Brick Stenciled Feature Wall Looks So Real You Won’t Believe Its Paint

This was our master bedroom before. Super boring right? Don’t hold it against me, we just moved into the house a couple of months ago and I was waiting for the right inspiration to strike before decorating it.

Inspiration struck one night when we were out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Cured resides in the Administrative building of a 1900’s Brewery that has been reclaimed into restaurant and retail space. It has the most amazing lightly whitewashed bricks, with black, creamy teal, and warm wood accents. To say it is a beautiful, is a huge understatment. It is the perfect combination of romantic and industrial and it is everything I wanted our bedroom to be.

Now most people like to call this Farmhouse Industrial. I don’t think that is my style at all. While I love Farmhouse industrial style to me conjures up images of milk buckets, cows, and other barnyard accents. I may be from a small town, but I wasn’t raised on a farm and my husband is from a big industrial city. So the whole farmhouse thing definitely doesn’t appeal to him. I am using this project as a platform to launch my new design style, Romantic Industrial. It has all of the old world rough vintage charm with soft feminine accents and no barnyard anywhere in site.

With my new inspiration in mind I decided to use Cutting Edge’s awesome Bricks Allover Pattern. I had a vision of perfectly whitewashed bricks where the white was so light that the original charachtor in the brick was still visable underneath.

However before I could get to painting all of those wonderful brick details I had to get my paint ready. Because I really wanted my wall to look like like real brick I used a combination of nine different colors. Yes, I said nine. This gave my bricks the depth and character that you would expect to find in 100 year old brick wall. To make sure my paint had the right sheen and character of real cement I mixed all of my paint into very small batches of home made chalk paint.

**For more details on the paint colors I used, my small batch homemade chalk paint recipe, and how I only spent $26 on all 9 of my paint colors please read the full article by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post.**

I started by painting my feature wall with a full size batch of my Chalk Paint. I mixed the chalk paint a little on the watery side on purpose. By adding too much water to this homemade chalk paint recipe it will break down the latex paint causing it to take on a gritty consistancy. I did this on purpose to give my “grout” the look of real cement. ** I only did this for my grout. After mixing my paint I used a regular paint brush to apply it to the wall. This helped to make the wall look like real cement complete with tool marks. **I do not recommend mixing the other brick colored paints this way. It is too thin and may cause the pattern to run.**

Instead of rolling out my bricks I used a set of disposable foam stencil brushes that I purchased at Michaels to complete this project. You only need 1-2 brushes at a time to dab and blend each brick individually.

To keep my bricks from having too much of a canned appearance I didn’t blot the excess paint off of my foam stencil brush before applying it to the wall. This caused a little bit of paint to seep under the edge of the stencil. However, this little bit of seepage gave each brick it’s own unique shape providing the wall with a natural flow. **You should not use this method with other intricate stencil patterns.**

The longest part of the whole project tapping out each brick individually. I worked on this project over the course of a week a few hours at a time. In the end it took approximately 15-17 hours to complete. However, I was working by myself and only as nap time would allow. So this required extra time to clean up after each painting session. This project could be easily accomplished over a weekend with dedicated focus.

Another way that I added some realistic detail to my brick wall was my stenciling brick arches over my two windows. **For step by step details on how I made these one of a kind arches please read the full post by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.**

To finish up this project and bring all the details together I had to free hand bricks along the outside edge of the window where it meets the corner and again along the very top edge of the wall. In both instances the space was too tight to use the stencil. I free handed these bricks using a regular paint brush then I tapped over the area using one of my foam stencil brushes to give it the same blended look as the rest of the wall.

In the end I am absolutely in love with the way this project turned out. The bricks are full of so much depth and detail just like real bricks. Our cable guy even had to walk up and touch the wall before he realized it was only paint. I’m not sure there is a better compliment than that. This wall turned out to be everything I hoped it could be and it has inspired me to give our bedroom a complete overhaul.

So don’t forget to check back over the next several weeks as I continue to make our master bedroom a romantic industrial retreat. Here is a sneak peak of my next post, Vintage Electrical Insulator Pendant Lights.
As always I welcome your comments and I will do my very best to answer any questions you may have. I hope you enjoy our Romantic Industrial Bedroom Makeover as much as I do!