Motivation To Paint Your Brick Sunroom White

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If you’re anything like me, then the moment you move into a new space you’re already dreaming of the things you’d like to do to it. Maybe you have visions of knocking down a wall, or changing out the powder room light fixture, but your new home almost instantly becomes a playground for your imagination.

That said, if your friends and family are anything like mine, too, then chances are good that they will gently remind you to live with a new-to-you space until you’ve had a chance to experience it day in and day out. They’ve probably told you post-move that it’s important to give your plans time to marinate and to carefully consider any big changes. They’ll tell you, “Oh, but you might find out that you love that separating wall!”

I’m certain that my family’s encouragement toward patience and their pleas to wait when it comes to home projects have saved me from more than a few mishaps. But then again, sometimes it turns out that a loving but quick, “Told ya so!” is in order. Case in point, our brick sunroom.

We are about to celebrate our second anniversary here at the house, and I can all but guarantee that each of those 602 days has ended with at least some mention of just how nice our brick sunroom would look painted white. Slight exaggeration aside, John is very used to me asking for his trust and to let me paint the room.

My argument was that the space would look so much brighter in a shade of white, and that the brick and slate room would feel so much more like an actual room with a couple coats of paint—something to differentiate it from the brick exterior of our home.

His argument was that he loved the look of exposed brick. Of course, I saw where he was coming from, and I also didn’t want to steamroll him, but after more than a year of me (gently) combatting his singular argument with assurances that white brick was both fresh and fun, my persistence eventually won out.

I think throwing together the roundup of inspiration images you saw at the beginning of this post also helped my cause though. About a week or so ago, I decided to finally go for gold and scoured Pinterest for pictures that would prove that a bright white sunroom was the way to go.

Even though the pretty photos (shot by Andrea Pesce) that you see pictured above and below look really nice, the reality is that our brick sunroom is actually kind of dark and draining in person. It’s such a great bonus room in our home, but the combination of those hard textures felt cold and utilitarian—it looked more like an afterthought addition than the nice lounge area it really is.

Photos by Andrea Pesce

Well, although I didn’t anticipate being able to say so this soon, I can officially tell you that the sunroom is cold no more. You may have seen on Instagram Stories, but with John’s incredible help, we managed to paint the sunroom white over the course of the long Memorial Day weekend. It was an exhausting handful of hours, but we knocked it out, and I’m happy to report that we’re both smitten with the results.

I’m still working on finishing up the space (think: art, plants, etc.), so you’ll have to wait just a little longer for the final look, but hopefully these dreamy inspiration images help appease you for the time being. So what do you think? Would you vote for painted brick, or do you prefer leaving it exposed? For me, it all depends on the space, but I’m curious to hear your opinions, so please feel free to leave them below.

Photo by @lesleemitchell for @pencilandpaperco

P.S. Have you voted for our space in this year’s Design Dash hosted by La-Z-Boy yet?! See the room I made over with my Glitter Guide teammate, Caitlin Kruse, here. Each vote enters you for a chance to win $15,000 to put towards a room of your OWN, so don’t wait!