Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Painting Brick To Lighten Up A Dark Office

Jolie is a woman after our own heart. Just check out how she too took a dark office / laundry room and lightened things up with a bit of paint on those red brick walls. Here’s her letter:

Your den transformation was such an amazing inspiration to me that I decided to paint my brick walls, too. It’s my laundry room with an office over to the side. Before the makeover, this room used to feel dark and gloomy and it just didn’t flow with the rest of the house.

Reader Jolie Before

So I painted the walls a light color and it transformed the room! It doesn’t feel gloomy anymore- as a matter of fact it’s one of my favorite spaces in the house now. It actually makes me want to do the laundry!  And it was very easy and inexpensive. Here’s what I did:

  • Painted the walls Sherwin Williams Antique White
  • Painted the built in cabinets Olympic Light Sage
  • Picked up bamboo shades from Lowe’s
  • Hung white curtains from Ikea
  • Hung sea coral art on the wall from your shop (love it!)
  • Made a burlap cabinet curtain from fabric.com

I hope you enjoy the before and after pictures. And thank you for all the wonderful work you put into your blog. It’s truly inspirational. – Jolie

Reader Jolie After

Of course we love the touches that Jolie borrowed from our own den makeover, but we’re even more excited about those painted built-in cabinets. What a charming dash of color they bring to the room! Thanks for sharing your makeover, Jolie. And if you guys want to see more pictures of Jolie’s recently purchased and already transformed brick ranch, hit up her blog to check ’em out. Talk about style to spare.

Comments

  2. Dana @ House*Tweaking says

    JOLIE! Wow! That is an amazing do-over! I love everything about this laundry room/office. One of my favorite Reader Redesigns to date bc it’s soooo cheap, pretty easy and makes for some dramatic results. You have great style, Jolie!

    Reply

  6. Beanie says

    Jolie,
    What color did you paint the bricks? They look more off white than the upper part of actual wall.
    Thanks! Looks great.
    Beanie

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hey Beanie,

      If you look at the bulleted list in the post you can see the wall color that Jolie used (along with that lovely cabinet color). Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  7. Bec Bec says

    Jolie….

    YOU are an inspiration to us all. Love reading your blog daily….sometimes 3 or 4 times waiting for new posts!! ;0)

    With some time and patience you’ve turned a dark, dull room into a bright and beautiful room.

    Love from FLORIDA!!

    Reply

  10. Keeley says

    Love it! I am thisclose to painting the wood surrounding our fireplace when we (finally) paint our finished basement. I’ve always had this fear that I’d regret painting over real wood (just like I’m sure people fear painting over “real brick”). I just may do it…

    Reply

  11. Christie {Honoring Health} says

    Oh my, I have such laundry room envy right now. I have this secret obsession with having a beautiful laundry room. I spend a lot of time in there. But, alas, ours is teeny tiny with barely enough rough to walk in.

    Reply

  13. Carly says

    S & J –

    Since I’m always hesitant to do any renovations that I can’t someday UN-do I have to ask, is there any way to remove paint from brick?

    Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hey Carly,

      There are some chemical strippers that are said to remove paint from brick but we always say that it’s never a guarantee! You have to LOVE the idea of painted brick to go for it. We literally couldn’t live one more day with our red brick so we knew we’d never regret painting it!

      xo,
      s

  14. Carrie says

    I dug a little deeper into Jolie’s blog and found out about the counter tops!

    “I popped that laminate off the top and there was wood under it. I painted the wood white and then put polyurethane over it. I painted the cabinets Olympic Light Sage and replaced the knobs with white ones. Painted the brick Sherman Williams Antique White.” http://shoppingcandy.blogspot.com/2010/03/laundry-room-in-progress.html

    Great idea and a wonderful transformation!!

    Reply

  19. rachael says

    I know this is an old post, but do you guys still sell your prints anywhere? I’d love to buy some for my house!

    Reply

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