I love driving around and looking at houses. Sometimes I’ll put my kids in the car with their breakfast, drive-thru coffee for me and then drive around sipping coffee, looking at houses for as long as they’ll tolerate it. 🙂 I get more ideas and inspiration by driving around than I do from Pinterest or magazines. The eyes need real! For example, how cool are these wrapped trees we saw in some one’s side yard? After experiencing The Blue Trees, we will be doing something similar to a tree in our backyard.
My phone is full of pictures like this, I’ve kinda become shameless when it comes to taking pictures now that I have this blog. Lately, the best idea I’ve seen while driving around is a new (to me) treatment on brick. Here is a new construction home in my neighborhood with the brick treatment that caught my eye, LOVE it:
After trying to figure out on my own what this is called, I finally just called the builder. David of Horace Homes was very kind to answer all of my questions about his lovely home. He said they called it a Slurry, basically it’s colored mortar troweled over brick. Here’s a close-up:
So pretty! If I were building a home, the exterior would be Slurried Brick, no doubt about it. I love how soft and vintage it looks. It’s smooth but you can still see the brick pattern underneath. The best part is it’s not painted, the color is the mortar. I even asked David what color the brick was underneath, he said it’s the same as the brick on the drive-way:
How and wow! How is that ↑ under this ↓? Beautiful and gorgeous job, tell it to your neighbor!!!
Here’s another beautiful home I found while driving around with a similar or same slurried brick treatment:
From what I’ve gathered Slurried Brick could also be called Mortar Washed or Sacked. David said it costs about about 30% more than your regular brick and mortar. I love it. It’s unique, it’s understated and it’s beautiful.
I too have been obsessing over sacked brick! Really love this look, such a great textural difference from painted brick.
I love the slurried brick look! That house is beautiful. David Beck with Horace Homes is the best in town. He built our home in 2010 and we are thrilled with it. I highly recommend him for all of your building needs! So glad he was on one of my FAV blogs!
Never heard of slurried brick, but we have an old brick Victorian that needs to be repainted – painting is actually a great preservative for old brick. Maybe we could slurry it. . . .
LOVE that look, Erica! I am just a huge brick fan in general. Love that herringbone look on the driveway brick too. Great post!
The last picture is my house. I loved restoring the old house, which was being sold "for lot value only." My sister talked me into the slurried brick treatment, and I love it. It was also a very useful tool for restoration because the entire backside of the house had to have new brick added. You simply cannot tell that there's original brick from the 1930s and new brick from 2012. Love your blog!
I pass by your house almost every day going to work at Rice–it's beautiful! I'm so glad you saved it!
I recognize your lovely home! I'm building a house in Southampton and your brick inspired me.
I love that you posted about this! It's taken me a month or 2 to find it! We started to do this to our brick about a year ago last summer and I backed out last minute! there is so much more information now about it and more houses that have had it done. I think I can "pull the trigger" now that I've seen more of it around! I could barely find examples to show my husband how it was supposed to look a year ago!
This is a great article. I love the old white brick used on the house in these pictures. My friend has the same type of house, old brick but with black shutters. She just bought a cast aluminum mailbox that really contributes to the overall traditional look the house has. The shape and style of the mailbox matches the lamp post and outdoor lights hanging next to the front door.
What professional does slurried brick–mason? Painter?
I'm wanting to do this to my house. What tool do you use to apply the mortar? A Sponge, a trowel, etc?? Thanks!
Kelly, I did this with a sponge on our fireplace about 4 months ago. I put on two coats, sanded with a wet sponge between coats, and after the last coat I used a grittier wet sanding sponge to scour down random areas so some brick showed through. We are starting the exterior tomorrow and I found this blog entry after searching trowel or sponge. I consulted with some contractors and a neighbor who had this done. They all said trowel, especially for exterior, so I guess we are going that route but I wanted to see if anyone else had an opinion. The sponge put a nice heavy coat and I liked that it looked kind of just put on, so-to-speak, not perfectly neat like I think I trowel will apply it. I am going to test both before I have the guys commit to one tool. So… even though this didn't really answer your question, hopefully it provided a bit of insight.
Was it a lot more expensive to go that route versus just painting your brick? I love the sacking look, absolutely beautiful. We are trying to decide what to do. I have also heard that If you choose to just paint your brick, you will too then have the maintenance of keeping up with it every 5 years or so. Any advice?
Does this hold up better than painting brick? Do you know if it can be done in a light gray or just the white? I love the look but we're buying an older home in Sugar Land and I'd love to do this to differentiate the home.
Hi just saw the thread, did anyone have any success with the slurry brick project. Can anyone recommend a contractor?
My cousin had this done by a painter i used to work with. He did a beautiful job! George Ortiz (832) 434-9125
Also look into brickrestoration.com
I understand you need to repaint painted brick after a while. With the slurry technique, does anyone know if it is more long-lasting than paint?