The brick can be painted. Use a spray gun painting system, not a brush. But the concern would be having safe access with scaffolding to paint the second storey walls on the outside.

Spray painting the brick would look good. The texture/shape of the bricks will give lots of texture.

Alternatively paint all lattice and trims black. Because that would look good as well.
It really depends ......what is the finished look you are going for.?

Thanks Dreamer, you're quite right about the scaffolding. Eventually we would like to replace the lattice and the aluminium windows which both also require scaffolding so it makes sense to do the whole exterior at once. My dilemma is we won't have the budget for this for years so what can I do in the meantime? I also thought paint the lattice and trims ( including windows) a black with a brown undertone to match the bricks but I'm petrified it will look too dark and heavy. Thoughts?

In the interim I’d paint it the colour of the gutter to blend in. You’re right! The white sticks out.

I agree with Bigreader. Paint the lattice the same as the guttering.

Do you mean the brown colour of the guttering? I was thinking black, in which case I might have to paint the guttering black as well.

I would go black or a very dark charcoal, it would look fabulous,

Thanks Julie, those examples are what I'm envisioning, I hope the sheer size of the lattice doesn't make it too heavy.

Hello Anna.

Painting bricks can be tricky because you are going to end up with " painted bricks ", which can look terrible. The problem with paint can be that everything is the same colour, i.e. the brick face, the horizontal joints and the perpendiculars. Once dust settles on the joints and after the first rain streak marks form and you will regret every having spent the money and time doing it. The beauty of bricks are the texture and the slight variation in colour. If you don't like the brick colour, consider staining or lime washing the bricks. This will give you the colour change you may need without loosing the texture or richness of the brick look. The lime or stain appear slightly patchy, which provides character to the finish. Your house may look good with a lime wash as in the photo below. Other than that, if you just hate bricks, then render / plaster it. If you need any more advice, please give us a call at Gap Design.

Cheers