How to Stain Brick

A friend of mine recently bought a house and was desperate to cover up the eye sore of a fireplace in the corner of her living room.  Luckily she's an artist and was able to come up with a really creative way of covering the ugly rose and white brick, without having to paint it.  Personally I'm not a fan of painted brick but I loved her solution: concrete stain.  She said it was super easy and took her less than an hour to do two coats and complete the whole project.  

Here's what you need:

Concrete stain from Home Depot (they have lots of color options)

Paint brush the same width as the brick (or as close as you can get)

Paint Roller

Tray

Step 1:  Pour concrete stain into the tray and using the roller paint the stain on the walls.  Press lightly so that the roller doesn't get down into the grout.  Brick is very porous so it will absorb the stain quickly.

Step 2: Once the walls are stained use a paint brush to paint the stain onto the bottom bricks.  Using a brush the same width of the bricks will keep the stain from dripping down into the grout lines.

Step 3: Let the 1st coat dry and then apply a second or third coat until the stain reaches the richness of color that you desire.

 

Here is her finished project:

Doesn't it look awesome!  Staining brick is quicker and easier than painting brick and it gives you such a beautiful result!

Edit {Nov 20th}:
I just finished staining the brick on my fireplace and I love it!  It's looks so much better and it didn't cost me anything because I just used some wood stain that I already had.

Here are before and after pictures of my mom's fireplace.

Stain used was Behr Concrete stain, color: Loden

Here are before and after pictures that a reader sent me.  What a transformation!

Stain color information

I have received many emails asking what colors of stain my friend and I used on our fireplaces.  I figured it would be faster to add it to the post then to reply to each one of you individually.
My friend used Behr Concrete Stain in the color of Loden.

Reader submitted photo

On my fireplace I had left over stain from staining the mantle so I just used that.  It was an oil based wood stain from Lowe's, in the color of Dark Walnut.  The wood stain worked well on the brick but it definitely smelled my house up for a couple of days.  Unless you already have wood stain on hand {and want to do it for free} I would recommend purchasing the concrete stain.


Good luck!  I'd love to see your before and after pictures if you want to email them to me. :)

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