I have a serious crush on brick walls. I seem to be seeing them all over the blogosphere. I even have a BRICK pinterest board dedicated to them. I knew I had to have one in my house. My craft room was the place. I had been wanting to update it for a while. I decorated it in pink and brown nearly six years ago, and I was just ready for a fresh change. To see before and after pics, click HERE.
The first step was finding the brick. Lowe's is the only store in Utah where I was able to find the brick paneling. It is called
BRICK HARDBOARD WALL PANELING
It is $25.97 for a 4ft x 8ft piece. Check it out HERE. It is in the same section as the bead board. The folks at Lowe's were so helpful, and cut the pieces down to the proper height for us. Did you know they even have faux stone, in addition to another style of brick? Now, I am just trying to figure out where I can install the other kinds. They have a huge selection. Check it out HERE.
Things you should know…
-This is a two person job. Grab a friend. Grab your significant other. Just don't do it alone.
-Your walls will be crooked and not square.
If you need to trim your board down, do it BEFORE you cut out holes for the outlet boxes. (We learned this the hard way.) Our wall sloped down as we went across the room. We had to cut a board down, but did it after we cut out the outlet boxes. This shifted everything down, and put the box holes in the wrong place.
You will need:
A drill
18 gauge brad nailer 1 1/4" brads
15 gauge finish nailer 2" nails
Protective Eye Wear
Jigsaw
Level
Carpenters Square
Tape Measure
Stud Finder
Gloves
Hammer (To nail in stray brads/nails)
Vice Grips (to pull any random nails/brads out that don't go in all the way)
Make sure to have Lowes cut your boards down to whatever height you need. We had them take about two inches off the top of each of our boards.
Step 1:
Measure for the studs. This is where you will put your nails.
Measure the outlets from the side of the wall you are starting on.
Write all your measurements down on a paper that you can check as you go. We kept it on the floor in front of us, so we could easily look at it during the installation.
Step 2:
Cut out your holes for your outlets.
After you have measured, draw the shape with a pencil. We preferred using the a tape measure and the carpenters square. Drill a hole in the middle of the shape you drew, so you can fit the blade of the saw in. This will make it easier to make a pretty hole for the outlets. If you need to cut the board down, lay it on a table, and hang the edge off. We used saw horses for additional support. Use a chalk line to mark the cutting line. We had to do this tapering to the bottom, because our wall was so crooked.
Step 3:
Hold the paneling up with two people. As one of you holds it in place, the other person measures out, and nails it is where the studs should be. If you nail into the studs, your wall treatment will be more strong and stable. We placed our paneling on top of the base boards, and it worked well. I didn't want to deal with pulling them out, and reattaching them.
Add additional brads where needed. We had some parts that weren't flush with the wall. Again, the wall was crooked. The brads helped add stability.We felt like it was least noticeable to nail into the mortar portion of the paneling.
Step 4:
If you have decided you are going to paint your wall, this step is important…
Use your finger to apply painters caulk. Squirt a line of the paintable caulk on the seam. Dip your finger into a cup of water and gently pat out the brick part, and use your finger (dry) to pat it into the mortar part of the seam, so it looks like you have some texture. I found I like to add a little texture to the brick part as well. Look at the bricks on the panel. They will have all sorts of texture. Don't be afraid to add texture of your own to the painters caulk.
Your wall will look like this. We had three seams.
I didn't wait the full time for the caulk to dry, and painted to soon, so the caulk cracked a bit as the paint dried. Don't do this! Be patient. Allow the caulk to cure. You might have to apply an additional coat, but hopefully not.
You can also caulk the nail holes.
I read a couple tutorials that they said they needed to buy an extra piece of trim for each side of the room, where the brick meets the wall. You don't need to do this if you fill the gap with caulk. It works like magic! Fill it with caulk, and paint over it. It makes the brick look like it was always there, and part of the house!
We have a small gap where the brick meets the ceiling. We may put up a piece of crown molding at some point, but we are not in a hurry. It is painted, and hardly noticeable.
To check out more pics of the finished product, click HERE.
Be sure and tune in to Studio 5 Wed at 1pm mst, or stream it on studio5.ksl.com for more tips and a live demo.
Thanks for stopping by. Have a Happy and Creative Day!
Risa
