Painting the Brick backsplash in the kitchen! Yay!

Redoing a kitchen is just so time consuming! And very expensive.... Plus it's in your face Iike ever day saying, please help me! I need a face lift! Make me beautiful! I'm like.. I hear you kitchen.. I want to help! But on a budget...

So here is the lovely fake brick backsplash... Isn't  it just ...ugly?.. Lol. After brightening the cabinets with the Linen color we decided to lighten up the 70's fake brick with the the dark mortar. Here is an up close picture:

 

If we had it in our budget I would of loved a beautiful glass subway tile or maybe more metal tiles... But having to keep our cost low I thought, "You know this fake brick.. If painted with high gloss paint... Could look like glass tile." Well, sort of. First thing I did was look up how to paint brick on Pinterest ... Like everyone else in the world.. Then I went to my local paint supplie store and asked some questions. This is what I learned: 1. Cleaning the brick really good is a must... Especially in between inside the mortar. 2. Use a oil based primer first so the paint will stick. Just open up all your windows cause it really, really stinks..even the no odder one. 3. Use a crappy cheap brush on the mortar... Because it's ruff it will destroy the brush. 4. You can use small smooth roller on the actual brick area... But you should only do and area at a time so that you paint the mortar and before that dries you roll the paint on the brick. 5. Repeat as many times as needed! Until you get the look you want.... Oh and if you want an easy cleaning then, paint should be high gloss.

I cleaned the brick with an old rag and some hot soap and water.  After it dried I used Zinnger oil based primer tinted in the color I need... Here it is:

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When that dried I painted with my chosen linen color...yes like my cabinets... Until I got the finish like I wanted like this:

Here is what it looks like all together in my kitchen....

 So much better! Don't you think so?? The cost of this project was really just the quart paint :$11 and the paint $10.. We already had the tape so we were good to go! 

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