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© Barbara Ward

Bricks, at last...

Once the glazes have dried, you use a natural sponge to swipe and "lightly dab" the various colors on the wall. For my wall, I used terra cotta, plus a dull black (sort of a charcoal), a bit of dark green, the blue that I had on the other bedroom walls and taupe.

THE BEST PART---After the paint has dried, pull the tape off the wall. My original thought was to pull it gently. As you might see in the image on the left, I got excited and just started to yank it off. This worked out well because I wanted the look of worn brick. Some of the paint came off with the tape and created the look of chipped brick. There was only one problem - the mortar looked "too clean". At that point, I made a muddied version of the base taupe (by adding some raw umber) and used the edges of a rectangular kitchen sponge to create texture on the mortar.

In order to create a more realistic surface, I used the above glaze (the muddied taupe) and, with an artist's brush, painted shadows on the bottom and right sides of the brick (this gave it the depth). The final touch was to finish the wall with a mixture of:

• 1 part latex varnish (dull/flat)
• 1 part water

Giving it two coats made the job complete and the wall safe for washing ~ ready for posters or pictures. The condo sold (above market) shortly thereafter to a graphic artist who loved the faux finishes. The master bedroom was to be her in-home office.

Let's see the finished room...

Animated gif courtesy of Ward Ryan