apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

You could paint it white (which always gives it a certain look). To me though the real problem is the countertops/floor which you're replacing and the cabinets. I honestly think painting the cabinets a different possibly quirky? color or even a chic color would change the whole look of the brick wall.

Remove, remove, remove! I have no idea how, just do it.

We had fake brick and it was paneling -- super easy to take down, but the walls underneath needed some TLC. You didn't say what format your fake bricks are, but if they are paneling, take them down, it's easy and worth it.

If, however, it is actual brick veneer glued or mortared onto the wall, paint it white.

I once had a small dark kitchen with a faux brick wall behind the stove, dark brown cupboards, and dark flooring. The brick was was the most hated thing in my whole house. One weekend I decided to paint the walls-including the brick white. It helped immensely. I used a brush on the brick and just painted the front of the bricks. It ended up looking pretty cute and lightened up the whole room immensely. If the brick hadn't been above the stove (the "grout" was kind of icky from years of cooking and I didn't think it would paint well) I would have painted the whole thing.

I think making it one color actually makes the bricks a fun texture on the wall.

Rachel's cabinets appear to be in great shape - but I'd definitely replace the counters with a dark grey quartz and the floors with cork - and I'd just tile over the existing brick all the way to the ceiling with a nice glass mosaic - perhaps in a blue-green/aqua color mix?

I think painting the brick white (or a warm slightly off white) would look good, and be an inexpensive and easy fix.

i would paint them white - it would be much less of a headache and would give the white some texture.

paint the brick. buying a can of paint is much cheaper (and easier) than removing the brick, drywalling, tiling the backsplash, etc. plus, if you paint the brick and still hate it, you can always remove it afterwards.

i would also consider painting your cabinets white (or another color), too.

I agree with removing the brick. However, before attempting this, find an obscure corner and test how difficult removal may be. If this is face brick mortared onto the wall, removal may be a big challenge.

I do not agree with installing tile over the brick as it is likely to make your walls look unusually thick, especially where the countertop backspashes and the walls meet. Also keep in mind that you will have to install a thick layer of mortar over the brick in order to install the new tile.

If this is traditional face brick, you are likely better off painting it now and leaving it until you are ready to invest the time and effort into brick removal.

i'd paint the "brick" and the cabinets white for a nice clean look... then you could choose whatever you love for the countertops and flooring.

My parents had this problem in their living room. They had the whole wall replastered.... yes, it took quite some plaster, the company who did it for them charged them the double amount of square meters, but the room is now modern and fresh again.

I would paint them also. and I think the cabinets could look good painted.

Make it pale, it is way to dark now.

In order to remove them, you would probably have to demo the wall, and take out the cabinets. I'd suggest painting them. You can't just tile over the wall, you would have to remove the bricks and the wall underneath, put on new cement board, and then put on the tiles. Painting the brick, and replacing the countertopr is an easy project.

If removing the brick is not an option, I would seriously look into plastering over it. If this is too much work, thin hardwood paneling (birch?) applied over the brick would brighten up the space and make it warm-modern, especially with some metal reveals/details. This would work only if you painted the cabinets a solid color and replaced the hardware.

That is ridiculously ughlee.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/good-questions/good-questions-how-to-whitewash-my-brick-wall-024690

Remove the brick, even if it means replacing the drywall/plaster behind it. It shouldn't cost to much to do (esp if you help out with the demo) and it really isn't to big of a project in such a small and contained space.

Then you'll have what you truly want vs a compromise that you'll be reminded of each time you (and your friends/neighbors) step into the kitchen...

IKEA KITCHENS. THEY ARE NICE.

SeanG hit the nail on the head! Love that look.

Until you can afford to tear the whole thing down - walls and cabinets, I would say just paint the brick white.

I actually like the look of painted white brick. It will at least brighten it up.

The cabinets still are pretty ugly (sorry!), like the thing over the stove? But until you can afford a real nice do-over, why not just paint everything light.

You could do bricks white and the cabinets whatever lighter colour you like. If you can update the countertops (not a huge expense) that would bring it into this decade even a little more.

Paint everything white. (Then paint your real walls a color.)

You have my sympathies.

