How to quickly and inexpensively create a modern industrial faux brick wall in a weekend.
The faux brick walls are finished in the gym shed and they are fabuuuuulooouus!!!
I keep flipping back and forth between the before and after shots because I absolutely can’t get over the difference! I’d swear it was Photoshop if we hadn’t spent 2 days working on these brick walls.
In case you’re wondering, all of the stuff from the old pool shed is now in our garage, and it’s an even bigger disaster now. I predict a massive purging and organizing project happening in the coming months.
One step at a time…
Before and After
Before I dive into the full nitty gritty detailed DIY faux brick wall tutorial though, this view needs a moment…
It’s amazing the difference ripping out the ceiling and putting up the white brick walls made. We did the entire shed’s makeover for under $700 for all of the materials.
DIY Faux Brick Wall and Shed Makeover
Supplies
Tools
Steps
For most people, this probably wouldn’t need to be a step unless you were planning on ripping down walls like we did too.
We decided the old pegboard had to go… along with the ceiling and the protruding walls while we were at it.
Getting there…
Better…
Okay, here are the REAL steps for DIY faux brick walls after all of that messy demo and reinforcing the ceiling.
- If you are just creating a faux brick wall on top of drywall, you can just hang up these faux brick panels using finish nails and Liquid Nails. But since we were using these panels as walls right on top of studs, we chose to screw them to the studs. Use a level to make sure that first panel is hanging completely straight.
2. For any areas that won’t fit a full panel, cut them with a circular saw or table saw. Pay attention to the pattern on the previous panel so that you can properly line up the brick design.
Tip: You can choose to use a jigsaw to zig zag your cuts along the mortar line in the brick panel design to help hide the seams even better, though it is more time consuming.
Since we plan to hang mirrors, weights, and shelves all over these walls and the walls would be painted, a visible seam here or there didn’t really concern us. But the zig zag cuts are doable if you’re willing to put in a bit of extra work.
3. As you get to obstacles like windows and outlets, use a jigsaw to cut around the tricky areas and puzzle piece the panels together.
4. To make the walls look finished, we added 1×2 boards along the top and bottom. And for the corners, we attached the corner molding strips.
5. Then, we caulked seams and spackled holes.
6. Then paint!
I guess the perks of having a few cans of random leftover white paint is you can mix them together in a bucket to use on a whole new project! So we were able to basically paint this entire shed for free using mixed up paint from the waste pile.
All thanks to that handy dandy paint storage closet overhaul from a few weeks ago.
Paint fixes everything. I’m convinced of that.
See? Magic!
Finish Home Gym
I’m so glad we got carried away with the shed demo because this ceiling is just awesome.
We’ll hang mirrors on that long wall next so we can check our form during workouts.
I found this ceiling fan with retractable blades to keep air moving in here.
And I’ve gotta say, this view beside the pool and pergola cabana is pretty motivating to work on that summer bod. 😉
Robert found these heavy duty rubber gym floor mats on Facebook Marketplace for a steal. After this project, our joints will really need that. 😉
So now we have a finished home gym ready for all of the home gym things! Load in happens next week! Though even without the weights and equipment, this gym has given us a solid workout already.
