Faking It [brick paver edition]

As I've mentioned before, this year our focus is the exterior of our house. We had big plans that included painting our exterior brick white but after much research and consulting with paint professionals, we decided it wasn't the right choice for us. Painting the sidewalk was on the long list of to-dos but a lot of those things dropped off the list when the white brick did, but I decided to move forward with this plan. 

---

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. This allows me to be able to continue to fund and share easy and budget friendly DIY projects with you!

I watched our weather forecast closely waiting for 2-3 days of dry weather. The first step was pressure washing and cleaning the sidewalk. I did this the day before I planned on painting so it could dry overnight. Once the sidewalk had dried, it was time to get down to the fun part - stenciling! I was blessed with a beautiful 65 degree day - it was perfect! 

---

I used porch and patio paint that I had tinted to Sherwin William's "Fired Brick" as well as the Herringbone Bricks Allover Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. I taped the stencil down using painters tape and lightly rolled the paint over the stencil - the natural texture of our sidewalk added a lot of character to the pattern. ​

I also rubbed a dish sponge over our sidewalk to roughen it up and then I used it as a stamp. I had some gray paint left over from the laundry room floors so I decided to add some specks if it to the red pattern to give it more depth. I rolled a thin layer of gray porch and patio paint on a paper plate and then pressed the sponge into the paint, and then lightly sponged it on randomly across the stenciled brick. I made sure to rotate my wrist so the stamp pattern wouldn't be the same everywhere.

It took some patience, but after about 2 hours of stenciling I was finally done! 

---

My love for stencils continues to grow! I cannot believe how much it boosted our curb appeal, of course some fresh mulch didn't hurt...