Just drywall over it...many years ago we purchased a home with a tiled kitchen...we demo'ed it...and later, several neighbors with the same kitchen showed us that they had simply drywalled over the tile...saving much $$$ and a tremendous amount of energy and mess...the amount that it took away from the dimension of the room was negligible...and this tile was thicker than this brick appears to be. You could probably also use an adhesive...but nailing into that is also possible.

I don't know enough about construction to comment on the brick, but I'd at least try painting first.
I think the cabinets look nice, but once you remove the hardware you may have to end up painting it (i.e., if marks cannot be covered by new hardware).
Please post your after pics--this place has so much potential and I'd love to see how it turns out.

If you are going to keep your cabinets the wood, I think maybe painting the bricks something other than white might work better. Depending on what you're doing in the room, you could paint them a deep cream, or even black.

White brick in a kitchen? Are you people mad? I have glossy white ceramic tile in my kitchen -- it's a pain to keep it clean and I hardly ever cook. I cannot imagine the nightmare of such a textured surface in a food prep area. Rachel needs an expert contractor to come in and tell her what the stuff is and how to get it down. If she's lucky, it's some kind of paneling or tile and will come down in sheets leaving the wall intact. If she's unlucky, I'd say hold off redoing the kitchen until the walls can be properly attended to.

Start with paint and new hardware. Live with it, then decide where you want to go from there.

Or apply to HGTV to see if you can't get a makeover!!!

If you are definitelly going to do something, patch test by Painting a small portion of it whatever colour you have in mind. I'm thinking the spot to the right of the window looks easy and will give you a sense of that the final colour will be. And then you can decide if that will get the effect you want, or if maybe you need to do something more drastic. I like SeanG's link also

My first house (a 1956 ranch) had fake brick in the kitchen and I came up with a plan to paint the entire wall (bricks & fake mortar) a light bluish-grey. Then I planned to randomly paint a few of the bricks in typical mid-century kitchen colors -- pastel pink, aqua, creamy yellow, etc. The wall would not have had any definite pattern and would have complemented my aqua Frigidaire refrigerator.

My plan never came to fruition because my job transferred me and I had to sell the house less than 11 months after I moved in.

But I still think my plan would have worked. You could adapt the scenario to use any base color and any combination of other colors -- primary red, blue & yellow come to mind or warmer colors like golden yellow & deep red, green and orange.

Rachel here: I should have added: it's tiled and grouted, not paneled, unfortunately.

I'd paint the brick black, cabinets white, countertops grey and maybe switch out some of the upper cabinet doors with glass doors with the interiors a pop of color. But that's me.

Hmmm. If it were me, I'd rather suck it up and do it once for the result I wanted rather than pour energy and money into a 'temporary' solution. Painting the brick may seem easy but once you clean, prep and paint the bricks, its quite a bit of work for a temporary fix. Plus, these ' temporary fixes' have a way of staying for 20 years, especially after you've moved in and gotten used to it. So I'd bite the bullet and take out the cabinets and rip out the brick first thing, then take it from there. Also, once you get the cabinets down, you can think about how much cabinet space you actually need, versus what looks like the cabinet overload you currently have.

To me, the trick to making the cabinets work is to paint the walls a color that doesn't make them stand out too much. I would play down the contrast by painting the walls a warm yellow-brown color. As far as the brick goes, I would just paint over it. I know from experience that painting over it makes it "disappear." Is the backsplash behind the stove easy to remove? To me, it's a big eyesore.

Since it's tiled and grouted, I would paint a light color or whitewash (as per the link in SeanG's post). If combined tastefully with modern flooring, counters, and cabinets, the texture of the brick wall could actually be an asset. Right now the red and black are very dark and create some frightening contrast.

Also, there are often cheap kitchen cabinets available on Craigslist, so you may be able to replace them for cheaper than you think.

I had this same issue in my kitchen. However, the cabinets were rotting off the walls so we were getting rid of them anyway. My husband tried to demo that brick (and we were even planning on taking it down to stud) but it was so hard to do that he ended up just sheet rocking over it with 1/4-inch drywall. However, we didn't have the brick area meeting up with any other walls as you do. That might pose a problem to have a 1/4 inch lip. I am a white cabinet lover so I would definitely paint the cabinets white or off white--they seem to be in decent shape and that will save a lot of money and go a loooooong way to brightening your space. I don't think painting the brick is a terrible idea but I have never painted brick, there is probably a right way to prime it etc. You could maybe tile over the backsplash area. I will also add my rave for IKEA kitchen cabinets--great quality/features for the price!

