How to Paint Fake Concrete Bricks

Paint a coat of water-based paint primer on the wall or floor with a smooth paint roller. Let the primer dry three to four hours.

Apply the slate gray textured paint to the wall with a loop fabric roller. The material on this kind of roller works better than a smooth roller for getting the textured paint to hold fast to the surface . Let the paint dry four to six hours.

Cut out a 5-by-3-inch piece of cardboard. Use a lid from a shoebox to make this simple stencil.

Place the stencil on the wall horizontally, beginning at the top-left corner. Trace the makeshift brick. Move the stencil to the right and trace another brick, and so on. Move to the next row and place the left edge of the stencil directly below and in the center of the first brick. Continue tracing the stencil until you cover the entire surface in this manner.

Paint the stencil lines dark gray with a 1-inch wide paintbrush. Don’t try to make straight, even lines and instead cover the stencil marks using short strokes with the paintbrush. This makes the mortar between the bricks. Let the paint dry two to four hours.

Bunch a rag in your hand and dip the end of the rag into the light gray paint. Drag the rag over the grout lines to lighten them up.

Use the same rag and light gray paint to place small dots of the lighter paint on the bricks. Drag the color across the bricks with the rag to blend the colors.