Penny’s New Paint Job

Painting or lime-washing a brick exterior is one of the best ways to transform a facade economically. Check out this before and after lime-wash house sent in from Designporter and Hey Mama Head of Community, Penny Goffman, in Greenwich.

The difference between lime-wash paint and regular paint is lime-wash paint is made with lime. Instead of sitting on top of the brick, it penetrates the brick. The process of lime-wash is literally ancient, as in, the Egyptians used it on their Pyramids!

Here’s an example of a exterior transformation done with white paint, sent in from one of our followers on Facebook. The look is cleaner and works beautifully on this White Dove house with Stonington Gray shutters.

Pros of lime wash:

Gives a more textured, European, old-world look, as if the brick has been weathered over time.

Doesn’t need to be power-washed as often as regular paint. And it won’t peel off. All things considered, lime-wash requires less maintenance than paint.

Lime-wash is natural. You are not putting chemicals on your house. And it allows the brick to “breathe” while protecting it from the elements.

Lime-wash costs less than regular paint.

You can wash it off if you don’t like it!

Cons:

Lime-wash works best when the original brick is good quality. If you are doing a new build and planning to use inexpensive brick, and you want a white brick look, it’s a better to use white paint.

The range of shades is limited.

It can be tricky to match the consistency batch to batch if you are DIY’ing this.

To get the lime-wash look just right, hire a skilled painter who knows what they are doing. Penny used Stonework LLC.

Thank you for sharing this makeover Penny!