HGTV Star Erin Napier Ditches The Painted Brick Trend For A More Natural Solution

After the Industrial Revolution in the US, fired red bricks became an incredibly popular building material. It remained a standard choice for home exteriors through the midcentury, but consumers then shifted their attention to new types of materials. That means that many of the red brick homes you see are older, and sometimes have a slightly rundown look. That has led people to think that red brick is an exterior feature that makes homes look old-fashioned, dark, and drab. The popular solution many designers and homeowners have come up with? Coating the brick in a thick coat of light paint. But Erin Napier of HGTV's "Home Town" says you may want to reconsider painting your brick exterior. 

"People are always painting this kind of brick, and I think that's a mistake," says Napier in Season 7, Episode 16 of "Home Town." In the episode, Napier helps a client renovate their red brick home and explains that painting brick is not her go-to choice. The problem is that it's very porous, and unlike painted wood, you can't just use a paint stripper and sand the paint away. This trend permanently alters the brick and may look outdated in just a few short years. Instead, Napier says it's better to do some color matching in the brick and focus on adding accents that refresh and modernize the home. 

Napier's advice for red brick is simple, saying, "You can work with this brick if you find a way to take the darkest color in it and use it as an accent somewhere in the house." Even though the brick is, yes, red, there is a ton of color variation between the kiln-fired units. Some have deeper shades of burgundy, others a chocolatey brown, as well as black and green. To follow the "Home Town" star's color rule, select a darker spot in your red brick and find a paint hue that matches. This will be the perfect accent color for your home's exterior trim such as shutters, gutters, window frames, and so on because it makes the colors in the brick pop rather than washing them out. 

Additionally, Napier shares that a fresh front door goes a long way to modernizing brick houses. In her build, she replaced a white-painted double door with a wooden mahogany set that included two large windows. This allows a ton of natural light into the home and breaks up the dark exterior of the brick.