DIY Faux Brick Wall: Create an Authentic Industrial Loft Look

5 years ago, I bought my first house, and I had some pretty big ideas for it. Actually, the very first thing I tried to do was take down the wall in between my living room and my staircase. I had always imagined having a bright, open, airy entryway. But unfortunately, pretty shortly after cutting some holes into the wall, I found out the hard way that there was a header in the staircase that was holding up the second floor of my house, and I could not take it down by myself.

So, I spent the past 5 years focusing on budget-friendly DIY renovations in this space while saving up a little nest egg to finally hire an engineer and a contracting company to take down the wall. Now that it’s the space I always dreamed it could be, I’m going to show you how I added an exposed brick wall, making the space look industrial and beautiful. Let’s get started friends!

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Tools + Materials

Tools

Materials

The Before

This was our entryway when we first bought the house 5 years ago, very closed off and not the vision I had for the space.

Here’s a little “in progress” shot while the house was being dormered.

Once everything was structurally built it was time to take care of the blank wall, it was definitely an eye sore. Please ignore our 2×4 railing, we’re having a custom railing built but it isn’t ready yet so we’re working with what we’ve got for now. But doesn’t it feel so much more open already?

Designing the Accent Wall

The first option was to make this into a gallery wall. But we’re planning to have a lot of art in this space so that felt like it would be too much. Another thought was wallpaper, but I’m really not a huge fan of installing wallpaper, it’s really just not my thing.

So, in true Sam fashion, we went with the most tedious and labor-intensive option that there was, and I decided to turn this wall into a brick wall.

It’s no secret that I love industrial design.

I actually think I might have more pictures of brick buildings that I’ve been inspired by than I do of my dog, which is saying a lot (just look at that face). So, I was excited to bring that vibe into the house.

Organize Bricks

I ordered these thin brick sheets. They’re not full thick bricks, it’s almost like someone took a brick and put it through a deli slicer. Can you tell I’m from Long Island? They have mesh backing, so you can install them the same way that you would install a backsplash in your kitchen.

They come 5 sheets to a box and Jordan and I opened each box and mixed them all up into different piles so that none of the piles were the same pattern or color. If you’ve seen any other tiling tutorial I’ve done you know I always do this to make make sure the project looks super organic in case there is color variation from one box to another.

Cut + Glue

I used an angle grinder with a diamond blade to cut each sheet to size.

Installing these brick sheets was just like installing a backsplash. We used some tile mortar, we put it on the wall with a trowel.

Then we pressed the bricks into the wall and checked the placement with a level.

The first couple of rows actually went up pretty quickly, which was great.

At the end of day one we were actually about halfway up the wall and it was looking pretty cool!

Day two started with Jordan continuing to get the full sheets up on the wall while I started working on the little angled puzzle pieces that lined the stairs.

If you’re wondering how I figured out all of these angled cuts, I just took a full brick and a sharpie, marked the top and the bottom, connected them with a line and then cut along that angled line. It worked out beautifully and was much easier than doing mental math.

At the end of day two I was genuinely impressed with how well we did.

For the most part, we were able to trowel the glue onto the wall first and then get those mosaic sheets up. But there were a couple of sheets that we ended up having to put the glue on the back in order to get it to stick well to the wall.

Then it was time for Jordan to get the pieces up that were a bit sketchier to reach.

But like the good brother he is, he got it done.

Grouting Day

I didn’t realize how tedious the grouting process was going to be, it honestly took about as long as it took to get the bricks up on the wall.

So I set up on the front lawn to mix the grout.

I used a drill mixer to mix it evenly in my bucket.

I made sure to mix the grout a little thinner than I usually would because I used a grout bag to pipe it between the bricks and I wanted to make sure that the consistency would flow through the bag without getting stuck.

In full transparency, I tried to be super precise about the grout for the first couple of rows. But I realized that it actually looked way more like a legitimate brick wall if I was just a little messy about it and didn’t care as much.

So, I ended up using a chip brush and brushing the grout in and kind of getting it on the brick a little bit to give it a more aged and authentic look, and it turned out so cool.

A couple of years ago, I actually used fake brick panels in my garage to make a brick wall in my workshop and the reason I didn’t do that for this wall was because I wanted it to feel like the house was built around a brick wall, not that a brick wall was built into the house.

I really do feel like I achieved that pretty well.

Our New Brick Wall

Staring at this wall I actually can’t imagine what it looked like before it was brick.

Friends, that was a project. Now I have so many fun ideas for how to warm it up and make it feel like it’s part of the space.

It took 5 years to get to the point where I saved up enough money to do these projects the way that I want to do them. And I’m so excited to take you all along on this journey of really transforming the starter home that we thought we’d have for 3 years into a home that we’re going to stay in for a very long time.

This is a brand-new chapter of trying new things and new projects and turning this house into a forever home, starting with this brick wall. Until next time, Happy DIYing friends!