Add European farmhouse charm to any wall with this easy faux brick wall and German schmear treatment!

Hello, hello! Welcome to Week 2 of the One Room Challenge, when our European Farmhouse bedroom makeover takes off! Today I'm sharing how we added a faux brick wall and did a German Schmear treatment on top! If you're new here, welcome! I'm Cindy and I am a creative who thinks up new projects while I should be sleeping, I've painted over 100 pieces of furniture, and I'm married to Mr DIY who is my muscle (and he's cute!) You can read more about us here.

Complete list of projects for our bedroom makeover

Don't miss the amazing reveal of our budget-friendly European farmhouse bedroom!

I'm sharing the complete step by step tutorial to this easy faux brick wall as well as a video tutorial and complete supplies list below, but I've got some 'splaining to do first! 😉 I thought this project was going to be so much more difficult than it was! I researched ways to add a faux brick wall for months leading up to our master bedroom makeover!

As always, Instagram was filled with ideas...like Natalie's approach, using her finger to create grout lines. But then I saw Hayden's super budget friendly brick wall which used painter's tape. Until I thought about the actual process of trying to make straight lines with tape...and a bad back 😟

I didn't give up though, kept looking for inspiration and when I spotted Whitney's gorgeous faux brick wall in her guest room, I knew this was the technique that would be perfect for our project!

Before we get into the tutorial, let's take a little look at where we started.

Bedroom 'before'

There's not much to love about the current state of our room! And those green walls were the first thing to go!

Painted Walls

Once Mr DIY and our son moved all our furniture into the middle of the room, I was cleared to paint. One of my favorite white paints is Bistro White by Valspar. It's the perfect white in my opinion...not too stark, not too creamy. I find it reads as a true white in our home and pairs well with our gray walls and farmhouse neutrals. It is considered a 'warm white' if that helps you. We used it in our sunroom makeover as well as in my farmhouse office, which is right off those french doors in our master.

When you are painting white over a darker color (like beige and green in our case), you will need to do two coats...UGH...I know, it's a bummer! But there's no way around it! I worked my way around our bedroom walls (leaving the focal wall green for now), and then did it all again. I was wiped out by the end of the day, but the room was WHITE!!! And of course I forgot to take a pic! But that's ok because the real focus of this week is that faux brick wall with German schmear, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was!

The easiest way to make a German schmear faux brick wall

Mr DIY purchased the pre-mixed joint compound just because it was easier. If you want, you can save a couple bucks and mix your own.

Insider Tip: after following other tutorials, the recommendation was to use a wide plastic putty knife rather than a metal one. The plastic one is more flexible, allowing you to get the joint compound where you want it.

I actually made a very short video of this step, so you can watch to see exactly how to apply the joint compound (make sure your volume is turned up!). I apologize that my camera was the wrong way (#videonewbie here!) 😕 I've gotten much better at videos, you can follow me on YouTube here.



It took me about two hours to apply the German schmear to the entire wall, and I quite enjoyed this step of the process. I was a messy little "schmearer" and there were clumps of joint compound on the floor (that's why I used the drop cloths!) Here I am just getting started...


You can see I'm getting close to finishing the top portion. I found it easiest to work my way across the top half and then come back and do the bottom half. It was less up and down the ladder and moving it.


We left the joint compound to dry overnight. In the morning, I could see that the grout lines had dried kind of yellowish. I was half expecting this to happen, as others had this issue so I was prepared.

Step 5: Whitewash

I mixed up a whitewash using 1:1 wall paint and warm water and then simply brushed it on the entire wall. You can see in the image below that the left hand side of the picture has been whitewashed. It really helped to not only cover the yellow, but to blend the whole wall together, giving it that old world charm that I was after!


I am in love with how it turned out!


It has great texture because I was careful not to smooth the joint compound too much! You can do more or less depending on the look you want.


I really love how our dark headboard looks against the faux brick wall...so much so that I wonder what I could have been thinking to consider painting it! I've decided NOT to paint the headboard! The contrast of the dark headboard with the white distressed brick is just perfect! I can't stop staring at my new faux brick wall!


If you have any questions about this project, either the faux brick panels or the German schmear, please feel free to ask in the comments section below!

PIN IT TO REMEMBER!

Next week I'm going to tackle the dressers. I have an idea that doesn't involve chalk paint (for once!). Wish me luck. Update: things didn't go as planned, you can find out what happened with my oak dresser makeover here.

Supplies for a faux brick wall

• Kingston brick hardboard panels
• compound miter saw
• nail gun
• level
• latex caulk
• pre-mixed joint compound
• wide plastic putty knife
• drop cloths
• white paint