Paint ideas for exposed brick wall?

Question

I have exposed brick walls on two sides of my lounge. The brick walls are around 4 ft wide facing each other at the end of the room while the rest of the wall is plastered and painted in off-white. There are full length glass windows between these two brick walls.

I am really looking for design ideas on what to do with these walls. The colour of the brick is not great right now and they look a bit dusty and old. Do I just plaster them and paint like the rest of the room or is it a good idea to paint directly on them.
If they are better off leaving exposed, then what can one do to make them look more appealing. Many thanks.

Answer 1

I remember watching a show where they had this same problem. They didn't paint over the brick, but left it exposed. The brick was kind of a darker color. You may want to take some cleaner to the brick. I think there are special cleaners made just for brick, for washing and restoring the look of old brick homes. Ask at your hardware store. They painted the room a darker color because the brick was a darker color. The person who had the condo/apartment said she didn't like dark colors, but the interior decorator promised by the time he was through that he'd convert her to the "dark side" as he called it. He did. The room looked great when they were finished. He used a lot of personal pictures and had them blown up and processed in black and white with black frames (brushed nickel could also work) to cover a large portion of the exposed brick wall. A small wall mounted shelf was added in about 2-3 places with some knick-knacks and it looked great.

I definitely recommend a shade of paint that matches the bricking. I don't like painting over brick, to me it makes it look cheap and gaudy, but you have to go with what you like.

Get some descent sizes pieces of cardboard at least 12"x12" and some quart size cans of paint of some shades of paint that you like that match the bricking. I tend to like earth tone colors myself. Paint the pieces of cardboard and stick them up on the wall side-by-side with some painters tape on the back. Leave the colors up for a couple days, by the end of a couple days you should definitely know which color fits you best.

Answer 2

You can paint over them if you like, I'm not sure about plastering over them I think the plaster probably wouldn't hold up well. I have painted over brick you can get some really neat effects I painted the whole brick area in a beige color and sponge painted several different colors on the brick to change what was red brick into a lighter color, just choose several colors that you would find in a beige colored brick and use them for the sponge painting, or choose a solid color and leave the brick all one solid color.

Answer 3

I have two ideas for you.....

1) You could paint these two walls a fairly bright colour (try to match the colour that goes with your furniture.), make them your 'feature' walls then hang picture frames at a decorative angle from them.

or

2) If you know anyone who is reasonably good at drawing and or painting have a picture drawn on one of the walls and turn it in to a mural for the entire wall and hang floor to ceiling mirrors on the other wall, or alternativly you can also get peices of mirror now, that are just like tiles hang them at decorative angles on the oppisite wall so that you get an artistic affect.

Answer 4

if they are old red style bricks it would be a sin to cover them with anything---if they are painted now --strip them and expose them--i lived in an old factory once--the brick walls got a lot of positive comments. if they are new bricks--there are plenty of ways to make them look old--which i think is a real sharp look. either way-you should feel lucky you have that choice to make--i would love to have some brick in my place..--have fun!!

Answer 5

you could paint them a nice color or wallpaper. I think it would be neat to paint some kind of peacefull scenery on the bricks to go with the window. : ).

Answer 6

Take one sheet of paper, scribble what you like, select your motivating colors.
otherwise you ask kids to use the wall as board