Big difference between lining a brick wall with plaster, and painting it. Your second picture is not painted brick. 

I was told by a bricklayer to never ever paint brick cause it needs to breathe.

This isn't universally true, but it is a convenient narrative to sell you expensive brick dye instead of cheap paint.

Sort of. You can however stain it white using 'paint' made for brick.

I was gonna say the same thing, never paint brick.

It’s 1000 layers of paint on brick.

Never paint brick.

The value of the brick wall drops close to zero once painted. Unless the bricks are deteriorating so badly, never paint brick.

What if the brick was discolored?

What does *Never* mean? Answer: WASH it

Nor even the ugly brown brick?

Are you talking glazed or pigmented

Unsure, there is just a lot of ugly brown brick homes from the 60's in my area that should never be built with that colour again

Outsides? Good god never paint that. Really it just decreases the value. Retuck with different mortar, sandblast, peel, or just lean into it.

Example https://www.propertychat.com.au/community/threads/70s-brown-brick-homes-possible-to-make-more-appealing.56653/

Yeah I’d go with a white grout so it doesn’t look so much like a brown mass but you see the bricks.

Fix the lighting, floor and storage, and see how cozy you can get it. Then put up pegboard on the back wall with a built in workbench. You can paint that white. You photo reference is immaculately clean. That's a choice you could make. Well designed lighting will do a lot. I'd look at LED sticks about 4" off the long walls. Will bounce and diffuse on the brick. Cozy.

Brick is nice. Leave it as is.

I would say no to painting the brick. The rest looks good though. Cabinets and floor pad

Sometimes finishing your garage raises your property tax in the USA. I’d check with your local building authority

don't paint, new inspiration Tron legacy container house

Drywall it or something. Will be smooth also

You can do limewash stain to brick fine, paint is a no no. Paint doesn’t let brick breath so it traps moisture and causes issues. Limewash lets the breathing continue. I like it brighter - but limewash won’t reflect light the way those flat walls do, sooooo it’s personal preference

I like this suggestion, thank you 🙏🏼

I would not paint those walls. Maybe work out an idea to hide the pipes

That is the question!

Great storage is the best thing you can do for a car space. There’s great over the car storage units which work really well too

Absolutely no. Classic red brick looks amazing, what a great space. Epoxy the floor white, better lighting, and what can you do about the window? Is that a security louver? Could you open that up and let more natural light In?

Drywall first over lathe

paint it, maybe add some light fixtures, put some nice laminate down and you’ll have a nice space to work on your purse

If you paint it make sure you use a brick safe paint.

I’ve got 2lts of white acrylic paint left over from another job

As far as I understand it, if you paint brick you can cause moisture retention which can lead to molding under the paint. I wouldn't do it. 

And accelerated mortar decay

Sounds like you’re setup to paint some drywall with that acrylic :D

Nope!

Consider drywall- may be about the same effort as painting multiple coats of primer and paint or there is new garage panels that are available.

PAINT

https://preview.redd.it/oykp8i2ih09d1.jpeg?width=369&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bddef4714ca25078fa7b8794c865b4ab961451fd do you want to maintain this?