Faux brick wall

[grain]

Any tips on painting an interior wall to give it a brick wall look to be a feature. It's inside an apartment. The wall is actually a brick wall but it's had numerous coats of paint over the years, so stripping it back to bare bricks is too much work. I just want to repaint it so it looks as much as possible like nice rustic brickwork.

[tonray]

A lot of extra work as opposed to painting over in one color. But you can use two strips of tape to surround the current join lines so that the middle is exposed. This exposed area you can paint a slate gray to simulate the joints. Then obviously paint the rest brick orange...getting it to look rustic is another thing altogether, you can use a sponge and dab the painted 'brick' areas after applying paint...again...lots of work.

[Denim]

Brick wall paper easiest. failing that you can buy decorative bricks about 6mm thick and stick them on. These are a bit heavy though. Another solution is the large fake plastic brick tiles you see in Mr.DIY.

Textured and light weight. You could easily stick these up, grout the cracks then paint over with a vinyl matt emulsion paint.

 

1 ) 

 

2) 

 

3)

 

[KannikaP]

18 minutes ago, tonray said:

A lot of extra work as opposed to painting over in one color. But you can use two strips of tape to surround the current join lines so that the middle is exposed. This exposed area you can paint a slate gray to simulate the joints. Then obviously paint the rest brick orange...getting it to look rustic is another thing altogether, you can use a sponge and dab the painted 'brick' areas after applying paint...again...lots of work.

Wrong way round, paint the wall brick orange, and then tape off the joints to paint them grey.

[KannikaP]

19 minutes ago, Denim said:

Brick wall paper easiest. failing that you can buy decorative bricks about 6mm thick and stick them on. These are a bit heavy though. Another solution is the large fake plastic brick tiles you see in Mr.DIY.

Textured and light weight. You could easily stick these up, grout the cracks then paint over with a vinyl matt emulsion paint.

 

1 ) 

 

2) 

 

3)

 

No 2 looks exactly like the inside walls in my house in UK

[Denim]

5 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

No 2 looks exactly like the inside walls in my house in UK

Yes...not too bad for wall paper, especially in low light

[KannikaP]

4 minutes ago, Denim said:

Yes...not too bad for wall paper, especially in low light

You mean like the 40 watt bare bulb we had hanging in the middle of the room, or the candles if we hadn't paid the lekky.   555

[KannikaP]

31 minutes ago, Denim said:

Brick wall paper easiest. failing that you can buy decorative bricks about 6mm thick and stick them on. These are a bit heavy though. Another solution is the large fake plastic brick tiles you see in Mr.DIY.

Textured and light weight. You could easily stick these up, grout the cracks then paint over with a vinyl matt emulsion paint.

 

1 ) 

 

2) 

 

3)

 

From where did No 2 come please?

 

(No, not THAT No 2 ! )

[grain]

2 hours ago, Denim said:

Brick wall paper easiest. failing that you can buy decorative bricks about 6mm thick and stick them on. These are a bit heavy though. Another solution is the large fake plastic brick tiles you see in Mr.DIY.

Textured and light weight. You could easily stick these up, grout the cracks then paint over with a vinyl matt emulsion paint.

 

1 ) 

 

Thanks for this. #1 is actually the color I'd be looking at as it fits into the overall color scheme of the apartment I intend to renovate.

 

 

 

[grain]

Thanks everybody for your replies. I have watched several YT vids and understand about taping off sections and painting in a couple of colors....1 color for the cement, and another for the bricks. But I'm really after tips on how to make the paint look like real brickwork, like tonray's suggestion: you can use a sponge and dab the painted 'brick' areas after applying paint.

 

Could clean, well washed sand be added to paint to give a gritty texture to the painted wall? Any other painters tricks (like dabbing with a damp sponge) to get texture?

[Denim]

4 hours ago, KannikaP said:

From where did No 2 come please?

 

(No, not THAT No 2 ! )

 

Just a quick google search but I have seen similar in Mr DIY

 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/369013763197037900/

[WhiteBuffaloATM]

two burmese to strip it back to bare brick. 1000 baht total ?

