Even though we have been building homes for over 25 years now, believe it or not, every home I’ve ever designed has been unique.  I’ve never done the exact same color scheme more than once.  Sure, I have some “go to” colors, or tiles I have used multiple times, but every home I have ever designed has been uniquely different.  And each home has a Starting Point.  Sometimes the starting point is the Kitchen Cabinets, sometimes the countertops, sometimes an inspiration from a picture I’ve seen and liked, sometimes the lighting, you get the picture.  For this year’s Parade Home entry, I started with the brick.  Not just for the outside, but the brick influenced the interior design as well.  Let’s start with the exterior. 

If you read my last blog post, you know we have built this Meadow plan 10 times now.  So it’s becoming more difficult to come up with unique ideas.  The previous nine times we have built this plan we used a combination of siding and stone on the front elevation.  So this time I wanted to go a different route by using Brick for the accents instead of stone.  The challenge for me personally is for years I was never really a big fan of brick.  Variations of Red brick just have never appealed to me.  However, in more recent years, with the addition of some really pretty newer shades of bricks falling into the white and grey categories, I’m finding myself looking for new ways to incorporate brick more. 

Last year, Neil and I built our own personal home on some land we had been sitting on since 2019.  It has been almost exactly a year since we have lived here and we absolutely love it.  However, in the beginning, it took us a while to agree on what we wanted to build.  Neil wanted an all brick house.  I wanted a Farm house.   To me, a Farm house is not brick.  Thankfully, we did evidentially find a plan that combined both our wants.   

The key to making this whole Brick Farmhouse concept work for me was all about the brick color.  And ultimately, it ended up being one of the most important decisions in the entire build.  I absolutely love the brick we chose for our personal home. What do you think?

Fast forward to months later and many design decisions later and it’s time to brick the fireplace surround.  I had made all interior decisions based on using the same brick we used on the exterior for the interior.  However, when the time came to order the brick, I discovered the cut brick (thin slices of the brick used as veneers on interior applications) was not available and would be months before we could get some. 

Needless to say, that was not a good day.  After pouting a few days, I finally made the decision to just go pick out something else that would be available without holding up progress.  After some debate, Neil and I ended up choosing this brick which was similar but had more “warmth” in the brick. 

Once I saw this brick I felt it would look good with all the wood accents we had already in other selections such as the hickory wood floors, the stained alderwood island and accents, the stained wood beams and barn doors all having warm wood tones.  So we went with this new brick choice for the fireplace. But I’ll be honest, I was nervous and felt a little like I was just settling in order to keep things moving.  But the day that fireplace was finished and we got the mantel in place, I was soooo happy with the end result and feel to this day it all worked out better in the long run because the warmth in the stone was just perfect with all the wood tones on the inside.  Plus it blends beautifully from the inside out and I love how it all turned out.

So you are probably thinking by now, “wow, great story, Joy, but what does that have to do with this Parade Home entry?” Well, it has a lot to do with it actually, because I have been admiring that beautiful brick on my fireplace every day for the past year and thought, “it sure would be pretty on the exterior of a home”.  So I designed the entire exterior pallet around that same brick from my fireplace.  Started building, and then guess what happens.  We go to order the brick and of course we find out, that particular brick is out of stock!!  I really hate those words. 

So back to the brick store I go.  My brick installer told me they had just installed a similar brick on another job and told me to check it out.   It wasn’t the same, but it was pretty.  So I approved it. Tragedy averted.  Honestly, things like this happen a lot, so I try not to get too upset .  But some things bother me more than others.  As soon as the brick foundation was completed I knew I loved the brick and has now become one of “my favorites”.  So it wasn’t my original choice, but again, I think it all worked out exactly how it was supposed to.  Here’s what we have so far:

I’m planning to stain the wood posts (not installed yet) and gable accents a warm wood stain.  Right now, I’m planning on NO shutters.  Although Neil is trying to talk me into adding them.  You will just have to come and see for yourself during the Parade to see what the final decision will be. 

A big part of the interior design in this plan is the BIG two story fireplace.   Again, I usually just run the same stone from the exterior onto the fireplace surround all the way up to the ceiling.  This time, I will be using the same brick.  I ordered the cut brick a few weeks ago and was told it was four weeks out so I’m counting on it arriving in time (hopefully).

Based on the brick, I went with a color palette I thought would look great with the brick and added wood accents to tie it all together.  I can’t wait to see how it turns out.  

Last time I built this plan, for the interior design, I started with the Pendant lights over the Island and worked my way out from there.  Literally, the entire house was designed from this pendant light.  And it turned out so beautiful. 

The interior trim is almost complete and then painting begins.  So in a few weeks the trim outs will start and it will really start looking good.  This is when the building process really gets exciting in my opinion. 

Next week we will take a closer look at the Cabinets and Countertop design choices I selected for each room.

But before I go I thought of an additional side note about brick that has nothing to do with our Parade Entry but thought it was worth mentioning:

An important thing to keep in mind regarding the beautiful “white” brick styles–the white, rubs off.  The brick still has a red base underneath.  So you have to be careful how you use it.  For example, building in areas with red clay soils is challenging b/c the red clay gets all over the foundation while you are building.  When you go to pressure wash near the end of building, pressure washers have to be very careful NOT to wash the white right off the brick.  The other concern is how you are using it.  When building our personal home, I knew I wanted that beautiful herringbone brick pattern you see all over Pinterest on my Front Porch.  I mean, who wouldn’t.  So beautiful.

However, when it came to that point in the building process, both my installer and my salesman warned me NOT to do it.  They warned that over time, the white wears off and it’s NOT a good look long term.  Well, I plan to live here the rest of my life so “long term” is important.  So, even though I was disappointed, we regrouped and found some pavers that coordinated beautifully with our brick.  Here’s how it turned out. 

I love it.  Sitting on my front porch is one of my favorite pastimes now and I’ve never regretted going with the pavers instead of the brick.  For further validation, the brick steps leading into my home from the garage are definitely showing significant wear with a lot of the red showing after only one year of use.   So take that into consideration when choosing your brick color.  Hope this tip was helpful.