling my husband we should paint it black, but we haven't gotten that far down the renovations list. Karen, what should I do with my fireplace?
Karen
You should absolutely paint it. The colour depends on your house/design choices etc. I think a charcoal grey (almost black but not quite) would be nice or white always looks good too. But for the love of all that is good and holy ... paint it. ~ karen!
Barbie
WOW! that is truly amazing! Love the before and after shots!
Bonnie
What does the placque say, please?
laura
That is the most awesome thing in the history of ever. Or at least top 50.
Janet
Oh my! When I saw the first photo, I thought, why would anyone paint that beautiful house white in the first place?! Crazy! So cool that there was a solution for the new-old look. It's beautiful, once more. Gotta say, Trivial Pursuit, never a favorite of mine...but Pictionary, on the other hand...someone, give me a pencil!
Tricia Rose
The walls of our loft were painted black and orange. Gloss. The wooden ceiling was treacle brown varnish, so we had the lot sand-blasted, bricks and wood, fantastic! The quote didn't include removing the mucky sand so Buggins had to do it. It was worth it, and my husband viewed me with renewed respect.
Nancy Blue Moon
That is amazing Karen but do you know how long it took them to do it??..did they have to paint every brick separately??..That would be a ton of work so I would guess it is expensive..but well worth it to avoid the mess of sand blasting..We have one partial brick wall/chimney inside about 5 foot wide..and a partial stone floor where the previous owners had a wood stove sitting..My fella wants to paint the brick white and I keep protesting..just not sure I would like it even though it would lighten up the room..
wisconsin gal
What a great idea! For those who want a DIY solution, at least on inside walls, I know someone who got fantastic results covering the white. He just used a brick-color latex paint on a very dry short-nap roller. (After rolling it in the paint, he rolled it on newspaper to get off most of the paint, then rolled over the bricks.)The bricks were covered in a somewhat mottled way, very natural-looking, and the mortar stayed white, due to the short nap of the roller. Even from a foot or two away, it looked like natural brick.Great idea. Wish I had pictures, just trust me!
Dawna Jones
It never ceases to amaze me that there is always a solution to every problem out there!
http://www.dawnajonesdesign.com/
Jeannie B.
What a fabulous fix for returning old brick to looking wonderful again. I have a beautiful reclaimed brick fireplace in my family room that I love, and wonder if someday, someone else wil live in this house and decide to paint it over. Thanks for letting us know about this innovative company so we can pass on the info.