[grain]

22 hours ago, WhiteBuffaloATM said:

two burmese to strip it back to bare brick. 1000 baht total ?

Actually the apartment is in Australia. It's rented out at the moment but I'm hoping to get back there late next year. After I move in I'm planning a complete renovation & redecoration. I'm doing research now so when I'm ready to start I know exactly what I'm going to do, and do the various steps in the right order.

 

As for the brick wall. The apartment is about 50 years old. The wall would have had 2 coats of paint when it was first built. There were about 4 different owners before me, all of whom would have had the place repainted. I've painted the walls twice in the 20 years since I bought it. So we're looking at approx 8 coats of paint, so no way am I'm tackling stripping that away, just too much work and mess. So repainting it is the way to go.

 

Here's what I have in mind, as this will fit in with my planned color scheme of white, black, grey. I can apply the black & grey paint by a sponge cut to size, but what I'm mainly interested in are painters tricks to achieve special finishing effects.

 

[WhiteBuffaloATM]

wouldn’t a natural brown / rust brick paper look better for interior application ?

not sure about that black / grey brick look ….

[bbko]

Have you considered brick veneers or slips?

 

 

 

 

[The Hammer2021]

You can get Brick wall pattern wallpaper

[grain]

5 hours ago, WhiteBuffaloATM said:

wouldn’t a natural brown / rust brick paper look better for interior application ?

not sure about that black / grey brick look ….

Well the planned color theme is white, grey, black. That applies to walls, floor coverings, curtains, furniture. So I really want to stick to that and not bring in other colors in any big way.

[grain]

5 hours ago, bbko said:

Have you considered brick veneers or slips?

 

 

 

 

I don't know what they are so please give me some examples or some more info.

[grain]

5 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

You can get Brick wall pattern wallpaper

I've considered wallpaper but the wall is brick so not a perfectly flat surface. Wouldn't that be an issue for wallpaper?

[bbko]

29 minutes ago, grain said:

I don't know what they are so please give me some examples or some more info.

Brick veneers, also known as slips are precut slices of a standard red brick that you attach to a wall similar to bathroom tiles, but they are spaced out to look like a regular brick wall and the gap is filled in.  Some stores sell brick veneers in larger square sheets making it easier/faster to put up.

 

[grain]

On 10/16/2021 at 9:12 PM, bbko said:

Brick veneers, also known as slips are precut slices of a standard red brick that you attach to a wall similar to bathroom tiles, but they are spaced out to look like a regular brick wall and the gap is filled in.  Some stores sell brick veneers in larger square sheets making it easier/faster to put up.

 

Thank you for your reply and the DIY video, very helpful and something for me to consider.

[grain]

On 10/15/2021 at 9:35 AM, tonray said:

A lot of extra work as opposed to painting over in one color. But you can use two strips of tape to surround the current join lines so that the middle is exposed. This exposed area you can paint a slate gray to simulate the joints. Then obviously paint the rest brick orange...getting it to look rustic is another thing altogether, you can use a sponge and dab the painted 'brick' areas after applying paint...again...lots of work.

Yes, I starting to agree with you. I'll be having a painter in to do the walls and ceilings and I now think I'll just get him to do the entire apartment in one color, probably white as it's only a smallish one-bedroom unit and white always works best. Then I can consider if I want to do a fancy brickwork feature wall at a later date. It does seem like a lot of extra work whichever way it's tackled, and there's always the possibility that when finished I don't like the result and just paint over it again.

[tonray]

1 minute ago, grain said:

Yes, I starting to agree with you. I'll be having a painter in to do the walls and ceilings and I now think I'll just get him to do the entire apartment in one color, probably white as it's only a smallish one-bedroom unit and white always works best. Then I can consider if I want to do a fancy brickwork feature wall at a later date. It does seem like a lot of extra work whichever way it's tackled, and there's always the possibility that when finished I don't like the result and just paint over it again.

A white painted brick wall adorned with some tasteful art work (tasteful left up to you) can be one of the most striking features in a small apartment. Post up pics when you're done.