Joanna Gaines' Tips For Making A Brick Wall Not Look Industrial

If you've ever considered installing or featuring an exposed brick wall in your home, but hesitated because the industrial aesthetic isn't your vibe, HGTV star and expert Joanna Gaines has a solution. While brick is often associated with industrial themes, it can also be altered and upgraded to fit a variety of home interior designs, ranging from rustic to mid-century modern. The key, according to Gaines, is paint. Simply by covering up the standard material that most people use to define their industrial decor, you can create a textured backdrop coordinating with any aesthetic. Different paint colors will obviously evoke different design styles, so your only job (aside from actually painting) is to decide what shade will suit your room or space.

When it comes to painting brick, you need to ensure you're buying and using the proper products. There is a right way to paint brick, and due to the porous nature of the material, it may be tricky to apply color evenly, so a primer is the first product you want to add. The more porous the material, the more it will absorb and pull the paint and primer in, so it is important to ensure your wall actually can be covered with a coat (or several). 

As one of Joanna Gaines' favored accent wall trends, a brick accent wall is certainly worth incorporating into to your home, even if you aren't going for an industrial theme. Should your brick walls work with paint, you can get as creative as you want with the color, even adding a design, pattern, or artwork. Blues, whites, and some shades of green can help bring in a coastal aesthetic, while bold jewel tones are conducive to a kitschy vibe. Dark purples, blues, and black are some of the best paint colors for a gothic vibe, and pastels will work for a farmhouse or shabby chic design.

Make sure to clean off your bricks, then add a sealant to help the paint adhere to the wall. From here you can add a primer, which is ideally a masonry-specific product designed to handle the heavy duty material you're covering. Consider using more than one coat of primer. Using masonry paint (rather than basic house paint) will also help color adhere and pop.

There may times you want to avoid painting brick, as some walls may hold on to moisture or deteriorate under a coat of paint. This is especially true of new, porous brick. It's wise to wait for leaching to take place, which is when new bricks release any excess mortar alkali. This can take up to a year, so avoid painting until the bricks are ready. If you're renting, be sure and check if the landlord is all right with painting over exposed brick walls. Removing color from this material is very tricky, and you don't want to create a scenario where your house value is compromised, or you lose your deposit.