Chimney Knoll Post #2: We are lime washing the brick…

Caption: The brick before, a common type of 1930s brick that is no longer in production and in need of a good pressure wash.

I know this will likely horrify fellow brick lovers, and it took me many months to come around to it myself. I know there will likely be comments about how that isn’t in keeping with the historicity of the home and the 1930s brick on the facade. Alas, though, the addition did not match the rest of the house, and we gave it a good college try with brick staining.

First, we had an unfortunate incident that I jokingly call a “drive by painting” in which painting subcontractors spray painted our house with the wrong color and have since not remedied the paint job. Needless to say, we were horrified to roll up to the job site and see the result of their work. Already in my head, I am trying to figure out how to either neutralize the siding again back to white or embrace it with another color.

Caption: The truly unfortunate paint job in the drive by painting of the unapproved shade of green. It felt like a “help we wrecked this house” moment, but thank goodness paint is easily redone. Also pictured here is my husband’s look of disgust at this paint job.

I used RenovateAI to come up with some color ideas for the siding on the porch while maintaining the brick. Some were okay, and others were plain wrong.

Not a bad siding colore, but this shade of grey looks too cold compared to the rest of the house.

Certainly a better green than what is currently on the siding, but something isn’t sitting right with me about this shade or just the fact there is SO much siding on the front of this porch. Why couldn’t we have a pretty window in the middle to break it up like our neighbors?

Again, not bad with the blue siding either, but it’s still not sitting well with me. Something still feels off. If I could, I would paint the window panes and other trim the same color, but we don’t have windows with paintable panes.

And this this just an entirely different house. Go home AI, you’re drunk! They changed the brick color, the brick mortar color, the pillars, the porch rails, and the front door, and the windows. Basically, it gave us a whole new house with an unlimited budget.

In an attempt to salvage the brick, I also contacted brick masons and even ordered a kit from London on how to stain bricks to match the facade. We got so, so close, but it’s still not enough for me to forget that the front and the back currently do not match. I feel like this method is best for when smaller sections of brick need to be stained after a repair or needing to remove and add back in bricks for any reason.

You can see they did a GREAT job matching the red tones in the area to the center left where the new addition begins. However, it’s hard to see that *lovely* shade of yellow brick, and unfortunately I think that sprinkling of the yellow brick is what makes it look like a true match to the original brick.

I am not loving the siding color choices, and I am not loving the brick staining. Cue to when I’m at the job site mid day looking straight at our Chimney only to notice that some of the brick in the midday sun look a very unattractive shade of yellow that was akin to a bodily fluid…and right then and there my husband and I were done with the brick and started to listen to our architect who thought this house always needed paint. I can still hear him kid, “just paint it already!”

I always loved a lime wash, but I wasn’t sure if you could see through to noticing that the bricks don’t match - if it was too transparent, that doesn’t solve my problem of the mismatched brick. I am also used to seeing a distressed look for lime wash - which looks amazing on large, Georgian colonials in Myers Park, but on my little quaint former millworker cottage would it just look like a bad and old paint job?

I had to investigate, and I knew I had a decision to make between lime wash and masonry paint, which has a mineral base and protects the brick more than true latex paint. I LOVE the texture of brick, so if there is any way to do a lime wash…our problems could be solved.

I reached out to Ukie Painting. They’re incredibly professional and have ample experience in the South Charlotte area doing everything from exterior paint, interior paint, to even cabinet refinishing.

Vitalii, one of Ukie’s representatives, was so helpful and came out to the site right away, and he even gave me a spiral bound booklet to keep explaining their process and all the different types of paints and painting services they cover. He shared with me the different “life spans” of each of the options for painting my brick and highly recommended either lime wash or mineral based paint. I shared I was concerned about the different brick colors and if anyone would notice once painted with a lime slurry. Vitalii had limited concerns and explained that this would be the healthiest treatment to the brick if we like the “European style” look of the texture and patina of brick. Because lime wash is a living finish, it still felt like a natural element for our craftsman-ish colonial cottage that would stay true to the idea of natural textures as part of the Arts & Craft movement. As a bonus, this would be easy for us to keep up with in terms of maintenance, as it’s a forgiving finish.

Our new before & after transformation we are working towards for the facade is pictured left. We won’t be able to change the siding to cedar shake until likely phase two, but phase 1 will include some sconces, hydrangeas, climbing jasmine, and a lime washed brick house.

So what do you think? Would you have kept the brick? Lime wash or paint?

Can’t wait to share more when we finalize paint colors and show you the finished product!