Brick Finishes

Faux brick finishes are some of the popularly accepted faux finishes there are today. Painting brick with faux finish gives the impression of timeless appeal, and yet, it's so easy to apply. Come to think of it, brick has been in use since the oldest time but its presence pervades even in contemporary interior designs.

The brick faux finish technique allows your wall to look rustic and old-fashioned without the actual coarseness of a real brick wall. The best part is, the tools needed to come up with brick finishes can be found in your house. The benefits of a faux brick finish are not only in its design. Painting brick with faux finish can hide minor wall imperfections or plaster flaws.

In choosing colors for brick finishes, you can refer to the colors of real bricks or choose between gray, red, terra cotta, blue, brown, and many others. To achieve a more realistic finish (and to create more depth), you can combine two glazes of different colors but in similar tone such as red and terra cotta.

You must be excited to begin with your project on how to faux finish brick. To start with, prepare these materials: 2 brick-shaped mop head sponges, foam brush, acrylic paint (which could be any of red, cream, brown, white, and black) or textured paint, acrylic paint for base coat (grout color), and disposable plates.

The exciting part is when you finally apply the technique on the walls of your house. Your brick finishes would depend on the base coat you used. For a textured finish, use a textured paint as your base coat. Follow these instructions and your brick faux finishes should be done in no time.

First, cut one sponge into half to achieve a staggered pattern. Paint the surface you'll be working on with the base coat color. This will serve as the color of your grout. Wait until the paint thoroughly dries up before you applying the brick painting.

As soon as the wall is ready, prepare two plates and pour glaze on each of them. Next, dampen the sponge and wring to remove excess water. Pick up the foam brush and apply the main glaze on one side of the sponge then blot paint of different color randomly on the sponge to create a dappled look. Make sure that the brush is evenly loaded with glaze for brick consistency.

Begin stamping using the full-size sponge from one corner of the wall, moving across and leaving a quarter inch gap between each brick faux finish. Do not be anxious if the bricks look uneven for a natural look. For the second row, start stamping using half of the sponge and stamp paint right below the first brick of the upper row, to make it appear staggered. Then continue stamping, this time with the full-size sponge. Take note of the spaces between rows, which should be ¼" thick. Use the full-size brick for the third row, alternating as you move along the succeeding rows. Repeat the steps until the entire surface is covered with faux brick finish. Then let the paint dry.

Additionally, applying stencils on the brick faux finish gives it a more natural and dramatic effect. Stencils of vines climbing up the wall or flowers planted at the bottom of the wall can make it appear realistic.

When working with paints, it is highly crucial to avoid mistakes so the project will be accomplished spontaneously. Otherwise, you'd need to cover the flawed part with a color similar to the base coat and wait until it gets dry before you could proceed. Moreover, do the technique first on a practice board because as with any other task, correct practice makes perfect.