Brick Work Ideas on Homes

Chimney Work

• Enhance the look of the outside of your chimney by using dark bricks on the chimney that contrast with the light exterior paint of the house. Try creating a design in the dark red chimney by incorporating whitewashed or black bricks to form a diamond, a "T" or squares down the center of the chimney. Carry out the dark red theme from the brick chimney by designing a path around the house made from the same type of brick.

Porch Steps

• Design wide, low porch steps made from light red brick laid vertically to form the steps and hold them in place with white mortar that matches the white of the painted trim around the door and window lintels and eaves. Add latticework panels on both sides of the brick porch steps to give a visual contrast of shapes at the bottom area of the house. Continue the brick theme of the porch steps by forming boxes of red brick work and mortar around the bottom of the porch posts.

Painted Brick

• Not all brick houses or brick work has to be in shades of red or light, neutral colors such as egg shell or tan. Whitewash the brick exterior of your house, and paint the trim around the windows, door arches, posts and eaves in contrasting bright colors such as red, green or blue. While most bricks are made by machine today, you can add in some rough, handmade bricks before painting the exterior to give it some texture.

Herringbone Veneer

• Brick veneer is applied to the sheathing on a house and is not meant to bear weight. It comes in a variety of patterns such as herringbone and has weep holes that allow water to drain from the exterior walls without causing damage. Herringbone bricks are juxtaposed and mortared into place to form a herringbone pattern. While this pattern has been characteristically used for paths, it has also been used as a decorative motif on houses as far back as Tudor England to provide a decorative contrast to exterior framing timbers.