Searching for inspiration? Introducing the NEW PGH Bricks Styles.
Whether you are building or reinventing your dream home, the process can be a memorable and life-changing experience. Whether you want to make a strong style statement, achieve long lasting low-key liveability, or something in-between, the PGH Bricks Styles goes beyond inspirational imagery to provide practical knowledge and tools that allow you to feel confident in your choices.
Guest content by PGH Bricks.
With their attributes of quality, solidity and strength, bricks are one of the most desirable building materials for Australian homes – while being eternally stylish.
PGH Bricks looks at the short and long-term trends in home design palettes throughout Australia, resulting in a sought-after curation of the key look emerging in local and overseas trend forecasts.
This is the definitive guide to the most exciting exterior colour palettes and styles. Whether you are overwhelmed with the choices available to you, or just want to keep your finger on the pulse of today’s colour trends, the PGH Bricks Style Guide is a must-have.
To create an unmissable style statement, lasting low-key liveability or something in between, the nine palettes PGH Bricks has identified are combined with inspirational imagery, practical knowledge and tools to give you confidence in the choices you make and to create a home that reflects your personal style.
Inspired? Take a deep dive into the must-have palettes of the year to discover a world of colour, sophistication and style – and possibly your new home’s exterior.
Coastal Hamptons
A classic American trend that mixes a coastal village aesthetic with sophisticated modern elegance, the Hamptons style evokes effortless freshness. Echoing the look of East Coast USA’s holiday playground, this is a popular style that feels right at home in Australia.
A relaxed trend, Coastal Hamptons team white timber panelling, bricks, pitched ceilings, pale or light timber floors with neutral and ocean-inspired tones and loads of natural light.
Bricks are integral to achieving a timeless Coastal Hamptons style, bringing solidity and texture to complement a soft, sophisticated palette. When styled with soft furnishings such as woven rugs, white linen sofas and a stone fireplace, it makes for an honest and captivating, yet peaceful and grounded interior. PGH Brick’s Crevole from the Coastal Hamptons range features a velvet-like finish that, when washed in sunlight, imparts a sense of complexity and elegance. When combined with the smooth-to-the-touch finish and European aesthetic of Blanco – Morada, it creates a calming, effortlessly modern style that allows the Hamptons details, traditionally in white, to be the hero.
Sophisticated Neutrals
Subtle and refined, Sophisticated Neutrals is a style that is quietly confident, highly liveable and timeless. With refined shades of crisp white, stone grey and cool concrete, this is a style that evokes light and airy interiors, and an air of sophistication.
This style is an opportunity to embrace the calm simplicity of light brick walls both inside and out. It’s a trend that works best with a single colour, but varying texture and gloss levels can lend a strong, sophisticated result. Use a subtle blend of white, beige and grey together for a soft, warm effect.
Create the Sophisticated Neutrals style with PGH Bricks Pure Linens in Whispering White; Honestly Artisan in Chalk; and Cultured Stone® Pro-Fit® Ledgestone South West.
Grey All The Way
The modern neutral, grey is truly having its moment. From dark charcoals to soft dove, Grey All The Way has proven to be a trend with longevity. It instantly imparts calm and serenity and becomes a flexible backdrop for other colours and textures. It also complements white accents and fresh garden greenery with its natural tones.
Consider a blend of light grey with charcoal, teamed with a dark grey Monier roof and trim for perfect contrast. Inside, a beautifully monochromatic scheme of two or three shades evoke calm and confidence.
Embrace Grey All The Way with beautiful Naturals bricks in Driftwood Grey or Seascape Pumice with architectural features in Pure Linens Flannel Grey bricks. Inside, try Altitude Matterhorn and Morada Gris as the perfect backdrop for strong styling and statement pieces.
Dark and Stormy
Deluxe and sumptuous, Dark and Stormy is the perfect fit for leading-edge architectural and interior styles. With a palette of smoke, black, espresso and midnight blue, it creates perfect contrast, makes walls appear to fall away for a feeling of spaciousness, and serves as a beautiful backdrop for opulent objects and furnishings.
Dark and Stormy is the ideal style for showcasing clean classic lines and dramatic design details. For a striking feature wall or a powder room to remember, team an elegant wall of dark rich bricks alongside black marble tiles in the same formation. Create a moody layered interior with seamless continuity by adding complementary dark bronze fixtures, such as statement lighting, tapware, and door fittings.
Subtly textured Pure Linens bricks in Cinders & Soot and Dry Pressed Architectural bricks in Mowbray Blue set the scene for this dramatic style. Interiors can highlight slender sophisticated Morada Nero bricks combine with the sheen of Blue Steel to bring this trend to life.
