The Best of the Best Painted Houses

In the spirit of all things slathered in paint I thought I’d give a run down of all my favorite paint splattered houses. The best of the best painted houses, if I may. Because our own house is currently being painted as we speak (FINALLY). Consider it a preview of what is to come in a future blog post when I can add my own house to my list of the best of the best painted houses.

When we purchased our home in April, I planted my foot firmly on the ground and declared that this house would be painted come hell or high water (curious..is that phrase unladylike?) That, is in fact, just about what getting our house painted came to. Both the hell and the high water. You see, our contractor that helped us painstakingly slowly remodel our home insisted he be the one to do the exterior painting. Then as the colder months crept nearer he planted a very hefty quote (one that I knew from prior research was completely ((insert expletive)) out of the question). I guess because we both new that it was a slim chance that I would be able to find someone else to do the painting before the temperatures dropped to low and because all of the other projects had wrapped up, it seemed a ripe time to tack on approximately 20 GRAND to what four other painters quoted for the same job. And so ensued the first set of tears I cried throughout the entire renovation process and a mad dash to find a painter that would squeeze me in. The husband even suggested I just paint it myself, but it hadn’t been long enough for me to have forgotten the pain of painting the fireplace, so my heart wasn’t in it. So, as Paul Harvey would say, “and now you know the rest of the story”.

So, while I tried to keep sulking at bay I prayed, begged, and pleaded that the weather outside would not become frightful before the new painter could do his thing. He said November and I pictured cold and rainy. I kept my fingers permanently crossed from mid-September to October 28th and I brazenly checked the radar. Wouldn’t you know it, 40 days and 40 nights of rain in our neck of the woods. Because of all of the rain, a new problem lay ahead…saturated brick. Yes, it’s just as nasty as saturated fat, apparently. Because of the monsoon that had fallen upon my orange tinted masonry I needed over 24 hours to allow the brick to dry. So, for the next two weeks I watched as the forecast literally called for rain EVERY OTHER DAY. As my dear ole dad would say, “If I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.” I continued to hold my breath and when the painter said, go buy the paint, I threw the kids in the car and peeled out of my driveway faster than a hot knife through butter. I interrogated our local paint expert until I thought neither of us could take anymore and he sent me home with Clark and Kensington Exterior Paint In Sherwin Wiliams, Oyster White.

So, enough of that. Let’s get to what this post was intended for. That is, sharing with you, my favorite Pinterest discovered houses that inspired me when I chose how ours would be painted. The best of the best painted houses. In my humble opinion. Take it or leave it.

As you can see, my vote is for white painted brick. I love the contrast of white brick with black windows and guttering. I went back and forth for a while on whether I should paint our windows black, but our metal window trim had faded so much I decided not to leave them as is, which was a brownish grey. I purchased new light fixtures were in a gorgeous matte black, so I thought it would be good to tie them in on another feature of the house. I had lots of people suggest that I do German Schmear where mortar is smeared across the brick in true Chip and Jo fashion. I did try to see how this would look when I painted the fireplace, but it just wasn’t my thing. Probably because our brick has so many different colors in it that it was too much. I think if we had the good old fashioned red brick it would have looked much better, but still yet, I really prefer modern and crisp to the French Country look of whitewashed brick.

What do you think of painted brick? Would you ever consider painting brick any color other than white? Which picture do you like best?