Thanks for this post, Sarah! I've been debating about whether or not I should paint the brick in my kitchen white. Leaning towards not now... thanks!

Kimber AT: DC

I love brick, it's one of the many things I miss about NYC apartments. Thanks for sharing.

I have heard that it is bad to paint brick (can cause it to crumble). Any truth to this?

god, i love brick, both painted and unpainted. too bad our condo has none and i think it'd be pretty cheesy to put in some fake "character" brick.
i love the floors in the colorama loft!

Polish chick...hi....i installed the fake "character" bricks you referenced. I made them by hand...it is nearly impossible to tell they are not the standard bricks....cheesy it is not.

I have brick walls in my bedroom and love them! Initially I didn't know how I could soften them up without painting them white, but I found these gorgeous lace window treatments that add a little bit of sweetness to the rawness. Great post!

I'm really loving the look of that partial drop metal pressed ceiling in the second photo. I bet the light that reflects off of that at night is amazing.

i swoon for brick. unpainted if it is nice (just distressed and discolored enough) and in good condition. though i do love the look and texture of the painted white brick with a nice wood floor.

I like brick either unpainted or painted...it always has a rustic textural charm.

IslanDdan, how did you make the bricks?? I'd love to try that; I've been wanting some brick in our house and the fake stuff I've seen looks really, really fake.

I love both painted and not. In a smaller space the dark red bricks can be overwhelming, and by painting them white it really opens up a space. But in a large loft space the natural brick looks amazing and adds some nice warm tones to an industrial space.

It seems like such a travesty to be the first to paint perfectly nice brick. I can understanding changing the color if it's already been painted, but it seems like such bad karma to be the first! Bricks are like Blue Jeans, they go with everything, no one notices their color because they are neutral. Plus, it would just be too hard to change them back to natural. I also am curious about what sciteach said about painting causing brick to crumble easier.

well, islandan, if what you say is true, then perhaps my dream could become a reality. please do give a tutorial. our condo is modern and airy enough that it could totally pull off a brick wall, but all the fakes i've seen were very obvious. i'm all ears!

An old boyfriend had his bed up against an unpainted brick wall, like the 3rd photo. There was always brick grit in the bed. It would even fall on us while we were sleeping. I would have painted that sucker in a heartbeat.

Unpainted bricks are good.

i guess white brick is better than white drywall, but i far prefer unpainted, though sealed, brick. i think its a great look.

i've created faux bricks for clients and i think it turns out pretty nice.
here's one wall i did:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scenicartisan/4173013589/

its possible to get it pretty naturalistic using just matte paint and a texture medium.

A friend of mine just painted their fireplace brown... I don't know what she was thinking because it was so nice before!!! I agree, totally fine to change a color of already painted brick but man, i'd hate to be the first one... it'd have to be in pretty bad shape or something!

We paint our floor to ceiling fireplace metallic blue, and I love it.

It depends. I generally prefer leaving brick unpainted if it's in good shape, but sometimes that just doesn't work for a space.

Exposed brick is so gorgeous - warm and textural. Some of the painted brick looks nice too, but I don't think I'd do it.

It's not that I think painted brick necessarily looks "bad," but when I see it and then think how it would've looked if left unpainted, the unpainted version always strikes me as more attractive. I am jealous of anyone with exposed unpainted brick. When I see or hear of someone painting exposed brick, my heart breaks a little. Especially because once the paint is on there, I don't think you can ever get it off.

I think they both look great. I think if my next purchase had exposed brick, I would keep it exposed for a time, paint it, then, eventually, sand blast it to expose some of the brick behind the paint.

As others have mentioned, it really depends on the space, whether it needs more light, etc.

It is sort of the same as natural wood color. If it hasn't been painted already, don't! But I agree, even painted brick has it's charm.

I like both.

I really hate exposed brick for some reason. We have exposed brick, it's just on the outside of the house. What's so special? I'd definitely paint it if I ended up with a home with it for some reason. I wouldn't really consider #5 an exposed brick "wall", just a fireplace-lots from that time period did lots of brick.

STH and Polish Chick -- my way. Purchase the molds from ebay(Old Worlde Stone...excuse the plug for them) I bought the antique molds. Purchase MORTAR cement, the one without the pebbles. purchase the coloring at Lowes OR you can purchase with the kit on Ebay. Recipe is Cement Water Colorant. Spray molds with Pam, or other spray oil. Fill molds with your cement and tap tap tap to remove air bubbles. Cover for 24, preferably 48 hours, and then uncover and turn over the molds to release your treasure. Install tiles using exaggerated spacing. Grout spaces using imperfect method. Don't worry about getting the coloring right, when you seal, and you will need to seal them on the wall, the sealant will pull colors from the bricks and spread them out. grout will also take on darker color so it looks old. I have a complete mixture of red, skin, brown, black and terracotta bricks but when I poly'd them they all blended beautifully as if it was meant to be. I did two walls...probably cost about $200 total.

This page has a little info on the harm painting exterior brick:

http://www.oldhouseauthority.com/archive/brick_article.php