Saw a post where someone did the same thing with mistints in their laundry room and it looked straight out of a magazine. Paint is paint, so you basically got a custom look for pocket change.

That crumbling and cracked brick faces thing makes my stomach turn, I saw the exact same mess on a row of townhouses here in Savannah. You're right about the humidity being a beast, pure lime putty can wash out way too fast down here unless you stay on top of it like every couple years. I ended up going with a 2.5 to 1 lime putty to natural hydraulic lime mix for my place, it's still soft enough to let the brick breathe but sets up a bit better against all that rain. For judging how far gone the mortar is, I rake out anything that crumbles when you poke it with a screwdriver, but if the bricks themselves are spalling or feel soft, that's when you gotta step back and think about bigger repairs. That hard Portland cement is the WORST though, it's like a death sentence for old brick, better to patch and repoint a little more often than to trap all that moisture in.