After showing my Bedroom Makeover on a Budget post, I got a lot of emails about my brick wall. I’ve finally been able to put together a post to show the process of our DIY faux brick wall in our master bedroom. Fair warning, it’s tedious and took me 2 straight 8 hour days to complete (huge thanks to my hubby for being on house duty and not letting anyone interrupt me). Plus side, it only took me about $15 to complete!

DIY FAUX BRICK WALL

Let’s Get Started…

Before we began our bedroom makeover, I kept fighting with myself with how we could make the focal wall stand out. Of course, I thought about shiplap but I wanted something different. The idea of the brick wall came up and we were ready to get down to business. As you can see we started with textured plain walls. There wasn’t even a stitch of paint on our walls (thanks, builders *sarcastic*).

TOOLS YOU WILL NEED:

• Joint Compound – 40-50lb premixed bucket. Example and to order right here.
• Trowel – Like this one.
• 24″ level – Use one like this, not one you already have and love.

Process:

You’ll need to head to your local hardware store (or order right here) for joint compound. I grabbed a bucket for just under $13 which made this an extremely budget-friendly project. Saving money doesn’t always mean a project will be a good idea but if you stick with it, you’ll love the result.

The joint compound comes premixed so here’s where the fun part is – just dig in! Use a trowel (like this one) to apply the joint compound directly on the wall. Working in sections so the joint compound doesn’t dry on you too fast which then prevents you from making the grout lines. I tried to keep the compound as thick as my baseboard trim, about 1/4″ thick.

When I had the joint compound evened out, I used my 24″ level to draw the grout lines with my finger. Yep. There was literally no rhyme behind my measurements. When I started I thought “yep, that’s about the size of a real brick” and went with it. Hold your level… level then slide your finger across the wall to make a line. These lines will become your grout lines in the end. Definitely, do this project with a level especially one you don’t care about. You can see here on the right side that I had that part of the wall finished and grout lines have been painted.

After I had all of the horizontal lines finished, I started on the vertical lines. Again, I wasn’t precise because I didn’t mind if some were a little larger or smaller than others. All that matters is that your brick lines per horizontal line are staggered for a realistic look. I held my level vertical and drew a line, skipped a horizontal line then drew another verticle line. Move your level over and draw a line down the center “brick” that you skipped previously. Hope that makes sense.

When I finished with the joint compound, it was an off-white color. I let it dry overnight. When it’s completely dry the compound turns white. I then used a small 1″ paint brush and leftover Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams to paint the grout lines.

That’s it! You aren’t using that much paint so it pretty much dries in seconds. To hang things on the wall, use the grouts lines. There is practically no joint compound in those areas so it’s super easy to put a nail through. Any other questions please feel free to leave a comment or send an email.