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| Charming exposed brick wall in a Los Angeles living room (above) |
My friend A.Ro. sent me some photos awhile back of the adorable NYC apartment she moved into. The apartment is perfect and what makes it even better is that it has great exposed brick walls. I love the look of exposed brick – charming, so full of character.
Found these photos of painted brick walls as well…got me thinking…to paint or not to paint exposed brick? That is the question. If you had a brick wall in your place…would you leave it exposed or paint it?
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| Black brick wall in a small loft apartment (above) |
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| A large loft apartment is made to look sleek and modern with a white brick wall. (above) |
I think I like a white brick wall or the classic exposed brick the best. You?
Happy Tuesday!
xo
Coco
P.S. COCOCOZY Flash Sale – Our Chain cotton pillow below is 35% off on our new COCOCOZY Flash Sale page today. Only a few of these pillows available at a super reduced price with free shipping. If you didn’t hear the Valentine’s Day announcement about our Flash Sale page…every week I’ll choose a pillow style (limited number) or items from the COCOCOZY Collection and put them on super duper sale. This is new. Trying it out for a bit. So make sure to check in to see what is on sale!
P.P.S. Spent a fantastic long weekend in Ojai with my lovely guy TE. He took me there for a spa getaway. Follow along on COCOCOZY Instagram to see more of those personal photos from our trip! I also share a few of my favorite Ojai spots later in the week here on the blog.
Definitely exposed brick! It has so much character. I especially love the darkened brink. That’s something special and I wouldn’t touch it.
If it’s hard-fired or glazed brick like in the first picture–which it never is–there’s no way I’d paint it. It’s face brick, meant to be seen, and either I’d adapt my own aesthetic to accommodate its handsome, weighty look or I’d live someplace else. If it was the softer common brick, as in the two later photos, I’d probably paint it for the simple reason that the stuff it’s generally dirty, and if it’s ever been sandblasted to clean it, it sheds something fierce.
For a few years I ran an antique shop with just such a wall, and the place was impossible to keep clean. Every time a big truck would rumble past, a portion of the bricks and the old soft mortar would revert to their original materials and filter onto the furniture below: dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Cleanup in Aisle Four!
We did a complex of buildings in white painted brick a while back. The intent was to bring the daylight inside. The exterior was the white brick and the lobbies were the white brick and it was detailed so that the high glass walls almost disappeared. To reinforce the illusion, the walkways were lined with flowers and the flowers continued into the interior. You see the kind of atmosphere we were trying to create. Well, when the buildings were finished the client refused to paint them. The natural brick was beautiful, but it was a whole different look. In the end the project proceeded as planned, due to the faith of one trusting executive. Your blog brought back that awful moment when the design was at the brink of falling apart. We look at all these photos of interiors and we don’t have the slightest idea of all of the anguish and victories. Did you ever wonder about the stories these buildings could tell? A good photo looks effortless. It just takes a lot of work to get there.