How to brighten up a brick and tiled house?

6 years ago

How would you brighten up the outside of this house ?it's brick and tiles. Would rendering it be an option or painting the wooden window frames in a French grey colour? The first picture is the front of house the second the back. It's a new purchase so All advice gratefully received.

Featured Answer

Juliet Docherty

6 years ago

What an amazing house. My current house has the same colour palette, all shades of brown. I replaced my windows with timber ones painted in Farrow and Ball light grey 17 which works well with the brick. I would render just the middle section of the house (both front and back) - this would create a welcome contrast. The windows, soffits and facias would look very smart black. As there is a lot of block paving and hard surfaces it may be an idea to build a retaining wall around the curved section at the front (up to each brick pillar) to introduce some greenery where the paving and walls meet each other.

Comments (11)

Jonathan
6 years ago
For me it is just too much brown. What about painting the windows, facias and sofits?
PRO
Kia Designs
6 years ago
You could add more colour in the form of plants, some large potted bushes, or maybe even climbers. They always add interest and inject life into spaces.
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Daisy England
6 years ago
What a fabulous house. Perhaps paint the windows and other corresponding woodwork grey. I think that would definitely suit.
PRO
PWJ Architects Ltd
6 years ago
If considering rendering the property, you may need to obtain planning permission from your local planning authority.

You could upgrade the windows, doors, facias and sofits as suggested above with contemporary materials that could improve the property in terms practicality efficiency.

www.pwjarchitects.com
PRO
Create Perfect
6 years ago
Hi.
What a great purchase!! Looks like you could have some fun with that and make a really great home!

I would suggest painting the windows but I would definitely consider rendering sections to bring it up to date and lift from what is currently a heavy and flat look it has.

What style will inside be once you're done?

I would consider having a 3D image/render completed for the exterior before making an 'expensive mistake'. You wouldn't buy a car without seeing it so why not your windows and doors. I have added an example of the 3D renders I do personally.
Claire Nicholson
6 years ago
Hi Zoe,

What a beautiful house- such a striking and interesting shape! Have you just moved in?

I agree with Jonathan and Daisy above about maybe painting the windows, I think it would really soften the dark colours and provide some nice contrast.

We have been through a similar process in the last 6 months and I got myself quite 'tied up' in trying to make the right decision as I knew it would be a big investment and desperately didn't want to get it wrong.

It's great news that your windows are timber and you can paint them- we had horrible white PVC so have to change them all to get the look we want outside, which is a lot more costly!

I think plants would add a lovely bit of interest as a part of the 'finishing touches' but do agree that window colours and perhaps some part render would have a much bigger impact on the overall look.

I have to say that we 'cheated' as I am terrible at visualising things and just couldn't work out how it would look in my head and went with the renders option suggested above.

We got a RAL colour chart (the one with only one colour per sheet- about £40 from Amazon) and for two weeks sent any of our friends or family who arrived at the house outside with it and without pointing them in one direction or another, asked them to pick their favourite colour against the brick work.

We then took the 3 shortlisted colours and found a fab Interior designer to do high quality 3D renders.

Once we had the 3D renders it was really easy to decide and we didn't feel there was any risk of making an expensive mistake as we already knew how it would look.

We also used the 3D images to decide what to change a very small and ugly window that dominated the front of our house to- thanks to the images and the advice of the designer we ended up with a vast improvement and a pretty faux Juliet balcony to rebalance the proportions on the front of the house. You could try something similar looking at which bits (if any) you'd like to render.

It's also worth mentioning that this service from a good designer will only be a few hundred pounds (nowhere near as much as I thought it would be when someone kindly suggested it to me) so for me, was well worth it considering the cost of what we were going to be spending on the materials and labour for getting things changed.

Hope it helps :)
J
6 years ago
Great house. I think selective rendering would look great. This will pull out the interesting architecture. Maybe render the bay, not the bricks around the windows and the base of the verandah posts. Here's a image to give you an idea of what I'm talking about-
http://houzz.co.uk/sr/m=7/u=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaG91enouY29tL3VrL3Bob3Rvcy80MzY5MDQ3MC93b3J0aC1wcm9qZWN0LWFydHMtYW5kLWNyYWZ0cy1leHRlcmlvci1zdXNzZXg=
Zoe Aldenhoven
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you so much for all your advice... yes Claire we have just bought and will hopefully be moving in over the summer just wanted to get a head start on where to start with the dark brown brown brown exterior! Think will look into a 3D model for rendering and colours. Would you all suggest a white render and grey window frames etc or??? Any more advice gratefully received again.
A part render sounds like a fab option too. The window frames inside the house are all dark brown too but I'm guessing that's a different post/ problem on here. Thank you all for your kind words and advice.
PRO
Create Perfect
6 years ago
Hi Zoe,

I look forward to the next post regarding interior frames then! :)

I would go for a white crisp render which looks great against the brick.

With our 3D renders of Claire's house (shown above) I was suppose to show you a few different options we created for her but it appears to show the same photo (sorry). I am not sure about other companies 3D visuals but with my package I can show you a variety of options and discuss different ideas with you/offer advice as part of the service you pay for.

I think with Claire's which she mentioned above, we looked at 3 different windows colours and then a few different door/garage combinations as options as a whole. We aim to give you everything you need to make your decisions.

With split white render and brick homes I generally prefer darker windows frames but I think it depends on the style you're trying to achieve so would recommend you look at both as options if going for a 3D visual.

All the best, Gina
PRO
PWJ Architects Ltd
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Hi Zoe,

A quick courtesy call!

Have you contacted your local planning authority about changing the appearance of the property? Once you clarification on whether you can, then you can consider seeking technical application, as well as CGI renders if you feel they are necessary.

How to brighten up a brick and tiled house?

Juliet Docherty

Comments (11)

Jonathan

Kia Designs

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