I should probably start off by saying I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the outside of this structure, even when I started working on this finish..... I had kind of narrowed it down to a couple different options but really seemed to keep coming back to brick walls and slate roof more than the other options I was considering. This may be in part because we have a garage in our backyard that I've always though would make an awesome art studio and it is brick with a slate roof. I am super picky about the color and type of brick though.... the garage in our backyard is just regular red brick to match our house, but I didn't really feel drawn to regular red brick for this project, so I've been keeping my eye out for every different style/color of bricks I see either in real life or in miniature. Walking home from the park the other day I happened to notice the bricks on a neighbor's house and how much I loved the coloring on them, and the fact that it used "used" bricks but didn't look to patchwork-y and the colors blended nicely without too stark a contrast. This house also has a buttery yellow door which was what I had already had in mind for the art studio anyway....
So with this in mind I started looking for a dollhouse brick sheet with this same look. ... however after several days of extensive searching all over the Internet I didn't find anything that was exactly right (I am super picky about colors and such being exactly what I have in mind....). So since Hobby Lobby has plain brick sheets I figured- well, let me get one and see what I can do to it with paint, so I headed to Hobby Lobby, got a sheet of the brick and 5 different shades of craft paint ranging from a putty color, to a tan with a little yellow in it, to a reddish brown, and a couple of warm toned grays. (I also picked up a yellow for the doors since the paints were on sale this week).
It ended up being a somewhat time consuming project involving several different layers of several colors, and mixed colors, but I think in the end I got it at least pretty much where I want it.... I may still play with it a little more and I need to do 3 more walls worth, but I think it will end up giving me the look I want.
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| The brick sheets as they come... standard red brick color, but very solid color and (even though you can't tell really in this picture) shiny |
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| After my first step.... I painted on a putty/grout color over the whole thing and wiped it off of the bricks.... If I were wanting a more traditional red brick look this is probably how I would have left it |
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| But of course I had a lot more to do beyond that.... I started painting individual bricks and dabbing them with a paper towel (before the paint dried) for some texture and to make the paint slightly less opaque. In this picture I just had the one side done. I wasn't really sure exactly what I was doing just kind of kept playing with how I applied and mixed the colors until I was getting the right look |
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| The (I think) finished result. After lots more layers and trial and error. I not sure it's 100% where I want it but it's really darn close and I can be satisfied with it like this, although I'm not promising I won't mess with it a little more, especially depending on how the other 3 walls turn out. The only thing left to do is to go over the grout lines again with a fine paintbrush. |
I did also paint a coat of white on one of the windows and stick it in for a minute to see and I painted the doors to see how they looked with it but I haven't gotten pictures of any of that yet. Lol ;)
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