Red brick house with black trim Australia

The best DIY brick renovation idea, all it requires is good prep, the right paint, and some patience. The results are instant and stunning! Works over bare or bagged brick.

This blog post is part 2 of our original post ‘How we bagged our brick home’, click here to read that first.

Índice Show

• The best DIY brick renovation idea, all it requires is good prep, the right paint, and some patience. The results are instant and stunning! Works over bare or bagged brick.
• What trim colors go well with red brick?
• Does black go with red brick?
• What is a complementary color to red brick?

Things we used:

NOTE: When painting over brick or bagged brick you MUST use a paint approved for use on brick/masonry, the paint needs to breathe, allowing the brick to function the way it always has. All paint brands list approved applications on the tin.

50L Undercoat - We used Tint Paint “Prep” (quantity calculation further down this post)

40L Exterior Paint - Tint Paint Exterior in colour “Old School” (quantity calculation further down this post)

Paint Rollers & Frame (I used 270mm, make sure your tray fits the roller AND handle you have on it)

Paint Trays(I line mine with plastic bags so I don’t have to wash the tray at the end)

Extension Poles ours are old as the hills so chose one that matches your roller frame (you can alternatively use a sprayer, however see my tips below before deciding)

Paint Brushes(have a few medium angled brushes on hand for tricky fiddly spots)

Paint Potor container to hold the brush and some paint (you can use a glass jar if you like)

Power drill with paint mixing bit attached, or a paint mixing stick.

Painters tape

Drop sheets/plastic sheets

Access to clean water for washing up

Scaffolding (if your home is not single story) or a stable ladder if it is.

Please note that we paid for all our paint ourselves, and had just discovered how much we loved the Australian brand Tint paint, when we painted our kids rooms inside. Tint is a low VOC vegan paint brand that has the most amazing customer service and really, really fantastic coverage and paint quality. Because we have asked them for a discount code to share with you, this part of the post is an ad, but no less honest, I will NEVER recommend something I haven’t used myself and wouldn't buy with my own money.

You can use the code MARIKAKNOWSTHINGS to get 10% off orders over $150, which also gives us 10% payment. We always disclose when any part of our posts are ads, but we would equally never promote a product we didn’t genuinely believe in. We have since used Tint on many other projects, keep an eye out for our ‘How we painted our above ground pool’ post soon!

A few things to consider before getting to the instructions…

Paint sprayer, or roller?

This is a personal choice, below I’ve included two lists of my personal pros and cons on each one. For us, we found spraying used a LOT more product and we quickly switched to rolling, which also gave way better product distribution as it really pushes the paint into the bagged brick, rolling also requires less prep and cleanup time not needing to completely cover sheet windows and pavement to protect from overspray. I have read rolling gives better adhesion over bare or bagged brick too.

*Disclaimer: I LOVE my paint sprayers and have used them on a ton of projects, including our above ground pool, many of our doors, furniture pieces and fences. You need to pick the most appropriate tool for the job, and also what suits you best.

How much paint do you need?

We used 50L of undercoat and 40L of top coat, for the brick only, not eaves or trim.

This will depend on a lot of factors: What colour you chose/what colour you are going over, how thick you apply the paint, and if you spray or roll. Most paint suppliers will indicate on the tin what coverage to expect.

Our home is ridiculously large (we brought a whole 'lotta ugly!!) so you could safely assume most people won’t need this much.

Paint Cost?

For the brick walls we needed 5 x 10L of primer at $159 each and 4 x 10L of Old School exterior paint at $169 each RRP at the time (now changed to $189 each) all from Tint Paint.

This cost $795 undercoat+ $676 top coat = $1471.

(I used my 10% TINT discount code MARIKAKNOWSTHINGS, which brought this to down to $1323).

We already had all the paint accessories, we just brought a few rollers so I won’t include these costs as they vary wildly depending on what you already have and what brands you chose, but you can cost what you need and see what we use clicking the links in the list at the top.

A reminder that DIY bagging our brick cost just $267. At the beginning of this project we had a few quotes and they came in at around the 20-25k mark. So no matter how long it took, or how hard the work was, this was 100% worth it to me!

Remember to check the weather before starting, you’ll need no rain for a few days prior to, and after painting. Technically rain the next day would be fine but let’s be extra cautious.

Method

Step 1

We start from where we left off in this post. These instructions are fairly similar if painting “bare” brick too.

Broom down any loose dust now the mortar mix has dried completely. Prep any pipes you do not wish to paint by taping around the part that enters the wall, tape off and/or drop sheet any deck, verandah or areas you do not wish to paint.

Step 2

Mix your undercoat well, it helps to have two people on the job, one on a brush, being followed by one with a roller. The person with the brush will go around any doors and windows and also do the top and bottom edges where you need to “cut in”. The person on the roller will follow and fill in the gaps.

Load your roller exceptionally well for going over bagged brick, especially this first coat, the mortar mix will suck up quite a lot of paint, so you want to load that roller well, slowly spin it as you move towards the wall to avoid drips, then push harder than normal as you roll, to really drive the product into the brick as you go. This helps avoid bubbles or small dots where the paint didn’t penetrate the mortar.

Don’t worry if it looks patchy after the undercoat, that’s what top coat is for. But make sure you get really good coverage, you’re better to do thinner top coats than skimp on the undercoat. I promise the following coats are NOT as much work as this first one, the roller will get a bit gritty so change to a new roller for top coats.

Work one wall or section at a time, it is best if you need to stop, to ensure you stop a the end of a wall not the middle, this avoids any lines later on. We painted one side at a time, and when transitioning to the top story we tried to choose a spot that lined up with the verandah. Don’t stress about this, it’s just good practice.

Step 3

Wait the appropriate time (check your paint tin) for your undercoat to dry and fully cure. If unsure, double it!

Undercoat is what blocks any stains from bleeding from a surface, out through the paint (if you are painting bare brick and have any flecks of red in the brick, you may need to use a stain blocker undercoat specifically, some bricks contain materials that bleed through) and undercoat is also what ensures best adhesion long term. Don’t rush the dry time.

Step 4

Follow with your top coat. In our case we did such a good coat of undercoat that we only did a single top coat (again, it was a good thick even coat).

Step 5

Allow this to dry very very well before going back to paint any eaves, trim etc. We can tick this extra caution off our list as winter arrived before we were able to paint the trim, so that’s a job for this summer!

We painted our brick in February 2021, so far it’s holding up perfectly. We’ll let you know if that changes.

What trim colors go well with red brick?

Does black go with red brick?

What is a complementary color to red brick?