BY LANA

Wanna know a magic trick that will totally transform your home on a budget? I can’t promise you’ll be pulling a white rabbit out of a hat, but definitely a white house. Or a grey one, or black… #heypresto #takeyourpick

SPRAY YOUR BRICKWORK!

When your budget doesn’t stretch to rendering the entire outside of your home, spraying the brickwork will totally transform the look for a fraction of the price.

When you’re renovating with Champagne taste on a beer budget, something’s always got to give and spraying old brick work is my favourite reno hack which won’t pinch your pennies. We stumbled across this idea when our budget was tight and we couldn’t afford to render the properties we were flipping. The next best thing was to spray the existing bricks to modernise their look and wow did it make an amazing transformation. And for some of our houses, we rendered the façade, but sprayed the bricks around the side and back of house. This kind of combo is more than acceptable in many suburbs but check with your local real estate agent if you’re not sure.

We usually get a professional painter to spray our bricks (thanks Peachy!) but you can DIY. Either way, the process is the same. Here’s how it’s done.

1. Clean down bricks with a pressure hose or broom. Make sure the bricks are dry before you begin.

2. Tape up any windows and doors that you don’t want to paint. This usually takes the most amount of time.

3. Set up the spray gun with your tin of paint. You don’t need special paint for this, just a good quality exterior paint - we use Dulux Weathershield.

4. Spray your bricks, moving the gun from left to right (warning: this is really fun – it could cause fights in the family over who gets to hold the spray gun). Apply two coats.

5. Step back and marvel at the transformation.

Believe me, this hack really is a little magic gem to get you maximum bang for your buck. You’ll be wowed by the result! But the proof is in the pudding… so here are some sweet before and after treats I prepared earlier: