The exposed brick look is quickly getting a lot of fans, adding an element of stripped down, urban appeal to the home. But you don’t have to go to the effort of actually exposing the brick yourself, anymore.
Digital image wallpaper makes it a lot easier to create life-like visages, indistinguishable from the real thing, with much less effort. Here, we’ll look at how to make the best use of that exposed brick look.
The Appeal of the Brick Effect
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the exposed brick look isn’t going to work for everyone. But it has an organic, grizzled look to it that has been attracting many admirers. If you think that a flat drywall is a little lacking, it adds dimension and character to the room.
Its roughness, its seeming imperfection, is all part of that charm. It can add warm tones to the room with an added rawness that makes it feel much more natural, perfect for a variety of traditional, contemporary urban, or more eccentric stylings.
Why Wallpaper Over Real Brick?
To some, the look might only be complete if there’s real exposed brick there rather than a replacement. But going for a wallpaper brings with it many distinct advantages.
First of all, you might not be able to expose brickwork at all. Even if you can, it can take a lot of work. Not only might you have to expose it or add a brick wall yourself, which can shrink the space available in the room. You also have to work to preserve that wall, with gloss and matte sealant. Then you have grout an interior wall to prevent things like moisture damage.
Wallpaper is much easier to apply and much easier to remove if you decide you want to go for a different look in future. Better yet, it allows for a much more detailed and realistic representation than using something like a paint stencil.
What Colour Should You Go With?
If you’re exposing the real brick of the home, you might not get a lot of choice on what colour it is. You can apply finishes if you’re willing to do more work, but with a brick effect wallpaper, you get a wide range of choices right off the bat.
The stained brick palette is the most commonly used one, keeping the look warm and raw looking. It creates a vintage look, making it look like the wall has been through the years and earned its character.
The whitewashed look creates that same aged look, but offers a little more brightness, making better use of natural light.
Grey block finishes are a good choice for someone who still wants the grounded, organic look while keeping it clean and minimalist.
The Urban Look
One of the best uses of a brick wall is to add a bit of aged charm to urban spaces that are using a more contemporary sense of décor. Paired with the clean sheen of metal chairs and sharply stylish coffee tables, it brings the roughness and the warmth that a modern style to the home might otherwise lack.
If your style is more rustic and vintage and you’re using natural materials like stressed wooden furniture and pendant lights, then it creates the perfect context for them. It maintains an authenticity to the raw appeal, while a cleaner, more featureless wall might undermine them and make them look posed.
Brick Effect Wallpaper – Make It Focal
You don’t have to go with the brick effect wallpaper throughout an entire room, either. They can serve either as a focal point on their own by using them as the basis for a feature wall or they can serve to highlight other focal points.
For instance, if you have an old fireplace in the room, a patch of brick digital wallpaper around it draws attention and highlights the heritage look of the room.
In the kitchen, a brick effect splashback can create a rustic warmth that belongs perfectly in the heart of the home.
In a larger, open-plan room, a brick wall can help to “zone off” different areas and stop it all from looking like a big, characterless blank space.
Whether you want something minimalist and subtle, or you want a detail-rich focal point for the room, the brick effect wallpaper can offer a plethora of different options.
Is it time you get rid of the same old generic wall designs and exposed a little more cool?
Get in touch with Highly Decorated today…