If possible I'd try to remove the brick. Give a try to the narrow strip beside the door and see what happens. If it's a disaster, you can cover it up easily with a strip of wood. Alternately, paint the brick white.

I think the cabinets can look great with some new nickel hardware, and I'm wondering if painting the wall the fridge is on to match the cream of the fridge might "update" it too? You could even get some new handles for the fridge to better match new cabinet hardware. And, I'd cover the brown backsplash behind the stove - maybe with some of those aluminum stick on tiles.

my suggestion is:
1. New black countertop (we have paperstone, which has a nice matte finish)
2. New nickel-finish hardware for cabinets
3. Paint kickplate / baseboard black
4. Cork floors
5. Paint brick white or a contrasting color (if you don't have any other color in that room, it might be nice to do something bold)
6. New appliances, especially a fridge if you can swing it (we got a really great brand new fridge on c-list for about a third of the retail price, all b/c it had a tiny ding in it). If you go with a black countertop, either a stainless or black fridge would look great. You could also replace the exhaust fan pretty cheaply.

I think your kitchen has great potential! And I would vote against painting the cabinets, because I think they lend a really nice warmth to the room.

What a nice, roomy kitch! With plenty of light too. Since it will require priming, that'll give you an idea of whether you want to go white and bright or get more personal with colors. What color(s) do you feel most comfortable in? I'm a bit surprised by all the white kitchen fans here.
In the spirit of utilizing what we have, replacing good cabinets is just wasteful.

Vincent- Rachel here. I agree. The cabinets are in really good shape and I just can't see replacing solid wood with Ikea. Still questioning whether I paint or whether I just change out the hardware. They are dark for my taste but that doesn't mean I can't work with them.

As someone else suggested, white may be a terrible idea for a textured wall in the kitchen. Any alternate color ideas for the bricks out there? As a rule, I'm a fan of color in a house.

if you're not ready to unleash the sledgehammer then i think you have to paint.
I'd go white with the cabinets too, and a new fridge if you have the coin. Either white or black would match your range.

I think you'd want to seal the bricks very well and then finish with a glossy finish to make it easier to clean.
If you're up to pulling the cabinets out to paint them then you could attempt a full sledgehammer demo at that point.
Drywall isn't expensive, but expirenced patching, mudding labor can be.

Its tough times for people with construction skills, you might troll CL for freelance guys interested in small jobs. Its how i got my wood floors done.

Don't paint the brick as many others have suggested.

Instead, simply drywall over it. 1/4" drywall would be ideal for this.

Personally, I think I'd work with the brick. New floors and stainless countertops paired with the brick (okay maybe do something to lighten the mortar) would leave you with the feel of an old-fashioned French boucherie. You could even add a cracking plaster texture over the old brick. I could go many directions with the cabinets so I have no specific suggestiosn there. Good luck!

I'm seeing green! I would try painting the brick and grout a kelly green. Cabinets white white white and then you have a lot of choice for flooring and counter tops - real butcher block/black/charcoal grey.

I even found this picture that gives a pretty good idea what it could look like.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/pardonourdust/images/2007/10/13/greenwoodkitcorner.jpg

Step 1. Get a new fridge!!! (and a matching stove too probably)
Step 2. Paint the Cabinets a nice bluish hue, something slightly saturated to offset the brown brick but not too college dormy turquoise (and new hardware)
Step 3. Accessorize the bejesus out of that place and get some really fresh kitchen textiles to tie it all together (i.e., crate and barrel) My parents have this same faux brick and honestly after they did similar steps as I just pointed out, guests actually ADMIRED the brick! Who knew.

I suspect that brick veneer is, much like wallpaper, something that there's no really good way to cover or treat and that it'll have to be removed, if you can't stand the look. And, alas, like old wallpaper removal, the job is probably a substantial pain in the ass - but not very technically difficult and not expensive. Having removed something like twenty feet of very fetching cork wallpaper from a hall this winter, I found the inevitable drywall repair wasn't hard at all. I'd take the upper cabinets down, if you have to (though I'd be tempted to give it a try with them up) and go at the brick with a couple inch wide chisel and pry them off as if you were removing tile. Clean the remaining mortar with whatever acidic goo the Home Despot sells for such matters, slather on the joint compound, sand and paint (or tile, or whatever).

