Decorating Fix with a Faux Brick Panel From the Home Improvement Store
Today’s post is about a temporary home decorating project that I am sure no one will ever need or want to do. :-) Yes, you read that right.
I went back and forth deciding if I was even going to post about what I did to cover up the opening of the built-in-the-wall firewood storage area next to the fireplace in my living room for the summer.
The storage area opening in the textured brick wall is unique to my house, the decorating style I was after and circumstances. It is unlikely that anyone would ever need to do exactly what I did in their home.
After some thought though, I decided to post it to provide creative decorating inspiration for you to see what you can do when you take the time to come up with your own unique DIY fix, solution or to change something in your home you don’t like.
This is the fireplace storage area in my living room all cleaned up for the summer months. I don’t want to permanently cover it as it comes in handy in the winter, but it is an eyesore at least to my eyes in the summer when I want the room to look cool and breezy.
I wanted to create a cover that would blend in with the existing textured brick wall that I painted two years ago.
Many homeowners look for ideas on how to cover up a fireplace in the warmer months of the year and I have created a few over the past years to not only cover the fireplace, but the wood storage area as well for the summer.
I have made a fireplace cover using a cardboard folding screen and also made a screen to cover the fireplace in my previous house using a discarded wood window sash.
Last summer I covered the storage opening with a wood paneled screen. I liked the way this looked, but when I updated one of the guest rooms over the winter, I found the wood paneled screen looked much better in that room.
My first idea to cover up the wood storage opening was to make a cover by attaching slices of a tree trunk to a board the size of the opening so it would look filled with stacked firewood. I even bought all the tree trunk slices at Hobby Lobby, but when I lifted up the bags, the amount I would have needed to make the cover would have made the cover way too heavy.
I needed to come up with a new plan. I find that doing something creative every day is beneficial for my mind and soul so I just started to experiment. First by browsing the aisles of home improvement and craft stores to see what materials can be found that may work for the situation and then playing around with them.
I don’t worry about production or outcome when I do this. I just focus on coming up with ideas until I like one. Sometimes they don’t work, but I don’t give up and just keep at it until one finally does work for my style and needs. I try to channel Thomas Edison when I am in this mode – “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
I consider the process like a hobby as I enjoy when I am deeply immersed in a creative pursuit and coming up with a thrifty solution.
In a perfect DIY world I would have liked to create a seamless look for the panel, but keeping the project simple, I am OK that you can see the outline of the panel.
The DIY cover does what I wanted and that was to make the wall look all white for the summer.
How to Use a Faux Brick Panel to Cover a Fireplace or a Firewood Storage Area in a Room
I created this faux brick panel to cover the built-into-the-wall firewood storage area, but it could also be used to cover up an unused brick fireplace for the summer.
supplies needed:
- faux brick panel – Lowes
- White eggshell finish paint and paint brush
- Fast’N Final Lightweight Spackling
- Stencil brush
- Artist’s paint brush with a pointed tip
- Light grey Martha Stewart craft paint – Color – Wet Cement
- 2 wood shelf supports and two 2″ long screws – Lowes
Time needed: 4 hours
How to Paint and Add Texture To a Faux Brick Panel
- Cut Faux Brick Panel to Size
Using a saw, cut panel to size needed. Sand edges smooth.
- Attach Wood Brace Supports
To help keep the panel flat against the wall and not leaning, attach two wood shelf supports along the bottom of each back side by using a screw from the front of the brick panel to the back and into the wood support.
Optional – If you have scrap plywood, you can glue this to the bottom edge along the back of the panel to provide extra stability.
- Paint Panel
Once the panel is cut to the size needed, apply one light coat of white paint. Let dry. If the bricks on your wall are smooth, then you are done.
To Apply Texture: Notice that the bottom of the painted panel below is smooth. I needed to add texture to the bricks so they would match the brick wall in the room. I used Spackle to make it look like the existing textured bricks on the fireplace wall. - Add Spackle and Paint
Apply Spackle with a stencil brush. Dip it into the Spackle container to get the bristles filled with Spackle and then pounce it onto one brick. Repeat until a brick is covered. Repeat the process for the rest of the bricks.
To add even more depth to each brick, I used a small tip artist’s paint brush and grey paint to create a line on the right side of each brick so the faux bricks would have the same shadow as the brick wall.
Since Spackle is white, I didn’t need to paint over it for the color to match the existing white brick.
- Add Trim to Bottom
To line up the brick rows/mortar lines to match the wall, I added a piece of square molding to the bottom of the panel to lift the panel so the mortar lines matched up.
For fun, I decided to remove the edges of the panel in the above photo in Photoshop making the fix blend right into the wall. To actually figure something like this out for real, I will have to keep channeling Thomas Edison and keep thinking of ways to make that happen without bricking up the area since it is very nice to have in the winter.