I Painted a Faux Brick Wall!!!

In an effort to make my Newmarket builder box home look a little more like New York , I decided it would be a good idea a few weeks before Christmas...what was I thinking?... to sponge paint my front hall.

  I absolutely love brick walls...every time I'm out and see one I take a pic because I just love that industrial look...I thought about doing the faux brick wall panels, the peel and stick wallpaper, or using plaster and tape.  However, if I decided I didn't like it or got tired of it in three months (which happens a lot around here), then I would wreck my walls and be stuck with it.  So I decided to buy a sponge and bought one that was for the end of a mop, like this one, which co-incidentally happened to be the exact size of the brick on my house.  Then I left the dark grey on the walls (Metropolis by Ben Moore) and used some paint left over from another project and just went for it.

So here's what I did:

1.  dampen sponge slightly.

2.  put a light coat of paint on the sponge with brush.

3. start in far lower corner and work up the first four or five rows.

4.  place sponge on the area and move back and forth slightly (lightly wetting the sponge helps with moving it).

5.  try to keep each brick above the other in alternate rows as you move up.

6.  once you do a few rows moving up, then move horizontally across the wall keeping them straight as you go.

7.  when all the bricks are on the wall, then put a little bit of paint on the sponge and dab it in between the bricks.

Bricks are very forgiving...they aren't perfect.  Don't be afraid if you screw up.  You can go back over it and make it darker. Just remember to keep your bricks straight.  If the bricks start to become uneven, you can always lengthen or widen a brick...again, bricks are imperfect.   I also did this over a few days, an hour or two at a time.  

So now my challenge is finding the right mirror and lighting...I shopped my home for lighting and like this one (above) from Homesense, but I'm not sure about the mirror....  (I know, I'm missing a drawer pull.)  

And then I decided to paint my doors a beautiful black called Vulcanite by Ralph Lauren.   This is the colour I'm going to be using on my lower cabinets for the kitchen (I know it's been a very long time coming but they are finally being painted in January...patience, people).  So it was an opportunity to test it and make sure I like it and I do, I really really do. ...I've wanted to do this for years too.  

Oh, and we got the most ADORABLE Christmas tree ever...and to bypass the annual hours and hours of the Christmas tree falling over,  I just stuck it in a basket...It might turn brown but it won't fall over! 

Isn't she the cutest little tree?   Axel has been circling it like a shark...which is why it's now up high and in a basket.