Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement 1 Mar 18, 2013 3:34 pm Hi all, My wife and I recently purchased our first home and would love to get other peoples ideas about where to start with updating this old girl? Our budget is somewhat limited and we will look at doing as much as possible ourselves and in no particular hurry. Any Ideas would be very much appreciated! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Reno Ideas 1980's Brick? 2Mar 18, 2013 3:39 pm Aggghhh Feature Brick, don't you just love it? We have something very similar, we got an interior designer in for ideas with ours - which is a very similar colour to your internally and she suggested leaving on wall (the largest one that has cathedral ceilings as a feature) and painting all the others Antique White USA. Something that I started doing years ago when we moved in. I'm ok with painting the walls but am determined not to leave any feature brick at all - in my opinion it just dates the place. We are currently tossing up wether to paint the walls or have them plastered. AKB <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=62083">viewtopic.php?t=62083</a><!-- l --> Re: Reno Ideas 1980's Brick? 3Mar 18, 2013 4:05 pm Hmm, where do you start Looks like a nice solid home, I'd start with rendering and painting the bricks, a coat of white paint over the timber lined ceiling and put in a couple of modern pendant lights. Are you planning on replacing the kitchen or just updating what you have? Re: Reno Ideas 1980's Brick? 4Mar 19, 2013 10:06 am Oh Boy ! Feature brick and archways. All you need are some concrete balustrades and you would have the trifecta. Rendering those walls and then painting whatever colour you want would improve that house no end. I also can't stand painted brick. It always looks so cheap and nasty. If you wanted to you could also put a flat ceiling in to lower the overall height which you could also insulate as well. Stewie Re: Reno Ideas 1980's Brick? 5Mar 19, 2013 1:19 pm Thanks for the replies folks.....Great! Yes it is very hard to know where to start, it seems like a lot to do. I agree that the brick looks very dated and in combination with the timber and horrible old lights makes it quite dark too. So I think painting the wooden ceilings is a great plan, would you also paint the exposed timber beams white? Would you go with rendering internal walls over putting up plaster sheeting/gyprock? PaulMac - Yes we would like to update the kitchen, the benches are the worst part about it, everything else seems useable. Stewie - Hhhmmm....never considered lowering the ceiling, I figured that the high ceiling was somewhat of a feature? It does feel quite spacey in there. The rest of the house has a lower flat ceiling however. AKB - DO you have any photos of how your painted brick walls turned out? I have seen a few brick unit blocks painted in the area and (to me) they look a bit tacky. Thanks again for suggestions, its just so hard to envisage what could look best without any experience. Rex Re: Reno Ideas 1980's Brick? 6Mar 19, 2013 1:29 pm Hi Rexo, Yep I agree sometimes painted does look tacky to be perfectly honest this is what stopped me from painting them all when we first bought the place, that's why we will probably Plaster the brick work instead. We are currently working on our extension, once that's completed we will move into the extension and then move on to the renovation of the original house. I'm tossing up between painting the wooden beams and putting a false ceiling over the smaller beams so the large beams are still seen and you still have a cathedral type ceiling (only approx 15cm lower ) our ceiling is approx 60 courses high so we arent panicing about losing 15cm. There are some pictures on houzz where someone has done that and it looks quite good. As my DH keeps saying to me - anything is possible if you throw enough money at it. Cheers AKB <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=62083">viewtopic.php?t=62083</a><!-- l --> Re: Reno Ideas 1980's Brick? 7Mar 20, 2013 9:41 am If it was me I would square off the arches, plaster all the walls and keep as much height as possible, it would give it a nice large airy appearance, ideal for large art pieces. I would also remove all the floor tiles Re: Reno Ideas 1980's Brick? 8Mar 20, 2013 10:20 am Render outside. Remove the security grill entrance. Remove the sun awnings. Change the garage doors. Inside plaster the walls. Square the arches. Put in ceilings and new kitchen. (I assume the bathroom is just as old?) Re: Reno Ideas 1980's Brick? 9Mar 22, 2013 11:07 am At the very least remove the awnings out the front and even painting the roller doors would improve them if you cant afford to replace them (can you paint roller doors? im not sure!) Personally I love the ceilings, and think you would be removing a real feature if you covered them up with a normal boring old ceiling. Have the beams been painted a dark brown colour? I quite like the natural timber look of the ceiling but dont love the colour of the beams. All painted white would be an improvement and would improve the light in those rooms. Agree with what everyone else has said, cover up bricks inside and square up the arches. Not a big fan of floor tiles so i would remove those. New kitchen if you can afford it, it is a nice big space and could look amazing with a totally modern kitchen. Re: Reno Ideas 1980's Brick? 11Apr 01, 2013 11:15 am Trish If it was me I would square off the arches, plaster all the walls and keep as much height as possible, it would give it a nice large airy appearance, ideal for large art pieces. I would also remove all the floor tiles We have a 70s brick house and I agree with the above. We have squared off the arches. Makes such a difference. I would also plaster over the brick walls. I think the ceilings could be left but just painted white - including the beams. We have done a new kitchen and new bathroom will be on the list. Obviously everything needs an update but it's a work in progress and the house is liveable and tidy in the mean time. Renovating our 1970s home Re: Reno Ideas 1980's Brick? 12Apr 09, 2013 11:56 am Hi there... I'd love to get my hands on a house like this - I kind of prefer a 'retro' feel . Outside - personally the brick itself doesn't bother me. First thing I would do is repaint the trims to a nice dark charcoal colour - including garage doors and grill gate (which I also don't mind - esp if it creates some added security). Unless the awnings were necessary to shade west sun or something - I'd remove those - or if a necessity, replace with a dark colour to match the trim (they do add a bit of an extra dimension to the front - might be too flat without them??). Update the outside light. Put some modern or australian native plants in - and that's the front taken care of . Inside, again, the brick doesn't offend me tooooo much - but perhaps would be better plastered. Ceiling I would definitely paint white (not just the beams but the timber ceiling itself). I wouldn't close it in - I think the open-ness adds to the appeal of the house. Agree about squaring off the archways and bringing up the floor tiles. Kitchen could do with an update - but it looks very neat and clean and useable - so you could get to that down the track (or maybe just replace the bench top and paint the wall tiles and the cupboards??). Depends if you had plans to change the layout around - in which case you might want to consider doing it before/at the same time that you re do the floor. From what I can see - and depending on your own personal tastes, I reckon those pendant lights look like they could be pretty cool too?? Maybe just change to a white cord? All the best with it. HHCIB Re: Reno Ideas 1980's Brick? 13Apr 11, 2013 1:24 pm I'd start by plastering the walls, painted brick won't look right and will collect dust and then I'd reassess the ceiling. I think once those walls are lightened up the ceiling will be a nice feature, right now it's just all too dark. If you do decide to paint the ceiling I would leave the beams as is and not just white out the ceiling which will make it look very generic and bland Hi everyone, we are struggling to find inspiration for our house renovations. We've got a mid-1980s home in Perth that we want to renovate ourselves (as much as possible… 0 939 Hello It is good to have a planned bathroom reno to suit your budget and design, living for 10 years I think you need a bathtub 4 10353 Bought in Nov 21 at the height of the market (classic). Good area, atrocious floor plan. BUT has land out to the left-hand side that we can extend out on (see second… 0 8766 |