DIY faux brick wall: 5 super realistic techniques

There’s something about the look of the exposed brick that transforms the interior, adding a little bit rustic, effortless and immaculately charming notes to it. It’s all about the character, the texture and the feel of bare brick finish that attracts so many people and pushes them to implement the look into their homes.

The only thing is that most premises, especially modern ones, don’t feature brick walls that could be exposed and used as a base for a cool loft-style design. Unless you live in the premises that used to serve as industrial warehouse-type buildings, you’ll have to come up with creative faux ways to imitate the look of exposed brick on your walls.

Thus, the fear that those faux methods won’t allow achieving the most natural-looking brick wall effect pushes a lot of homeowners, who’ve been cherishing the idea of making an accent brick wall in their bedroom or a living room, to set that idea aside and give up on the faux brick wall remodel.

But, as it turns out, modern materials and exposed brick imitating techniques, used by remodeling contractors, allow achieving quite realistic-looking faux brick walls without incorporating the actual brick and brickwork. Here’re top 5 of them.

Some of those techniques require more time and skills to employ,while others may be successfully used even by the least experienced DIYers in order to create a faux brick wall as a focal point of the room or a decorative faux brick accent on the walls.
As they all vary in the looks you may achieve, the materials you’ll have to use and the money you’ll have to pay to recreate a brick effect on your walls, you’ll have to choose the one that suits your needs, design expectations and remodeling budget the most.

On the other hand, don’t feel limited by the fact that you have not mastered certain skills to make your wall look like the brick by applying the technique you like the most. You may always reach out to highly-qualified contractors on HireRush.com and let them perform your faux brick wall remodeling task for you.

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Now, without any further ado, let’s figure out what the best ways to create DIY faux brick wall are.

5 ways to DIY faux brick wall

1. Wallpaper with brick pattern

   While I was quite skeptical about this method even just a couple of years ago, the way modern 3D wallpaper looks makes me change my mind about imitating the exposed brick appearance of the walls. Some of the modern brick wallpaper patterns look the way that I literally can’t tell if it’s real brick or wallpaper until you touch the wall.

   The manufacturers came up not only with unbelievably realistic designs, but also created the wallpaper that may be attached to the wall with temporary glue, which makes it perfect for the tenants who want to spice up the boring look of their rental property and make it a little bit more personal.
   And, what could possibly be easier that sticking the wallpaper to the wall? When it comes to creating a faux brick effect on the walls fast and easy, it’s definitely the way to go.
   The only thing I would pay attention to is the quality of the wallpaper. The higher it is, the more natural and realistic the brick design will look on the walls.  Besides, you need to make sure that the wallpaper is glued to the wall without any bumps and uneven joints for the same matter.

2. Brick pattern stencils and paint

   If you don’t want to use the wallpaper, you may totally go for a painted-on faux brick look, which might turn out a little bit more durable and easy to maintain than the first alternative.

   In order to create a faux brick pattern, you just need to adjust the stencil to the wall, apply a layer of paint over it, move the stencil to continue the pattern and go over the painted areas with a sponge dabbed into the paint to add some texture to the final finish.

3. Styrofoam and paint

   You’ll need to spend a little bit more time to achieve an exposed brick effect using this technique, but you’ll end up with a cool low-cost 3D design.
   Basically, you need to cut the polystyrene foam or Styrofoam into equal rectangles – the bricks, glue them onto the wall following the brickwork pattern and let them dry overnight.

   After that, use a soldering iron to melt the surface of the faux bricks to make them look a bit more realistic and paint your faux brick wall with textured paint. You may do the same to the rectangular pieces of textured wallpaper.

4. Faux brick panels

   You’ll have to use just a couple of these panels to make your wall look like it’s nothing but exposed brick.More advanced and realistic finish if compared to the brick patterned wallpaper, as well as a lot less time-consuming technique than the previous two.

   However, the boards are definitely not the cheapest material among the ones we’ve already mentioned. On the other hand, you may paint and repaint them any color you want, which makes them quite versatile.

5. Brick tiles

   Brick tiles will revive the look, the feel, the texture and the character of the exposed brick walls to the fullest extent. I can’t even consider the wall that was done with the use of brick tiles totally faux. When the tile is installed by a professional tiling contractor and grouted with the cement-colored grout, it looks just like the construction brick the building wasn’t supposed to feature.

   Some companies even offer to recycle old brick for this decorative purpose and use thin slices of reclaimed brick instead of the faux brick tiles. Eventually, such faux brick walls might be painted or whitewashed. That’s probably the most original look you may achieve when your walls can’t be stripped down to the bare brick.