Painting Concrete Blocks To Look Like Bricks
I completed a nice little project today. The assignment was to paint some concrete blocks to match the existing brick wall that the blocks were a part of. This brick wall is in the front yard of a very beautiful home in Tampa, Florida. The new home owners discovered that after they cleared up some bushes this is what they saw. When someone is driving down the street they can see this rather odd arrangement of block and brick. So the job is to paint the concrete block to look like the existing brick.
Matching color is always a challenge on projects like this one. Here is a photo of the complete job and I think I did a great job of matching the color of the bricks.
The first thing I did was clean the blocks and prime and apply a base coat of paint. After the base coat of paint dried I mapped out the brick pattern. Luckily each concrete block was exactly 3 rows high of brick. That made the job way easier.
After the first day I had a good start. Notice I am also painting the top two rows of block beyond the stone fence which blocks off the backyard from view. The thought being that from the street you can see back but not below the stone fence.
Matching color is always a challenge on projects like this one. Here is a photo of the complete job and I think I did a great job of matching the color of the bricks.
From the street you cannot tell at all that the bricks I painted on the concrete blocks are painted. It's a seamless transition. Pretty amazing really when you look at the first picture and then this last one.
This is amazing!
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing job you did on that great job!!
DeleteThanks so much.
DeleteYou did a fantastic job on this wall.
ReplyDeleteTraci
Thanks Traci, A challenge for sure but it came out great.
DeleteWhat type of paint did you use? Did you sponge the paint on? Looks lovely and I have the exact same problem--mix of cinder blocks and brick! Thanks for the inspiration :)
ReplyDeleteI used exterior Sherwin Williams paint. I did not use a sponge but just a regular paint brush on this. I did use a primer on the concrete block before painting also. I think one of the things that really helped on this one was to use a shadow line in the grout area to make the faux brick look like it stands out some from the block they were painted on.
Deletebrilliant
ReplyDeletethis is amazing!!
ReplyDeleteBy any chance do you remember the names of the paint that you used, and also how did you do to make some bricks darker, some lighter?? I am trying to figure out how to paint a concrete wall to make it look like brick, and I did though It was impossible before to see your post, your work is beyond amazing!!...
ReplyDeleteDiana, I used Sherwin Williams exterior paint but you can use an exterior paint just use a flat or eggshell nothing higher in sheen. As far as the exact names of the colors I don't remember.
DeleteI had a color chart and standing in front of the bricks I matched up what I thought would be the base color to paint on. Then I used a dark brown called Black Bean to darker some of the bricks and added different other colors.
Basically I had about 6-7 cans open. I have a lot of paint and so I just mixed and matched until it looked right.
The trick at the end is to brush over the bricks with a dry brush technique. That is where you have practically no paint on the brush. That leaves it with a real close look to the brick texture.
Hope this helps.
Are you for hire?
ReplyDeleteAre you for hire?
ReplyDeleteYes, if you live in the Tampa Bay area.
DeleteAbsolutely fantastic!!!
ReplyDeleteDid you use a stencil? Or did you use a sponge? How did you get the bricks to be the same size/shape? Thank you!
ReplyDeleteNo, I didn't use a stencil. After the base coat dired I just used a 4 foot level and made the horizontal lines with a pencil. Then made the vertical lines. Then I used a small stiff brush and painted in the grout lines. Then painted in the bricks. Painting in the grout first I could see them so after I painted in the bricks so I went back and repainted the grout lines solid.
DeleteWhat gives it the 3d look is I painted a highlight on the top and left side of the individual bricks and a shadow on the right side and underneath of the brick.
The dark shadow was painted in the grout line but the highlight was just a thin light line painted on the brick.
Luckily the concrete blocks I painted were almost 2 bricks wide and 3 high so that worked out pretty good. I use a simple wooden yard stick to measure.
Hope this helps.
That is the coolest thing ever! cinder blocks are ugly, so I did some tinted mortar smear over mine, but yours looks much better!
ReplyDeleteMore than impressed!
ReplyDeleteFantastic work!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks to you and everyone else for the kind words. This project really did come as good as it looks in the photos.
DeleteI can't believe I have found this! Your work is beautiful and exactly what I want for our house. We just dug out a hill adjacent to our house where we are having drainage issues and discovered our brick ends where poured basement walls begin. I have an ugly section of cement wall exposed that I want desperately to cover. Thank you for sharing your work and bringing hope and joy to those of us with brick problems to solve.
ReplyDeleteGreat! Glad it can help you out.
DeleteYou certainly are a very talented artist. I doubt that most of us could come even close to making a cement block look this good!
ReplyDeleteThanks for comments. It was challenge but the job did come out great.
DeleteMay I ask how many hours this took you to do?
ReplyDeleteI am pretty I remember it taking two short days, like 4-5 hours each day.
DeleteThat looks great, and you may have solved my "what am I going to do w/ these ugly cinder block walls" question.
ReplyDeleteIn my case the cinderblock walls are currently painted white - do you think I should strip the paint first and start w/ bare walls? The paint isn't flaking in most areas and has been there for at least the past 10 years.
On more, how did you achieve the aged look on the painted bricks?
Thanks
I would not bother to strip the white off but I would clean it really well with a scrub brush and soap and water. Let dry of course, then as you can see in the photos above I used a basecoat color as close as I could get the basic color of the darker surrounding bricks. Marking in the grout lines was a pain but not too bad. Then I painted in grout lines, which in this case I mixed some black into white with a touch of green to get a match. I knew I'd have to go back once the individual bricks were done to crisp up the grout lines but doing them first allowed me to get a good feel for the bricks.
DeleteThen I painted in the individual bricks by taking my basecoat color for the bricks and mixing in black to darken and white to lighten various ones.
To get the aged look I used a dry brush technique.
That is to get barely any paint on the brush at all and just basically rub it across the individual bricks. The darker bricks I would dry brush lighter over and the lighter ones a darker dry brush over.
I hope I explained that well enough for you. Fell free to ask me any more questions if you want to.