DIY faux brick wall

I get most of my decorating ideas from blogs, and this one is no exception. I saw this project on Bower Power Blog a year ago and immediately knew I wanted to do it in our basement office.

Lowe's sells faux brick panels in 4' x 8' sheets for $26/apiece. We needed four sheets to cover our 6' x 14' wall. It would have cost about $25 to drywall the entire wall, but I think the added texture is totally worth it.

Each panel needed to be cut, so it took a couple hours to cut and hang them. We also had to account for one outlet on the wall and cut that out. We used screws, but the installation instructions say you could use nails.

Because we're in the construction phase, we were starting with a studded wall, which made it a lot easier to know where to screw the holes! You could do this to a wall that already has drywall, you will just need to mark your studs somehow.

Maybe you're wondering why we didn't put the brick up to the ceiling. The window on this wall is at ground level, which means the wall below the window is made out of concrete (because it's under ground) and is thicker than the top part. So there was already a natural ledge below the window when we went to add walls. Above the brick will be a ledge with framed art, similar to this.

After the panels were hung, it was time to paint! We bought a paint sprayer since we had so much painting to do in the basement (ceiling, walls, doors, trim, etc.).

The below photo was taken after one coat of primer. You can see that the seams and screw holes became really obvious after painting it white.

Eric then used caulk to seal the seams between the panels and fill the screw holes before doing a couple more coats of paint. You can still see the seams, but it's way less obvious, and I'm hoping once we get some furniture in there it will be even less noticeable. We originally thought we wanted a more rustic look with uneven coverage, but ended up liking the full coverage and painted it the same color as the walls.

I love how it turned out! We laid laminate flooring in there this weekend, which I'll write about soon! (Sneak peeks as usual on Instagram.)