Today I am sharing probably the most time consuming yet most rewarding project I have done to date!!! This is one of my favorites because it creates a HUGE impact on this space…For a while I have really wanted to spruce up the girl’s bedroom and do something fun but I didn’t quite know what to do. My hubby and I had talked about doing the brick wall but it was always “too permanent” for us. We considered the faux brick wall panels that they sell at the home improvement stores too but that was more money than we wanted to spend and we didn’t have the right tools to make the brick look seamless. So we finally agreed to do this technique. It was such a fun project and I still walk in there room and adire the way it looks.Here is what you will need to complete this project.
- Masking tape
- Level with ruler
- Pencil
- Joint compound(I used almost 2 of these)
- Garbage bags
- Canvas dropcloth or old sheets
- Acrylic paint
- White paint for grout lines
- Spackle knife
- Paint brushes
First you want to start by using the level and start making your vertical lines with the masking tape. Make sure you leave extra tape(about an inch or two) at each end so you can grab the tape to pull off once your joint compound is on. This will essentially be your faux grout line. Typically bricks are about 3 inches tall and 7 inches wide. I measured 3 inches in between each horizontal line and started taping. When taping make sure your tape is on top of the horizontal tape lines so when pulking the tape off, it is all connected and easier to rip off.
Once the wall is completely taped then the real fun part starts!!! You want to take your joint compound and start by using the spackle knife and go to town. Use a pretty heavy hand because this will give you the thickness of real brick. This is fun. Don’t worry about messing it up. It does and should not be perfect. Think about real brick. It is not completely flat. It has ridges all throughout.
This was during the process…. fun but messy!!!Once it is completely dried(it may take 24-48 hrs), you can choose to paint however you want. I got a good mix of acrylic paint in brick like colors, whites and creams to see what I liked best. I would attempt to do this on a piece of paper before doing it on the wall. Again, this is super time consuming but once you get the rhythm it will be a lot easier. Once it is all painted you can then go through and paint the grout lines whatever color you want.Here is the finished product!!!!! We absolutely love how this turned our. It was so messy but so fun!!!
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