One of my top questions is our interior brick arch and fireplace. So I’m sharing the things I learned and discovered that will hopefully be helpful to you.
On the Search
During the search process of our interior brick, I had an extremely hard time finding what I was looking for. Brick on our exterior and interior became a nightmare. I had my vision in my head, but had a hard time finding it. I had my heart set on reclaimed old Chicago brick, but our local brick co. did not have the color scheme I was looking for which was browns, reds and whites. The hubby and I was walking over the brick yard and just happen to stumble across the perfect color. It was called Used Florala. I googled to see if I could find any pics or info on it, but had no luck .
Cleaning off the nasty
We decided anyway to take a chance and go with it. When it arrived it was covered with moss growing on it and lots of dirt. We brought the bricks inside and began cleaning/scrubbing them with bleach and water. Oh my goodness! What a chore that was, but I could not imagine putting bricks up that dirty. The colors seemed to be really Bold especially after cleaning them. I had bright/dark reds, oranges, brown, dark purplish and my favorite was the bricks that has been painted white. I could only imagine the history behind them and what building they came off of. Honestly the boldness in color was a little scary in the beginning.
Mortar is important
The next decision which I already knew was mortar color. This is a BIG decision because believe it or not it totally affects what your brick will look like. I went with a white mortar and let me just say, the sand color that you mix with your white mortar is HUGE!!!!! You want the whitest sand you can possibly find. Like beach white. Yes, I learned that the hard way on our exterior brick.
The Joint Decision
Next, you pick what kind of joint you want. There are several kinds, but I wanted a flat joint. This is where the mortar and brick is a smooth transition. When our brick mason started laying them. He picked the best side of the brick to face out. Being they are reclaimed you do have chips and pieces missing on some.
After laying each one he would his trial and scrape off the excess off the brick to give it a cohesive look and after laying a few courses he would get a rag and go back and rub it across the brick and mortar to give it the lightly smeared look.
Final Result
I was happy with the end result,because I got the softness of color and overall look I had envisioned for our interior brick arch and fireplace When building every detail has to be thought out. Who knew that it takes so many little decisions to get this look. Brick color, mortar color, sand color, and what type of joint and then if you want a smear. It’s definitely a learning curve and stressful, but always worth see it all come together in the end.
