Faux brick is just the thing to add charm to a hum drum wall. This is a fairly easy project for the do-it-yourselfer, however, people often hire professionals to do this kind of work. It is timeconsuming as well as a test of your patience. There are several ways to achieve a faux brick , variations are listed at the bottom.

Things you will need:

1/4 inch tape and lots of it!- This is a bit hard to find, check specialty paint stores. Typically the large chain stores don't seem to stock this item. If you can't find 1/4 inch painters tape you can make due with 1/2 inch tape. Don't worry about bleed as this lends credibility to the brick finish.

Latex Paint: How much you need will depend on the size of the area you are painting. You can buy one gallon of the main brick color. Choose something in between red and brown. I would suggest also buying three other colors in small amounts. YOu can use acrylic paint from an art supply store. Buy yellow ochre and a shade of brown that you like and also a pumkin orange color. I prefer the squeeze bottles as opposed to the tubes of paint. It's also cheaper.

One large sea sponge- if you can't find a large one, don't worry about it, you can even use a big sponge you would use to wash your car and then cut it in half. Those are really cheap to buy. The natural sea sponges can really be expensive even for a small one. There is always a way to substitute!

measuring tape

level

small roller with refill

paint pan with liner

styrofoam plates

Colored Chalk or pencil- you should be painting over a primed surface...meaning a white or off white background.

Calculater, pen and notepad

bucket with water

Baby wipes

neaded eraser (only if you use a pencil instead of chalk to draw your lines)

two round artist brushes (one small and one medium)

Step 1: Measure your wall. Bricks come in different sizes but a typical brick pattern would be X 8 inches or 5 X 10 inches. Make sure you account for the 1/4 to 1/2 inch in between each row fbricks. Ideally you want whole bricks on the top and bottom of the wall. You may need to adjustyour brick width to make this fit properly. If you do adjust the width, adjust the length by thesame amount. The purpose of this is to make bricks that look as realistic as possible. You needto figure out how many rows of bricks you can fit on the wall adding in your tape measurement inbetween each row.

 Step 2: Once you know many rows you will have, you need to find the exact middle of your wall.Draw a vertical line from top to bottom down your wall with colored chalk or pencil. Chalk eraseseasily with a baby wipe, so it is my preferred method when you have to draw a lot of lines.

Step 3: Draw horizontal lines down the wall the width of your brick plus the 1/4 or 1/2 inchneeded inbetween each brick. * Use a level to be sure your line is straight

Step 4: Starting at the top of your wall, go back to the center of your wall. If your brick is going to be 8 inches long, measure 4 inches out from your middle line in both directions. Thismakes one whole brick. We want to start in the middle so that the bricks will be equal in length when they hit the wall corners.

Step 5: Then measure 8 inches plus the width of of your tape and draw a line vertically creatinganother brick. Repeat in both directions until you have one row complete. Your next row of brickswill be staggered, so they will not line up exactly on top of each other. Make marks at themiddle of each brick and draw your verical lines making your second row of bricks. Complete thispattern until you have finished drawing lines on the entire wall.

Step 6: Tape your lines just inside the lines you just drew. Don't worry if you cover some chalk.You just want to make sure the tape is as straight as possble. Use your finger to press down onthe tape to make sure it seals as well as possible to prevent too much bleed.

Step 7: Once you have your bricks taped completely use your roller to paint the wall with yourred brick colored paint.

Step 8: Pour your artist acrylic paints onto a stryrofoam plate. One for each color.

 Step 9: Wet your sponge and squeeze all the water out so it doesn't drip.

 Step 10: Using your paint sponge, dip your sponge into one paint color. Dab it over your bricksin different areas. Dab some at the end, some in the middle of the brick and top or bottom. skipbricks. Work the color in a little bit so it looks mottled. If the paint from the red brick isstill wet this will look even better as it will mix in with that paint.

Step 11: Change off colors, and repeat the process. This will give the bricks a more aged lookand should vary in color from each other.

 Step 12: Remove the tape. It will be easier if the paint is dry when you take the tape off.Otherwise it will be quite messy.

 Step 13: Now you should have brick pattern with white lines between your brick and they shouldlook like bricks. To make them look as realistic as possible you want to add some shadow to theoutline of each brick. I would suggest adding shadow to the right side and bottom of each brick.However, take your light source into consideration. If Most of the light in the room is comingfrom the right, your shadow should be on the left side and bottom of each brick.

 Step 14: Paint the top and left part of the white line right down the middle and touching thebrick with a light beige color. Do this to each brick.

 Step 15: Mix just a very small amount of blue paint with the beige to create a darker shadow. Youdon't want it to look too dark, just enough to add credence to the shadow and light source. Paintthe right and bottom of each brick outline the darker color. Repeat until you do this to each brick.

 Whew! That is it! You are done! Kick back on the sofa and enjoy your new wall! Tell your hubby heowes you a neck massage!

 Variations on creating bricks:

• For a simplistic looking brick wall and as a time saving benefit, you can simply use a sponge that is the size of a brick, work in different colors on the spongeand dab sponge squarely on the wall to create a ready made brick with no taping.
• To add texture to the bricks, after taping use joint compound to create a raised surface and a more believable looking brick, then paint when the joint compound is dry.

Click here to see faux brick example photos: http://www.silverspoonmurals.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=search&type=full&search=faux+brick