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How to Paint a Faux Brick Wall
Sam Lutz • June 17, 2014
Faux brick can be used to dress up any room a classic, old-world appearance. The method described here is the sponge-stamp method. With this method, you’ll use a brick-shaped sponge stamp to form a pattern on your wall.
Gather all your materials before beginning, so you can work uninterrupted until the project is finished.
Materials:
- Painter’s tape
- Tarps
- 4 or 5 Rectangular sponges
- 1 Natural sponge
- Scissors
- Cutting knife
- Latex house paint (colors and quantities vary, but when choosing standard brick colors, we recommend two or three shades of dark brown-red for the brick, and at least two shades of gray or beige for the mortar)
- Paint brushes and paint rollers
- Paint tray (two is best)
Instructions:
- Prepare the wall. Start by wiping down the wall and removing any dust or spider webs. Clear the area around the wall by removing furniture in the immediate vicinity, and cover the floor with tarps. Use painter’s tape to secure the tarps and block off the portion of the wall you plan to faux paint.
- Paint the wall the color of the mortar, using a roller and paint brush. If you picked two shades for the mortar, paint the wall in whichever shade is darker. When the wall is dry, use the natural sponge to lightly dab at the wall with the lighter shade you picked for the mortar. This will give the mortar a natural textured appearance. When the wall is sufficiently dappled with two shades of paint, allow the wall to dry.
- Use the scissors and the cutting knife to make the rectangular sponges into brick-shaped stamps. This will take some experimentation. Start by cutting a sponge stamp that has a rectangular face 8 inches wide and 2 ¾ inches high.
- To find out what this stamp will look like on your wall, try dipping the sponge into the paint and applying the stamp to a sheet of scratch paper. Remember to wipe excess paint from the stamp before applying it to the surface of the paper. Then, examine the stamp on the paper and adjust the stamp based on your observations. To achieve the look of an older brick, try rounding the edges of the rectangle. Then, subtly shave the edges of the rectangle so they appear to be irregular and time-worn.
- Make more than one brick stamp to use on your wall. You’ll want to switch back and forth between two or three full-sized brick stamps to give your pattern a varied and realistic appearance. You’ll also need to make a half-brick to use at the edges of the wall.
- Stamp the wall with your sponge stamps. This is the fun part! Use your sponge stamps to apply the pattern to the wall. Do this in an organized fashion, stamping row after row of brick in the same way you would read lines of a page. Start from the right edge of the wall and move to the left edge. When you get to the left edge of the wall, move down a line and begin again. Some tips:
- Leave about a half inch between bricks and between rows
- Remember that every other row of brick will begin with a half-brick shape
- Wipe off excess paint from the sponge before applying the stamp to the wall
When this is done, the brick wall should be nearly finished. Wait for the paint to dry, then use your natural sponge to add some texture to the brick by dappling the stamped shapes with lighter or darker shades brown-red paint. For further reference, please watch this helpful video:
Other Methods
Like so many things, there’s more than one way to paint a faux brick wall, so you can pick the method that sounds right for you. If you’re interested in exploring other methods, this blog called Master of None has an excellent step-by-step record
of how one person used blue painter’s tape to form brick shapes on an interior wall. Alternatively, Craft Passion describes a much more complex textured brick wall project, wherein the artist used polystyrene foam and wood panels to create a three-dimensional faux brick wall.
Not sure if faux brick is right for you? Houzz.com has some wonderful examples
of the ways that other people use faux brick in their homes. If you’re considering painting faux brick in your home and would like more ideas and advice, stop in at Ace Paints. We’d like to help you with all your house-painting projects.
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