Painting my brick & concrete patio
Trusting the process – a color choice journey. Let’s see where I ended up.
Ya’ll know by now I am unfiltered DIY. I swear it feels like things never go according to plan, I make big mistakes, but it always turns out ok. DIY is full of learning, trying it again (sometimes after reading the instructions), and then doing the best with what you have! Let’s get into how I took on painting my brick patio and staining the concrete floor.
prep prep prep
With any paint project, there is the dreaded prep. I cleaned the whole patio and brick with a pressure washer! Waited and waited for it to dry. Then masked off the windows and covered the floor, which felt like overkill, but I didn’t want to pressure wash again. This took me three hours! Glad I had my TV on wheels, which coincidentally also has a battery charge of three hours. Found that out today.
Let’s mention the supplies
Priming the brick…i barely survived
I said to myself “Hey, let’s paint the brick, it’ll be pretty easy with a sprayer!” Well, it was actually the opposite of easy. I used a new paint sprayer, it was the Graco Magnum X5. It is supposed to be great for masonry. *Insert me not doing my homework to know if this was the best sprayer* So here we are priming the brick, the sprayer left visible lines and frequently got clogged, making the process frustrating and time-consuming. I knew it was either the tip, the paint was too thick or I had the wrong sprayer. After trying to troubleshoot and fix the issues, I decided to switch gears and rely on good old-fashioned manual labor—rolling the paint onto the brick wall. Love that I spent hours of my life prepping for spraying when I could have been rolling and painting. This was one of those nights where my expectations got the best of me. Moral of the story – the paint was too thick for my paint sprayer but it will definitely work with my masonry paint!
Time for some brick painting – the actual color!
Ok new day, got some rest. Got to work with the actual brick color! Persistence paid off as the brick wall gradually transformed before my eyes. However, during the application, I realized that the Boothbay Grey shade, initially mixed at 50%, appeared lighter than expected.
I quickly made the decision to apply a second coat at full strength, with Boothbay Grey color in its pure form. This adjustment gave the brick wall the depth and richness I had envisioned from the start but truth be told I’m still not sold on it.
And then… WHY ARE COLOR CHOICES SO HARD??
I had such a DIFFICULT TIME deciding colors even though I had the designs from Yardzen. (above) Which you can get your own design done too. Here is the website! Use code LOOP100 for $100 off! It is really nice to be able to bounce ideas & results off of the designers as the project develops.
Sometimes colors feel different in real life. I was trying to get the feel for the Boothbay grey brick alongside the pavers (not yet installed) and tying it all into the stain for the concrete. You can see my decision dilemma below…
staining the concrete patio
For the concrete I used Valspar Concrete Stain solid color in the color Driftwood, using a roller and a stain brush. *watch it here* The roller allowed for quick coverage on the larger areas, while the brush allowed me to reach the corners and edges. I used 4 1/2 gallons of stain, and it did take two coats. The second application made a big difference, the extra effort was well worth it. I plan to seal it even though the directions say I don’t need to just to make it last. Not really any hiccups on this step. Thank goodness. I needed a little win.
Glad this is over, on to the next
Despite the initial setback with the paint sprayer and the labor-intensive rolling process for the brick wall, the end results were worth the effort. I also added some new lights and ceiling fans! The fans are the Hunter Havoc Outdoor LED Ceiling Fan. You can check out the blog about the installation here! They really updated the space, the black pops against the brick and the fans provide light and a MUCH NEEDED breeze!
Some more exciting projects are on the schedule for this backyard makeover! Make sure to follow along on Instagram to see what I come up with next!
But if you want to recap: