DIY Faux Brick Wall -

Determined to give my kitchen a timeless look, I created a faux brick wall with some inexpensive paneling, drywall compound, and paint. I created this look on one entire wall of my kitchen. that included a bump out, so it was a bit time consuming (the better part of a week, while on holiday vacation) but was totally worth it in the end!

Materials

Faux brick paneling (from Home Depot or Menards)
Paneling adhesive
Jigsaw
Hammer and Nails
Drywall compound
Drywall Knife
Flathead Screwdriver
Sander
Sand Paper (120 grit would work well)
Primer
Wall Paint (I chose this white color)
Caulk and caulk gun (if you are installing it in a kitchen or bathroom, near a water source)

A Note About Buying the Paneling

Okay, so here’s the thing: these panels come in 4′ by 8′ sheets. This would NOT fit inside of my little SUV! So, I had the guy at Home Depot cut the panels in half. I brought them out to my vehicle… and they were still too wide to fit inside! So, I went back into the store, bought some rope, and jerry-rigged the things to my roof rack. I watched them carefully through my sun roof so that they got home safely! Luckily, no issues to report… : )

Not all stores offer the cutting service, so you might want to check before you decide to go out and purchase the panels.

My Before

The wall I decided to put the faux brick wall on had some major issues. It was assembled with some type of plastic pieces that held the dry wall sheets together. I’m not sure what this is called (help me out in the comments if you know!), but it reminded me of a trailer house, the way the walls are often assembled in those.

On top of the weird seams, it appeared that someone had, at one time, put wallpaper on it. Then, the wall paper was covered by paint. Lovely. I figured this out by removing some of the bubbled up wallpaper on the corners of the drywall sheets. Rather than redoing the drywall, I decided to cover it up with paneling. There are several options for paneling, including a shiplap style, but I wanted something timeless. Shiplap, I fear, will be “so 2017” in years down the road, so I opted for the brick.

before the faux brick wall

Step 1: Cut and Hang the Faux Brick Wall Paneling

The first thing you will probably want to do, it cut the paneling to fit the wall space. Remember, measure twice (or more), cut once. I marked with a pencil on the faux brick where I should cut it, then I took out my jigsaw and carefully cut. I tried to plan it out so that I would make the least amount of cuts possible.

So, I started from the top of the wall and worked my way down. I had already installed my cabinetry, and I would suggest installing the wall BEFORE installing the cabinets. I did this with the upstairs unit and it just worked a little bit better, having to make less awkward cuts around the cabinets.

Also, I made sure the the bricks lined up in the corners. This helps give the impression that it is real brick. Make sure to line up the grooves between the brick layers on the corners. Where it bumped out, I made it look like a long part of the brick connected with a short part of a brick. For the corner where it bumped the opposite way (like the corner of a square room), it was a little bit more tricky, but I again tried to make the short brick parts match up with the longer brick parts next to them. Hopefully these pictures help you understand what I’m talking about!

faux brick wall panels lined up on corner

To adhere it to the wall, I used paneling adhesive. I used my caulk gun to apply it to the wall where I stuck each of the cut-to-size panels. Additionally, I nailed the corners into the wall (although, just doing the nailing OR the adhesive probably would have sufficed). I knew that I never wanted to take this paneling off, because the wall underneath was so ugly and not otherwise easily fixable (to my DIY knowledge). That’s why I included the adhesive. If you think you’re going to want to take the faux brick wall down after awhile, I’d just use nails so that it’s easily removable.

Step 2: Fix the Seams

Now, once you’ve got all your panels up, you are going to see all of the seams where the panels meet. This is very easy to hide with some drywall compound!

I started off by using the stuff that is pink until it dries. I would NOT recommend that. In some places, I had to glob it on pretty thick, so it started to create globby drips. I waited for it to dry and then had to do a bunch of sanding.

I recommend using this drywall compound. You will probably need to do a few layers of it to get the look you want. Especially at the top by the ceiling, there was just a little space that I wanted to make look like the start of a brick row, so I had to add a lot of compound to it. I also used the compound to fill any gaps between the top panels and the ceiling, to make it look more seamless.

It’s better to add too much rather than too little. You can always sand it off.

For sanding, I used my orbital sander. I think 120 grit sand paper. I also sanded some spots by hand, to get the indent for the mortar between the bricks. Additionally, I used a screwdriver to sort of “chisel” the mortar indent in some spaces. Use the pattern of the panel to help you gauge the correct size and depth.

For the corner that bumped out, I really had to glob it in there. I used the drywall knife to form the corner of each “brick” the best that I could. Don’t worry if you have a little too much drywall compound, you can always sand it down later.

There’s gonna be A LOT of drywall dust created in this process! I put my air purifier in the room. I would also recommend wearing a mask. And covering anything you don’t want to be full of drywall dust!

Step 3: Apply Primer and Paint

When I started this project, I decided to prime and paint the brick BEFORE cutting it and hanging it on the wall. You could do this too. But once I got further into the project, I ran out of time to wait for the paint to dry before I was ready to cut and put the next panel up. So I just primed the last few panels, put them on the wall, and then painted them in the end.

You’re going to have to paint them after the drywall compound and sanding process, anyway, so you might be just as well off hanging them on the wall first, and then priming and painting in the end (I did it this way on my upstairs faux brick wall).

I used this primer and this paint to prep the faux brick wall paneling. One layer of primer should suffice; I think I used three coats of the white to give it a solid white look. You are going to want to use a paint brush (probably not a roller) so that you can get into all the little cracks and crevices, the texture of the paneling. It’s kind of a pain, but I LOVE texture. It’s worth it.

Lastly, I caulked along the edge of the countertop to seal any crevices.

After

And there you have it! The faux brick wall installation process. Like I said, this project consumed a bit of time, but was well worth it. The brick just gives this room more personality and it feels so much more homey than it did before.

And the cost of it was relatively inexpensive, too! I think I spent a little over $100 on the paneling, plus those other few supplies listed at the top. Well under $200! This is definitely an affordable option for anyone under a money crunch.