If you’ve been following me awhile (or at least since we bought our house last June), you know I LOVE me a white brick ranch! I’ve been oogling Chassity’s (@looklingerlove) Charleston area home with that fabulous pink door for as long as I’ve been following her on Instagram (YEARS!) Can you see why? heart eyes

As a Realtor and overall lover of homes, I’ve seen this trend becoming more and more popular especially around Charleston. Not everyone is going the white route- I see gray and cream and navy too, but I tend to notice the white ones the most since that’s what I want to do with our house.

I recently came across the @younghouselove account on Instagram just as they started the process of painting their home and I got even more obsessed (click here for their before and after). I MEAN, HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THIS?!

Also thinking about what door color I’d pick gives me all the feels. Coral? A pale yellow? Haint blue?…

Young House Love documented the step-by-step process via their blog and Instagram and it got me even more interested and serious about the whole thing. (How long does it take? cost? benefits?) So I reached out to John and Elisha, the owners of Rhino Shield here in Charleston and met with them a couple weeks ago to chat about it. I thought I would share with you what I learned. (This is NOT sponsored. I genuinely wanted to learn more about it and am writing this because I thought some of you might find it helpful too.)

First off, I learned that what John and Elisha use is not actually paint. It’s an elastomeric ceramic exterior wall coating. If you’re someone who likes visuals, this image will help you understand the difference. It’s much thicker, and made up of significantly less water than traditional paint, which is part of what makes it last much longer. Up to 25 years, in fact.

The process takes about 10-14 days, depending on the size of the home. They pressure wash the whole exterior, then repair any damaged or rotting wood, fill any gaps in the brick, stucco, etc. They are known for their extensive prep work: they tape the entire house to protect any areas not being painted (windows, doors, etc). This is actually the part that takes the longest. Then they start coating!

By the way, they can paint any exterior, not just brick. Wood, hardi plank, vinyl and metal.

Check out this beauty of a home they painted in 2007. This home was in my favorite movie of all time: The Notebook!!! The house is actually here in Mount Pleasant but in the movie it was the Inn on Seabrook that Allie stayed at while visiting Noah. Almost 12 years in and still looking AMAZING.

Another fun fact is that this coating is like a sunscreen and protectant for your home. It’s waterproof, repels mold and mildew AND can reduce energy consumption in your home due to its high solar reflective index and insulating properties. Soooo basically I should be able to convince my husband that we can paint the house instead of replacing the windows because painting it will lower our electric bill just the same, right? :D Kidding, but that’s a really nice perk, especially in the South where the sun is very strong for most months out of the year.

And here’s a gorgeous before and after of a beach house they painted on Folly Beach. It feels very “Nights in Rodanthe” to me. (Can you tell I’m a huge Nicholas Sparks fan?)

Anyway, painting the exterior is item like #9487 of things we want to do to the house. This might be just a dream for a little while, but I don’t mind dreaming!! If you want to learn more, you can visit Rhino Shield’s website here, and by the way, John and Elisha give free estimates. Tell them I sent you!