Look: The brownstone brick has a strong red/orange tone to it, but it gives the beautiful NYC loft vibes I was hoping for. It certainly makes a room very dark so good lighting and bright accents are nice to liven up the space unless dark and moody is what you’re going for.
Quality: The bricks are molded and painted/printed which for the most part you couldn’t even tell. Some bricks had the paint settings misaligned as you could see grey on the brick and red on the grout. It was sparse enough we hung it anyway and you can’t tell unless you’re close up to it.
Installation: I live in an extremely warm climate so I used the tape (which was surprisingly very strong) plus a few staples for good measure. That brick isn’t going anywhere! I hung large artwork and heavy metal rods on the brick but made sure to drill behind the brick and into the studs to secure the items.
I also tackled the challenge of doing 3 walls with 2 corners and an arch window. Honestly, I bought the grout recommended, Mapei Keracaulk S Sanded Caulking (Gray) and it was way too dark! It looked terrible so we just left the gaps. The wall is busy enough it looked better having some shadow gaps VS darker grout. For the window we installed close-ish to the curve and took a router saw and traced the archway. It looks beautiful (but messy! Bring in that shop vac!!)
The open edge wall and arch window have the exposed wood edge and the way the bricks fit together it honestly looks so good we just left it.
Smell: heads up.. they smell! The smell definitely goes away after about a week of being on the wall, but it will remind you of sawdust for a while.
I think If I had to do it again I would only do 1 or 2 walls or even the ceiling. 3 is too busy especially since all the brick lines don’t match up perfectly. Most people don’t notice, but que my OCD.. I do!