Faux-ny Baloney Week, Day 1: Faux Bricks

Okay, folks, welcome to "Faux-ny Baloney Week"!  The topic du jour: faux bricks.

When I said I might put you, my dear readers, through something like this the other day, I was only kidding.  But today I woke up wondering what to blog about, and  I thought, "Why not?"  I have so often found inspiration for DIY home decor projects from watching home improvement shows like TLC's "Trading Spaces" or reading women's magazine articles; and blogs are like on-line magazines for the modern age, in a way.  So I just thought I'd spend this week, Monday through Friday, showing you some of the creative things I've done around my house--whether to add a touch of whimsy or to save money with faux finishes instead of having to replace things that are tired and worn-out--and possibly inspiring you in the process.  My mantra is, "This is my house, and I'm going to decorate it any way I want!"  I have fun with my house, and I love it in all its whimsical glory...all the while realizing that if we had to sell our home, most women who came in to look at it would be somewhat horrified by my decorating "style" (and I use the term loosely).  But my house is not for future buyers; it's for my family and me to enjoy in the here and now, right?

Okay, now that I've set up the premise for this week's blog posts, let's get down to business.  I'm not going to cover faux granite (having just done that in Saturday's post); today I'm going to discuss faux bricks, a favorite go-to decorating theme of mine.  I've talked about them before, but I'm going to talk about them again.  Yes, I love faux bricks that much.

Shortly after we moved into our house almost 22 years ago, we noticed that there were vertical cracks in the wallboard above some of the doorways--the result of the house settling, we assumed.  For many years, I tried to patch and spackle those cracks, hoping to hide them from view, but none of my efforts made a difference.  Then about 10 years ago, after seeing one of the designers on "Trading Spaces" do a paint treatment on the walls that was supposed to look like exposed sections of old and weathered bricks, I decided that I would work with those cracks rather than against them: I decided to paint my own version of "exposed bricks" over the cracks, and--voila!--turned a structural minus into a decorating plus!

In the kitchen, over the doorway to the basement.

Upstairs, over the door to a bedroom once shared by my three youngest boys.

In the family room.  (There was no crack in the wallboard to hide here; I just got carried away.)

So what do you think?  If my house was on the market, and you came to check it out and saw these faux bricks all over the place, would you immediately turn to your spouse and whisper, "The first thing we're going to do after we move in is paint over those bricks!"?

I understand, believe me I do.  And I won't hold that against you.  But I love my faux-ny bricks.