I think the cabinets look pretty good and I'd stick them right back up, painted if that's your thing. Although the dark cabinets with white counters look seems to be getting rather chic right now. I know someone who had cabinets of a similar, er, vintage in a sort of walnut color, and put in white acrylic counters and new hardware and the kitchen looks terrific.

And I had that same delightful yellow and brown vinyl floor in my kitchen and it was a happy, happy day when it disappeared. I put in laminate floors (which was expedient, but I've been surprised at how I like them, relative to tile - they're more comfortable to stand and I don't break as much stuff, when I drop it) and laid them right over the vinyl and it took about a day.

I replaced some hardware on 2 bureaus I restored and my new choice in handles didn't match the old holes. Instead of trying to hide it, I bought aluminum rods (from an arts supply store - in the model section) And cut them down into little pieces to plug the holes in a decorative way. Of course, this only works if you use silver colored hardware. To this day, I wonder if I should drill even more holes to plug with more aluminum (which is easy to cut with a mitre box and saw - finish the edges with some fine sandpaper.) It actually looks pretty cool - adds a modern edge to an older design and I think looks better than trying to fill in holes but having the patches be visible.

I grew up in this fake brick look. Ours was just on the backsplash. Above the cabinets, there was a soffit, or whatever you'd call a stretch of drywall mounted flush to the tops of the cabinets enclosing the space, and that was wallpapered, every five years or so. My mom "recently" renovated her kitchen (it's longer ago than it seems), and up until that time, I think they never covered it or painted it. Anyway, I hated it. It seemed like my parents were using up the leftover fake brick on anything they could think of, too. Surprisingly, not the doghouse.

My suggestion is to take it away. If that's not possible, how about steel or something that looks like tin ceiling, seal it, whatever people have to do to make the backsplash fairly impervious. Metal sheets are thin and won't add bulk, and look pretty nice. That can be painted too. The additional thought about building the wall out to the fronts of the cabinets up top, so you're not refinishing in metal on the whole wall. This doesn't seem to solve the entire problem as it stands, but I think you can merge a few ideas from this page, for your doorway, etc.

I don't have ideas for your cabinets or counters. Kitchens are a project, yeah.

Holy Moses. You poor thing. You've gotten some great suggestions here. I just wanted to point out the bright side: When you fix up this room, no matter what you do, it's going to be one HECK of a before and after since your before couldn't get much worse.

Please write back with your after pictures - I can't wait to see how it tuns out.

Please don't attempt to DIY a major kitchen overhaul. Find a contractor and get an idea as to what's under the brick!

If you are hard pressed for money (even to drywall it), go with simple fixes: paint over the brick a nice white, or even black, paint the cabinets and add some new hardware. Update the appliances to match, look into inexpensive flooring - such as cork, and get some great accessories.

Take a look at This Young House and what they were able to do at first with some paint and new appliances.

Don't paint the brick. It will look awful. Brick is a "crud-catcher" and it will attract grease and dust and splatters of stuff that will be hard to clean off. Either do it right and remove it (even if it means replacing the drywall behind it), which could be time intensive and more costly than leaving it alone, or use KTG's suggestion and cover it with something thinner and smoother. You can go to the Home Depot or Lowes and see what they have. Maybe a sheet of stainless steel, or something that will wipe off easily.

I was going to suggest Rachel suggest what we did with our faux-brick backsplash, but ee2485 beat me to it!

We painted over ours with a light tan paint and it did create an interesting (and subtle!) textural look. I'm very relieved we didn't attempt to remove it ourselves because during the course of our big kitchen remodel we discovered it took lots of drywall with it. You can see that here:


So, as others said, grab your paintbrush! And let us know how it turned out.

-John @ This Young House

I just bought a house blessed with a z-brick backsplash -- a horrid concrete-like fake brick. Unfortunately it's more difficult to remove than the typical faux brick. Anyone have experience with removing, painting or whitewashing that?