Exposed Brick Living Room Decorating Ideas

Masonry Magic: 15 Ways to Trick Out Your Exposed Brick Wall

Add a modern and decorative twist to the traditional and age-old exposed brick walls inside your home

Rebecca Gross

May 11, 2016

Houzz Australia Contributor based in Sydney. Design historian, writer and researcher. I study cultural history through the lens of architecture, design and visual culture. I have a Masters in the History of Decorative Arts and Design from Parsons The New School for Design, New York

While interior brick walls often convey a sense of history, that certainly doesn't mean they can't also be elegant and contemporary. If you're looking for ways of covering interior brick walls, consider applying a variety of techniques and effects, choosing complementary colours and materials, or revealing and preserving their character, which can serve to make them stand-out features of a room. Here are 15 tricks that can transform masonry from mundane to magical.

1. Create a textured contrast
A raw and irregular wall of bricks can create a rustic contrast in a modern bathroom that features an assortment of smooth, plain and patterned tiles. The black, white and grey colour palette in this bathroom not only keeps it looking elegant, but also ties the ensemble together.

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3. Limewash it
Limewash is a breathable coating that offers a soft, porous finish. The interior brick wall in this home is a continuation of the exterior wall, and the limewash serves to soften the red brick inside. "This result took two coats. Each coat increased the 'whiteness' of the brick wall," explains Tim Gibbs at Petro Builders.

4. Play with size and layout
This dark and rustic brick wall has a course of Roman bricks – which are 50 millimetres high – every fourth course of standard bricks – which are 76 millimetres high – adding subtle detail and further texture to the wall.

"Brick is such a rich material," says architect Karen Ognibene of Arkhefield, who used Brickworks Building Products. "Brick was a way of bringing the landscape into the house and it gave an enhanced texture without adding another material to the palette."

5. Frame a section
Only a section of the original brickwork is exposed in this house, due to some of it being damaged. The surrounding white wall frames the brick background, which also serves as a great place to hang timber geometric-shaped shelves.

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6. Offer a sneak peek
The vast majority of the brick walls in this living space have been painted solid white, except a circle that offers a sneak peek of the recycled clay bricks that form the structure of the home. The brick circle becomes, in a way, a piece of artwork and eliminates the need for wall decoration.

7. Build dividing walls
This innovative home pays homage to the iconic Australian wool shed. Winning the 2011 Building Designers Association of Victoria award for Most Innovative Use of Brick, it features recycled brick walls that divide interior space and offer thermal mass.

8. Whitewash them…
More opaque than a limewash, whitewashing or painting an exposed brick wall can certainly serve to change the colour, look and mood of a room. A whitewashed brick wall has a level of coverage that reveals subtle tones of the brick's original colour and has the added advantage of helping brighten up interiors.

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…Or paint them black
A solid black-painted wall adds depth and luxury to a living space, and covers up a wall that might have been built with an unsightly choice of brick from a bygone era. By teaming with light-toned upholstery and blonde-wood furniture, the effect is not only quite striking but also elevates the atmosphere in the room, especially if there is not a lot of light.

9. Layer the bricks for contrast
An exposed brick wall serves as a splashback in this industrial-style kitchen. Additionally, the bricks have been layered to protrude and recede, creating contrast, texture and shadow.

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10. Highlight its history
This contemporary house was once a boot maker's shop (built in 1962) and the evidence still exists today. The remnants of a painted sign features on one of the original brick walls alongside the staircase.

11. Preserve its wear and tear
The nine -metre-high brick party wall in this Edwardian terrace has been preserved behind the central staircase – it still bears the marks of the former fireplace.

Take a tour around the rest of this house

12. Mimic the shape of the bricks
These 1970s bricks have an elongated, horizontal profile and so too do the bathroom fixtures attached to the wall, including the vanity, recessed shelf and mirror. Black and white frames and surfaces stand out against the warm orange brick.

13. Mix it up
The interior walls of this mid-century brick house feature a distinctive mixture of salvaged bricks and coloured, glazed bricks. The salvaged bricks were roughly cleaned, leaving many of the pre-existing marks for effect. "The kids had drawn on some of them over time, so it was lovely to see some of that as part of the wall," says project designer Anja Michelzahn .

15. Use colour-contrasting mortar
A brick wall can look more contemporary with mortar that is contrasting (yet complementary) to the brick. Here, a light-coloured mortar ties in the white wall and contrasts with the deep red and brown bricks.

Your turn
Do you have a modern and decorative exposed brick wall in your house? Tell us in the Comments below, like this story, save your favourite images and join the conversation.

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