Antiquing Brick
- 1). Wet down the surface of the area you will be antiquing. A hose with a power sprayer to get up high and into corners is best. If you are antiquing bricks on a house, wet down the surface of all sides once then begin applying the whitewash to the brick.
- 2). Mix the whitewash in a large container using a 5 parts lime to 1 part table salt ratio. For a project as large as a house, you may need 50 pounds of lime to 10 pounds of table salt. Mix with water until it resembles a thick glue. For a more permanent whitewash treatment, substitute one of the five parts lime with one part of white Portland cement.
- 3). Add a color pigmentation agent. While the white color of the lime and salt mixture is considered attractive, you may prefer to add a copper hue to the mix to resemble an antiqued Southwestern home. Or you may prefer a darker tint to resemble the antiqued bricks of a major city building.
- 4). Paint the whitewash on with both a roller and a stiff brush. The key to a successful “antiqued” look is the varied depth of layers of mixture on the surface of the brick. Although a solid color with even strokes is desired in painting, the variation of thin coats exposing part of the brick with thicker parts completely concealing the brick gives the desired antique look of weathered brick.
- 5). Apply extra amounts of whitewash to the roller brush for the top areas and allow the excess moisture to drip into the cracks of each brick. This will help give the appearance of a brick with weathering in each crack.
- 6). Wait 24 hours for the whitewash to dry.
- 7). Spray the bricks in a random fashion over some of the thicker parts of the whitewash. Do not hose down the entire wall on any side; a small amount of spraying is all that is needed in small areas. This will give the bricks the antiqued appearance of a well weathered structure.
- 8). Repaint areas with more whitewash if the rinsing removed too much.
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