All The Details Of Our Exterior Home Transformation: Before & Afters

It’s no wonder that our exterior transformation has been the most popular transformation out of everything I have shared on Instagram. We basically painted “everything” and the results are better than I could have imagined.

Here’s a look at where we started.

Yes, I hear you. But red brick is beautiful! Red brick is beautiful… but our particular red brick was a little orange and to be honest, not that pretty. I had seen LOTS of painted brick houses turn white… and I knew I didn’t want a stark white brick home. I wanted to honor the traditional style of my home and go a little warmer than white.

I shot this photo right after they started painting and knew instantly I had made the right decision!

But you might be saying… wait, that is white! The color we chose is called Revere Pewter and I’ve used it a lot throughout the years. It’s a warm greige with very slight green undertones.

Below you can see it in my current bedroom. Can you believe that’s the same color? Our exterior gets a lot of natural light so I knew that a lighter white color would appear “very white” outside. I needed to go with a darker neutral color to get that warm white I was aiming for.

I think it’s helpful to always compare paint colors to show the contrast. I chose a lighter color for the main brick and then contrasted with darker colors – Chelsae Gray for the trim work and Urbane Bronze for gutters & possibly exterior doors.

Here’s a side by side comparison of some popular white colors with Revere Pewter. The reflectiveness of natural light can really make colors brighter so make sure and take that into consideration when deciding on a paint color!

I couldn’t find a source but this is a great example of a brick home painted in Chantilly Lace – notice the contrast with the white window… or lack of contrast. This is an example of a more pure white if you want to achieve that look.

You can see the contrast below near the windows for comparison!

Next up, we decided to replace our gutters! This was a lesson in getting multiple quotes! I need to write a more detailed post but we received 3 quotes for the replacement of our gutters. The quotes were $8K, $14K, & $28K… for the same product and service! I’m sure you can guess which one we went with. I’ll do a deep dive into this at a later time but just know that it always pays to ask around and get multiple quotes for bigger expenses.

I snapped this shot below after a few new gutters went on… what a difference! We used a bronze color instead of a matte black. I really love the subtle warmth this color gives!

After all the painting was completed, I knew that the garage doors would need an upgrade. I had new wood doors quoted at around $7,000. While we “might” replace them one day, we were already over budget on our exterior renovation so I decided I could DIY a solution! I did a little research and came up with a great process to give them a faux wood look. I couldn’t believe how great they turned out! Full faux wood garage door tutorial.

BEFORE

AFTER

While the weather was good, I decided to tackle one more DIY outsside. I limewashed the brick sidewalk!

The whole exterior had come so far and the brick pavers were feeling very out of place.

Not going to lie… I had reservations about this DIY – but I love how it came out.

Let’s take a look at the Before Before of the front porch one more time. Yikes.

Our new exterior plans involve replacing this single door and sidelights with a double door, which we have on order. I made a quick temporary change to this door and painted it “Gilded Earth” by Valspar. I also replaced the interior glass to give it a more modern feel.