To paint or not to paint

Work continues on my 125-year-old Victorian home. This is day six. I think they're painting today. It's awful quiet out there. I know they're here, but can't hear a single brush stroke. I will be taking more pictures. I want to hear what you all have to say about the color.

I don't like painted bricks, but the ivy ruined the facade. They did their best to repair the bricks but they have to be painted. I'm a little nervous about the color I picked out. It's so red! well actually a rusty, brick red. I'm hoping it won't look too gaudy.

Contrary to what the Victorians used, we decided to paint the trim white. Another necessity due to the ruination of the wood, and metal window frames. Wow! I will never sanction English Ivy again. Posting pics later.

This is not my house; neither is it in the same architectural style as mine.It is much larger and more ornate and has elements of a Queen Anne style. But the photo shows well how the Victorians liked and used color.

  I've posted a link here to a video which explains and shows the Victorian Italianate style in which my house was built. At 4500 square feet, my house was built straight up and is quite narrow but deep. Built in 1882, it has three floors and is topped off with a flat roof.

Italianate Architecture

      According to Douglas Trattner at FrontDoor.com, this style has symmetrical front bay windows and tall chimneys."Italianate buildings tend to be characterized more by their ornamentation than by the structure itself," explains Gerald Foster, architect and author of American Houses: A Field Guide to the Architecture of the Home.

     Most of these homes were constructed in the mid- to late-1800s and can be found nationwide, primarily north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Although loosely modeled after the villas of Italy, the style became so popular in the U.S., Foster says, that it was sometimes referred to as American style.
Italianate structures ranged from modest row houses to grand mansions. But what ties them all together is elaborate ornamentation, primarily with respect to cornices, windows, porches and doorways.
"After a period of picturesque architecture, Italianate reverts back to a tighter symmetrical floor plan of an earlier time," says Foster. "Basically, it’s a simple box with a lot of ornamentation."

Victorian Italianate row houses, built in San Francisco, 1875

Brick Victorian Italianate row houses in Boston

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