Durango’s Remodel: Brick Brick Brick

You might remember that we are currently overhauling our family restaurant Durango’s Mexican Grill. (You will most definitely remember if you are in St. George and a frequent customer because the restaurant is still open for business!)

There were a few main goals when the reno began. Open it up, update the vibe. The first project in was the facade wall (you can read all about it here!) the next big project was to take out the overhead walkway and brick everything!

We (Court) demo’ed everything in a day and we’ve been working on getting it spruced up ever since.

The plan? White brick. I know what some of you are thinking. “Wont you have to clean it more if its white?” The answer is obviously yes, and honestly is that really a bad thing?

It is pretty fantastic when the stars align for a project. I was over at the bestie’s house talking about reno ideas and told her about the plan for brick and how I had no clue where to source it (this is when I was planning on laying it myself because I am the type of person that underestimates the scope of a project 10 out of 10 times.) Guess who’s family has a company that does exactly that? You guessed it! If you are in Southern Utah and itching for some brick/rock work you will want to call Squire at Quickstone Inc. 435-632-5272 they have been AWESOME to work with.

Working on a space that will be used by thousands of people is really different than working on a house. EVERYTHING has to be highly functional, highly durable and highly cleanable. The original plan was to have the brick mason’s make the brick white, but there were a few problems with that. The whitest that it can be made was a really light beige (see picture below). It would also need to be sealed afterwards (so that it could be wiped down) and it was more expensive because of the materials that had to be used to make it whiter.

After going over the situation, we decided that it would be better to have the masons make it as inexpensively as they could and then we would paint it after it was installed. This fixed all 3 problems. The paint was white, the brick was sealed (and if some annoying teenager decides to draw a wiener on the wall we can just touch it up) and it was less expensive.

So the brick went in! (We are in the middle of replacing the ceiling tiles and prepping them for paint so don’t mind that little situation.)

What a huge difference right?!

The brick also behind the counter and on the giant pink arch (don’t worry, we are taking out those windows and planter boxes too…someday…)

For paint I decided to use Sherwin-Williams Super Paint in High Hide White (if they don’t have that color at your local SW its just 3 oz of white pigment added to the extra white base)

We decided to paint before the grout went in because I want a little bit of color variation that I could control. Once the grout is in, the plan is to roll diluted white paint over the whole wall again to soften the grout lines and make it look nice and old. but painted. but still old. You know what I mean right?

I am beyond in love with it. Makes me want to put it in my house….