What is that Exterior Finish?

A common question I get asked is what is the finish on my exterior. It’s called Mortar Rub, Mortar Smear or some version of that. If you asked me a year ago what exactly that was I would not have had any idea.

So let’s back up to my fascination with white houses and black windows. It all started one summer as we headed to our beach house in LBI, New Jersey. New houses were being built and a few had black windows! I couldn’t get enough of that look. So fast forward to us building our dream home, of course I was going for black windows. I loved the look of white painted brick but I wasn’t in love with the maintaince cost of repainting every 10 years or so. Our builder introduced us to the idea of Mortar Rub as an option. It gives a clean, modern look with some beautiful texture but without the upkeep of paint.

We took a drive to the Belle Meade area in Nashville (umm totally worth the drive if you want to swoon over gorgeous houses) to look at a house they did with the same finish. We fell in love with the look.

Mortar Rub started on the front of the house.

So basically they brick your house with any old brick and then they take white mortar and smear it all over the top of the bricks. There is an art and a technique to it for sure. You can do a heavy smear or a lighter smear depending on the look you want to achieve.

We have found some drawbacks to the finish. For example it’s hard to do around doorways (such as the back patio) as it can crack or chip. I also found a few windowsills in the back that seem to have caught some drips from other areas which now we can’t correct. You also need to be careful if anyone is painting a dark color and drips it on the surface, it’s very hard to remove.

Overall, we are in love with our Mortar Rub and Black Windows.