Before and After: Exterior Reveal!

Home Renovation, My House

October 27th, 2020

I’m excited to talk about our exterior renovation. It was a big project that didn’t end until a few months ago!

We moved into our home over 10 years ago and I would never expect that our house could look the way it does now.

This is what our house looked like when we moved in:

After a few years living there we started to renovate the main floor. We switched out two lower windows, the front door, and got new soffits/eaves on the main level. Well, we left the exterior until spring 2020… can you believe it? we had two kids in there, more interior renovations that took over our time, money, and life in general got in the way. The only reason we decided to tackle our exterior was because Tiffany Leigh mentioned that she was doing exterior renderings so I decided to take her up on it!

Exterior Rendering provided by Tiffany Leigh Design

I couldn’t believe our house could look like this with a new coat of paint, some new lights and two new windows.

The plan:

What we used for siding

We went with James Hardie Siding, we used JH on our sunroom and was happy with it. To do board and batten you order the sheets and then the batten strips are added to hide the nail holes that connect each sheet. We spaced the batten 10″ apart (12″ centre to centre). They have two collections for colours. We paid a bit more money to choose from the dream collection since it had so many amazing colours to choose from. We went with ‘farmhouse white’.

How we changed the brick

Next was changing the brick. I found an informative post from Young House Love about using mineral paint for the brick – see here . They used Romabio masonry flat paint. Unfortunately I couldn’t get this product in Canada. So I started doing some research and came across Nawkaw. They offered a masonry stain that promises to not chip, peel or fade. They guarantee their work for 30 years! To find out more about their product, check out the latest episode of Design Life with Sarah Richardson, featuring Nawkaw – starting at 7:00 minutes into the video https://bit.ly/Nawkaw_SR

Unfortunately I can’t tell you what colour we used for the brick as Nawkaw came out to our house to do a custom sample comparing it to the siding.

Once thing is that I didn’t anticipate is how white paint can play tricks with your mind! When they started staining the brick, I definitely second-guessed the choice, it didn’t seem like it was matching the siding but we had equipment on the driveway where the light was reflecting differently onto the brick compared to the siding.

I had Tiffany come over and she was happy with how it was looking so we moved ahead!

I couldn’t be happier with the outcome of the house. It’s made such a difference, I feel like it is more reflective of the interior that we have spent 10 years updating top to bottom!

Final Reveal!

This how how our house look last spring…

Here is how our house looks now!

What a difference! We didn’t touch the garage, front door or the bottom two windows yet they have been given new life thanks to the brick, siding and new lights!

Here is how our backyard started out…

Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture when the siding was done on the back but you get the idea!

Sharing some helpful posts that discuss painting brick/changing your siding!

Pros and Cons of Painting Your Brick House by Studio McGee

Painting Our Brick House White by Young House Love

Should You Paint Your Brick House? by Houzz

How To Choose An Exterior Paint Color + Our Favorite Shades AND Combos by Emily Henderson

12 Dark Exterior Paint Colors We’re Loving–In Action! by Chris Loves Julia

Here are some other amazing exterior transformations:

via Paper Moon Painting

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions!