Victorian House with Modern Extension

[paulpaulpaul]

We are soon to move into a victorian house that has had an eightys annex built onto the side, It looks totally out of place and very ugly and I need to try and find a suitable way to marry the two buildings together, I know it will never in my lifetime look the same as the original building and nor probably should it.

The building surveyor said it was constructed from the same style / type of brick allbeit new, I had mentioned maybe a render and paint but he suggested a wash coat on it, I assume he meant lime wash, Do you think that would be a suitable option and if so what colours would be traditionally victorian for the outside of a house, or is this simply a process / method that simply would never have been used, Thanks

 

[Juju]

I'm not sure about rendering and/or painting it. What about growing plants up it to hide it, it would be cheaper and non-permanent.
Juju

 

[Moo]

Some pictures would help - in fact, they'd probably start a veritable avalanche of suggestions.

 

[Lime]

In the past there was brick paint (powder mixed with water) that brightened or dulled down brickwork.
you could buy it in a range of red and yellow powders, mix it up and paint it on.
It coloured the brick thinly/slightly as if painted by water colour used by an artist.
More water = thinner/more transparent.
Each brick was best painted individually keeping the mortar free of paint.
I'm not sure if it is still available.
It only lasted for a few years but it mellowed discontinuous-brick brickwork quite well.
The powder for colouring cement creates the same effect.
I used cement colouring to give a clean appearance to badly stained brick under the gutter eve of my front bay window.
That was 20 years ago and it still looks fine today.

 

[CatherineB]

I wonder whether cleaning the old part would help to colour match? I suspect, though, that the new brick isn't really the same as the old, even if both were cleaned now.
You might find changing the windows would help more, but of course we will have too see pictures to satisfy our curiosity - ahem, I, mean to enable us to advise properly!