We made some changes in the farmhouse, and I’m so excited to share how we’ve started transforming our family room! The largest part of our home is our combined dining/living are and it is long and skinny. I’ve struggled with furniture and decor in here but I think we’re finally figuring out how we want it. We recently repainted this entire room using Benjamin Moore’s Silver Fox, my favorite neutral gray. But it was still missing something. I decided to incorporate a brick accent wall in here to go with the kitchen!
Here’s what we ended up with! I love it and can’t wait to do the same to the opposite wall and share a fun collaboration we have coming up for the living room side!
This is the listing photo and what this room looked like when we moved in!
We immediately painted the walls an aqua color when we first moved in. I quickly grew tired of it and was just frustrated with how large this room was. I knew this room needed a big change.
Brick Wall Materials
Large Container of Joint Compound
Overall, this is an extremely budget friendly project. I had some of the items on hand, so it made it that much more affordable. I picked up a large bucket of joint compound for $11. My local grocery store also sold a 3 pack of masking tape for $3. I needed a few more acrylic paints and picked up some browns and creams for $.50 each spending $2.50 on paint. I already had a gallon of white latex paint at home that we used on our trim so I didn’t spend any money here. If you needed white paint and didn’t want to spend a lot, your local Walmart/Meijer usually sells quarts for around $12 of pre-mixed white paint.
Step One: Taping
The first step is using your masking tape to tape off your bricks. I measured how tall I wanted my bricks to be, and used a level to draw a horizontal line. I then taped all of my horizontal lines first. Then I randomly placed my vertical strips to create my bricks. Bricks create a pattern so once you have row done, it’s easy to guess where the rest should go.
Step Two: Joint Compound
Next, you are going to smear your joint compound using your spackle knife all over your wall. You don’t need to get it smooth, as bricks have texture and that’s the look we’re going for here.
Step Three: Tape Removal
After you’ve spread your joint compound on, remove your tape. This can get messy so wear gloves and keep a trash bag nearby. You want to be sure to do this while the joint compound is still wet or it’s going to be hard to remove the tape.
Let the joint compound dry overnight or for 24 hours.
Step Four: Painting
Once your joint compound has dried, you can start painting. I use acrylic paints because they’re cheap and can cover a lot of surface area. I just stipple my brush in a few different colors, and wipe it onto the bricks. You can get messy with this, because we’re going to paint in the grout lines later. The colors I used were dark brown, brown, a mix of creams, and off white.
I then whitewashed my brick by dipping my brush into white paint and lightly brushing over the bricks.
Once you’re done painting the bricks, you can go ahead and paint in your grout lines. I chose white for this as well.
Brick Accent Wall
This is the final result and to say I’m obsessed would be an understatement! For $15.50, it was well worth it! Pretty soon we’ll be doing the opposite wall and adding a fun addition to our loft area over there!
PIN ME
I absolutely LOVE the whole farmhouse dining room including the faux brick wall; the whole thing is EXACTLY what I would choose to have a dining room look like, if I had one the size of yours. (I live in a townhouse so only a very small dining room, and it’s a rental so can’t do permanent changes to it, but am working at making if as much farmhouse as possible–not just the dining room, but the entire townhome.)
Love, love your style. Would you share where you purchased the mirror?
Love this!!! We just bought a newer house that we’re trying to add character to. This is perfect and very cost effective too!
I love the look, thanks for the idea. I’d like to replicate it in my dining room. What kind of brush did you use for Step 4? When you stippled the brush in different colors was that on different parts of the brush because I can see distinctive colors on the wall. Regarding the whitewash step, was the paint diluted with water and was there drying time between applying the colors and whitewashing? Sorry if too basic of questions. I’m a beginner.