We painted a section of our exterior brick—but not in the way you might expect. People often ask whether we’d ever paint our little brick ranch. We considered it when we bought the house, but over time we’ve grown to appreciate the brick’s look and its low-maintenance benefits. Brick is durable and ownership-friendly: no siding to replace, no stucco to rework, and no routine repainting. In Richmond, painting brick in medium or light tones invites green mold, which means frequent, intensive cleanings with bleach. The thought of scrubbing the entire exterior every season was an easy reason to avoid painting the whole house.
So why does the title mention painted brick if we didn’t paint the house? The explanation is simple: our sunroom was added about twenty-five years after the house was built and was constructed in a way that left a portion of the original exterior brick exposed inside the new room. That exterior wall became an interior brick wall in the sunroom. Here I am on the first day we saw the house, standing in front of the sunroom:
Over time, we realized that painting that single brick wall inside the sunroom to match the soft tan walls would make the space feel more cohesive and balanced. Because the sunroom isn’t temperature-controlled, we used exterior latex paint to ensure durability in changing conditions. Other than choosing an exterior paint, we followed standard brick-painting techniques to prep and paint the surface, including cleaning, priming where necessary, and applying the paint evenly for good coverage. The transformation was immediate. Here’s how it turned out:
At first we worried that seeing the unpainted exterior brick just outside the sunroom glass door might look odd. In hindsight, the inconsistency had felt awkward even before—when that small stretch of original brick carried unnaturally into the interior. Painting the interior brick created visual continuity and made the room feel intentionally finished rather than patched-on.
With the sunroom wall painted, the days of noticing that odd pre-painted strip are over. We also made another small update in that area recently, which we’ll share soon.
Stay tuned over the next few days to see what we did next (hint: it’s not a baby).
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