Industrial Chic
This trend is all about the beauty found in raw and aged finishes and the eternal appeal of rustic warehouses and New York-style lofts. A style that appreciates the simplicity and skill of trades from days gone by, Industrial Chic is a popular trend across the world for those looking for that warehouse appeal.
With a focus on functionality, Industrial Chic uses a combination of unassuming materials, hardier textures, and matte and high shine finishes to achieve an artisan feel. It’s a trend that encompasses showcasing bricks internally – the more the better. Black steel doors and windows or fresh white painted timber windows allow the brick colour to be the hero. Pair with incandescent lamplight and copper, which are both flattering complements to natural brickwork.
The Manhattan range is ideally placed to complement the Industrial Chic style. The earthy red richness of Manhattan Tribeca bricks effortlessly connects the exterior with indoors. For visual richness, use smooth inky Morada – Nero Linear outdoors, and inside, the chalky, soft cool tones of Seascape – Seasalt.
Fresh Naturals
Taking its cue from nature, Fresh Naturals embraces the sustainable and eco-friendly with a focus on sanctuary, calm and wellbeing. Grounding itself in nature with a gentle and organic palette, this is the go-trend for building modern, healthy and sustainable homes.
With shades of green, soft browns, sand and bronze, Fresh Naturals offers the perfect palette for creating a serene, relaxed ambiance. It is the ideal trend for anyone craving a daily connection to nature and the healing benefits of the great outdoors.
Echo nature’s palette with PGH Bricks’ Pure Linens bricks in quietly elegant Pebble Creek, adding a touch of definition with rich and beautiful Alfresco Truffle. Outside, strike a balance with Velour bricks in Mineral and Zen by Nature Green Tea that together create a calm exterior that emanates a sense of raw simplicity.
Warm Earth
This trend heralds the return to warmer, terracotta shades. The beauty of Warm Earth lies in its confident combinations of earthy tones in modern interpretations, making it both stylish and practical. Rustic and natural, strong and subtle, its deep rich browns, tans, spice, reds and bronze accents add a real sense of warmth, strength and solidity to any facade or interior.
Warm Earth appeals to families looking to add timeless authenticity to their homes. Natural tones and textures inspired by nature bring a home to life and impart a real feeling of warmth and coziness. Best of all its dark earthy tones only improve with the wear and tear of everyday hustle and bustle.
For this trend, look to a selection of earthy-toned bricks in shades of red, clay, spice and pink. Dry Pressed Architectural Macarthur Mix combined with Smooth Volcanic bricks creates a calm and grounded exterior. For indoor spaces, Smooth Black and Tan bricks can be a feature statement, with Smooth Terracotta used to accentuate architectural details and features.
Luxury Noir
Dark and dramatic, Luxury Noir celebrates alchemy and individuality, which only a truly opulent design style can provide. With either a palette of rich blacks and brass, or chic and luxurious with the introduction of creams and gold, it is a trend that epitomises fine design, glamour and pure indulgence.
This is a trend that provides endless indulgent possibilities. Consider slender elongated brick shapes for an opulent, confident and enviable style statement, used exclusively or as a striking and powerful design feature. Every detail counts – bricks with metallic finishes or surfaces that dapple in the light, rich dark timbers, opulent paint colours with brushed brass accents – take the luxury route and create a home to envy.
The Metallic range lends itself to a sumptuous exterior when fused with Lang Mursten Gehl bricks. These are carried through inside and contrasted with sleek Academy Nobel, for a style that is unapologetically luxurious.
Painted Brick
A new and exciting trend, especially used for renovations, Painted Brick goes far beyond New York’s loft-style to be the chameleon at fashion’s cutting-edge frontier. With texture the hero, painted bricks reflect today’s ever-changing colour trends.
Indeed, versatility and a fashionable edge are the hallmarks of Painted Bricks. It’s a trend that is underpinned by the unmistakable solidity and confidence that only bricks can deliver. This is a style only limited by your imagination, capturing the imagination of architects and designers globally.
Beautiful exposed brick highlights its strength and durability while colour provides infinite style solutions. Varying your surface finishes can take a simple design to new levels. Use bagging on exposed brick for a soft look that showcases the bricks’ natural imperfections and character. To achieve a vintage look, use a tumbled style brick and keep mortar raking shallow to mimic the subtle layers normally created by time. For a crisper look, simply paint directly on to your brick to accentuate the repetitive form and strong lines.
Consider white painted bricks fused with the chalky neutrality of the new East Hampton bricks from the Manhattan collection to flow indoors with beautiful Commons bricks painted in Wattyl Oriental Blue with accents of Academy Nobel brickwork. The result? A home that is both modern and timeless.