We will be staining the brick a dark gray and the trim was painted recently. Should we leave the stone front as is, or stain it a lighter gray?
Members of our facebook group for midcentury home owners were happy to help.
Below are some examples of members thoughts on the topic. These are only a few of the thousands of tips that are shared in our exclusive Facebook Group dedicated to midcentury modern home owners. If you own a midcentury house and are not already a member, join us now!
- “Be careful changing original finishes of brick and stone. These low maintenance natural materials then become permanently in need of renewal. The style is about connecting the house to the land, thus, natural materials and large windows.”
- “If you must change the color of the brick (I think it’s lovely!), stain, not paint is the way to go .The fieldstone is also beautiful and you wouldn’t be able to “stain” it lighter, so you would have to “whitewash” it.”
- “Don’t touch the stone or brick. Spend the money on a new modern front door that goes with the style of the house (meaning it doesn’t have raised panels). I feel the deep red, white brick (which is awesome), grey natural stone (also awesome), and turquoise door aren’t working together. Big job and expense staining the brick and stone, and if it doesn’t work when you’re done, you can’t go back. I recommend changing the trim and door color and work toward a palette of compatible natural colors.”
- ” Staining the brick is a much better idea than painting it as the stain will penetrate. Just make sure it is sprayed on and not brushed on…you want as much of the porous brick to absorb the stain as possible.”
- “Consider painting the garage door in a tone similar to the brick – currently, it is a large red mass that breaks up the horizontal lines of your front facade. Keep the red trim all the way across, but de-emphasize the garage door.”
- “Painting that brick would be most, most unfortunate. Take a beautiful natural material that requires little care and make it the opposite. Please give that careful thought. It really detracts the value.“
- “The problem with your brick is that it’s got an ugly date (trim). By lightening up the trim color, it’ll harmonize with the brick and look fresh and crisp. Also natural wood instead of a painted front door adds a big boost towards a clean modern look.“
- “I would leave the brick/stone – it’s lovely. I would maybe replace the garage door with something more modern, something in wood/wood-look, maybe some vertical windows. I like the color of the door (we did the same thing), but the style of the door isn’t appropriate for the house.”
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