Red Brick Wall to Tan Brick Wall

Judy writing again today, early in the morning, as I haven't been asleep since 3 a.m.  Taking my thyroid meds in the evening is NOT a good idea.  lol. 

Anyway thought I would share a quick post today.  Several years ago I was remodeling a rent house for a neighbor of mine.  He decided to sell it rather than clean it up after his last renters left it a mess.  We went in and retextured the walls, stripped the floors and refinished them (I posted pictures of those in a blog about wood floors), we painted the walls, the cabinets, and changed a den into a bedroom by removing a bar that separated the dining room from the den; and then adding a wall there; and then enclosing that wall with semi walls and doors to make a closet.  This turned the house into a 3 bedroom rather than just a 2 bedroom.  He would not have been able to get $55,000 for this house before the remodel and he sold it for $75,000.  The appraiser who came was astounded by the house, as he said he had preconceived ideas based on the address.  He was very happy to find a completely redone home.

When freshening up the kitchen, we removed the doors of the cabinets and painted them white, and we were going to change the hardware but there was a size problem. so we painted the handles and pulls and reused them.  We did nothing to the counter but clean it.  We stripped the floor of several layers of linoleum and filled in some rotted areas with sizing cement, and then laid a nice neutral multi-toned "peel and stick" vinyl tile.  This is easy to do.  It goes fast, and I'll do a blog on it sometime, as I've done it several houses, rentals and flips, and my own in the past.  They are pretty durable, give a room a fresh feel and are cheap.  The ones used in this kitchen were like 33 cents each.  I believe I was able to do the whole kitchen/dining area for about $75. 

Dining area in process of being tiled.  I started at most visible side of room and worked my way forward and sideways.  This way all cuts are on one side of room, the least visible.  Saves tiles when you cut only one side rather than starting in middle and having to cut both sides like I did with ceiling tiles in San Antonio.  What  a bummer that was!!
 

This had a fake brick wall behind where the range would sit.  After we did white cabinets, cappuccino white walls, and multi-toned beige tiles, the red brick stuck out like a sore thumb kitchen .

You can see that even when red, not any ONE brick was exactly like the other.

To change that problem, I brought my acrylic art paint over and some brushes.  I cleaned the brick first as they were greasy due to being over a range for years. 

  I chose several tones of beige and brown and began to paint the brick.  I poured these differing colors into a palette so I could have access to all of them.  I do believe I used four different ones, but it might have been just 3.  (remember this was several years ago).  I took my brush and started painting the bricks with slashes of the darkest color.  I did NOT fill in the whole brick,  just slashed some of the darkest color across the bricks, all in different places.  I did not want a uniform look.  Bricks are NOT uniform.  Go outside if you have a brick house and look at the bricks.  Each is unique and different unless just a solid colored brick like mine at my house.  So after I did the dark color, I did the lightest, also just slashing it over the red, but not the darkest color.  Then after all had both colors I filled in those areas not covered with a third color.  And the last steps was to take the 4th color and just slash across all three other colors in a random way.  I was very pleased with the outcome.  When I compared the bricks to the floor, they matched. 



New floor and brick wall, newly painted cabinets.

After the house went on the market, my real estate office came to do their tour, and I had several ladies ask if I had installed that new brick wall to match the floor.  When I told them it had originally been a red brick wall,  they just shook their heads.  Unbelievable, one said.  I also had prospective buyers ask the same thing.  I do NOT believe anyone would guess that the wall had been a grimy greasy red brick wall before this.