How to Paint an Italian Brick Look on Walls

Cover floors and furniture with drop cloths. Wash the wall with a mild detergent to remove dirt, grime and debris; allow the wall to dry thoroughly. Tape off baseboards, windowsills and ceilings with painter's tape.

Use a roller to paint a coat of latex primer onto the wall to prepare the wall for the faux finish technique.

Choose a base color for your wall; this color will be the grout lines of the brick and should be the lightest of the three latex colors you choose. Pick a color that will accent the colors of the bricks -- Italian brick often has deep red, brown and umber colors. Cream, tan and dark grey are good grout color choices. Paint the wall with at least one coat of the base color using a foam roller. Allow the base coat to dry completely.

Draw a grid layout for your brick wall on a piece of paper to determine the brick size, placement and overlapping. Bricks commonly slightly overlap, and the smaller the room, the smaller the size of brick you should choose. Look at pictures of Italian brick walls in magazines, on the Internet or in reference books to determine the right layout for your wall.

Transfer the grid you drew on paper to your wall with ¾-inch painter’s tape using a level to keep the tape straight. The taped areas are where the grout lines will appear on your wall. Tape the entire wall in the brick pattern.

Thin the second lightest color of latex paint with latex glaze. The ratio of paint to glaze should be 1 part paint to 3 parts glaze for a workable medium that will stay wet enough for the faux finish technique.

Paint a thin layer of the light glaze onto an individual brick. Use a sea sponge or cheesecloth to add texture to the glaze using a dabbing and swirling motion. Continue blending the glaze until you achieve an opaque appearance. Apply the first layer to just a few bricks at a time, you want to add the subsequent layers while the glaze is still wet to make the blending process easier.

Prepare the darker color paint with the glaze medium and apply the glaze to the brick you have already painted, while the first layer is still wet. Use a sea sponge or cheesecloth to blend the glaze with the lighter color.

Scrunch up a plastic grocery bag and dab at the brick to remove paint and create the look of waves and lines in the brick. Continue painting the bricks until your wall is finished.

Remove the painter’s tape from the wall when the glaze is dry. Thin the darker glaze mixture with a little water to create a more workable and lighter glaze. Paint the thin glaze along the edges of each brick with a small paintbrush and blend into the grout lines with cheesecloth to soften the lines of the grout.