We’ve been making some improvements to the overall curb appeal of our exterior, and so naturally, I’ve been looking more and more at our bright white trim and wondering if we could do better. We’ve made no changes to the exterior of the house, and I find the red brick to be incredibly attractive and timeless. We DO NOT WANT TO PAINT THE BRICK, but it might be fun to update the white trim and window sashes. And SO… I recruited my talented sister Andi to “try on” some exterior paint colors that pair well with red brick!
On our 2023 project list, we talked about possibly replacing all of the windows this year, and I think it’s a go! It’s going to take some time to order the windows and have them made, but we’re starting down that path. The good news is, we had a few pros come and look at the windows and they said we could get away with just replacing the sashes (the window part and grid) instead of the entire window which would save us 10s of thousands of dollars. We went to look at window options and they had an array of colors to choose from, so we thought–let’s go down that road and explore.
One of the most useful things you can do before committing to any paint color is to digitally try it on! There are probably some paint apps that allow you to do this, but Andi usually just opens up Lightroom to tweak the colors. She has a whole tutorial here if you’re interested in learning how to do it. This is more so to get an idea of which color I might want the trim to be, and then I will try to color-match it with a paint deck. First up, we swapped the bright white for a soft ivory.
Soft Ivory
I think that this ivory looks much classic and warm. The white is a little high-contrast when I start comparing it with the other trim options.
Blue-Gray
The next option I like is on the cooler side. I’m a big fan of blue-gray paint, and I think it would really complement the red brick beautifully.
Slate Blue
Or we could go with a darker slate blue, which I’m so in love with! There’s just something about that color and tone that excites me so much and feels very on-brand Chris Loves Julia. I guess my fear is that I would be giving away all my secrets before anybody even comes inside ;).
Taupe
Taupe paint colors for a while were considered outdated, but I’m here to tell you they’re back, and for good reason. Obviously, this would coordinate so well with the grout color, and I think it’s proven itself to be rather timeless. My only hesitation is, remember when we first painted the outdoor kitchen a taupe-y color? There were certain times of day that I absolutely hated it, and I’m fearful that this would be the same case.
Mushroom
Taking the taupe color to a darker mushroom might be just the right move. I love how the mushroom color actually goes more to the background and highlights the beautiful red brick! I can totally see myself going with this option!
The great news is that only the sashes need replacing, and the trim will be painted to match, which will save us so much money! On the inside of the house, they said that the sashes have to be either white, wood, or black. I’m deciding between wood or black… but leaning more towards black. We’ll see!
I loved your article and all of the pictures! Would you please send me the name of company and color you used for the slate blue trim?
Thank you so much
This looks like our house and I really like the last image. The challenge is getting the windows painted the same color particularly the muntins.
Would you mind sharing the colors in the taupe and mushroom photos? I’m trying to decide on a trim color for my red brick and I love those two! Thank you so much!
It may be user error, but I have been trying to use LR and this tutorial to see different colors on my home and it is definitely not as simple as this post describes.
I love the mushroom color you chose! Are you able to tel me the exact name of the darker slate blue color? It’s gorgeous as well!!
These are all mock-ups, but you can bring the image to your local paint store and see if they can color-match it!