We moved to a new house last year, from California to Missouri. It was a culture shock of course. But the worst part was the dark and gloomy house, full of paneling and bricks. Some people say you should never paint brick…but when two walls in two rooms of your main living space are real bricks, you kind of have NO CHOICE.
Thank you!!
Here’s what you have to do to paint your brick walls:
Now you’re ready to start spraying your bricks! There’s a technique to it…swoosh your wrist across the area you are painting at the same time as pulling the trigger on the sprayer. You are trying to get an even coat of thin paint. With this method you will still have some color variations showing through and it won’t be completely “white”. It brightens the brick. You can even do more coats if you want it to be brighter.
But really, you can do the spraying in any way that is easy for you!
Now after you’ve sprayed till your hand aches, you will need to dab at the drippy areas with a wad of paper towels. You don’t want drips drying and looking ugly all over. You can also use a paint brush to squish more of the drips into the crevices and grout lines. You might even start feeling artsy and creative!
You will notice with spraying the paint on that you are saving tons of time not having to paint into the “grout” areas…they get covered nicely with the spray.
We were able to complete one wall in the breakfast room in about 1/2 an hour. Clean up took about another 1/2 an hour (including drips, the floor and the windows). We got done right as my husband walked in the door. He was speechless…but liked it! Yay for painted brick and clever friends!
I totally suggest painting boring red brick if it’s on the interior of your home. It’s quick and easy and you’ll love how bright it is. After I finished the fireplace and painting the paneling I almost feel like it’s light in there!
Make sure to wash out all your brushes and you can keep the unused watered down paint for about a month. After that is starts going funky and chunky.
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| Guest Post from Sarah at The Blog Guidebook |
you have given me just the information i needed for our fireplace. the brick is only around the opening however, we recently lightened up the living room walls and the brick was popping out like a sore thumb. i may even squeeze this project in this weekend...or at least sometime soon!
thanks!
judi
http://itssewforyou.blogspot.com
Dana @ D'Lea Designs
Tana
www.iheartmygluegun.com
I read your comment and wanted to let you know that yes, you can do this on the exterior too.
My friend who told me about this sprayed the exterior stone work of her house to lighten it up because it was ugly and dark.
She also did her chimney!
All her neighbors were jealous and they wanted to know her secret.
I did forget to mention that I used exterior paint with built in primer for this job, so you could do the same!
Hope this works out for you!
Sarah
Cheers!
Reyna
ArcadianHomeDecor.com
Michael
http://bluevelvetchair.blogspot.com
I want to try but a bit scared...
Gpm
Do you think 2 coats would be too much coverage?
thanks!!!
I have to say, it's not coming out evenly with the spray bottle. I bought three industrial spray bottles, only 1 actually sprays a mist. The others squirt, no matter how low I turn the knob. Even with the one that works, the paint still drips like crazy and seems to avoid the grout so that the bricks end up too white and the grout is still dark gray.
I ended up going over everything with a big sponge to clean up the drips and even it out, but the sponge wasn't getting in the grout well. I had to resort to plain old paint brushes and I'm finally getting better results.
Maybe my paint is too thin (1:3 paint to water) or my brick is just too rough (whomever bricked this fireplace didn't do a great job at getting it level and was sloppy finishing the grout so it's very rough.) It's okay though, it looks a lot better, I just didn't realize how detail work was involved.