PSA: Saw a neighbor in Cleveland fake a brick wall with a $30 sponge and joint compound
Stopped by my aunt's place on West 25th in Cleveland over the weekend and her neighbor was out front working on his porch wall. He had a bucket of joint compound, a sea sponge, and a paint tray, nothing else. He spread the mud thin, dabbed the sponge in a brick pattern, let it dry, then washed on three shades of red-brown paint with a rag. Whole wall cost him about $30 and a Saturday, and from the sidewalk it fools you until you get within a foot of it. Has anyone here tried this on an interior wall, and did the texture hold up over time?
My buddy Dave did this exact sponge trick on his kitchen wall back in 2019 and it looked GREAT for about a year. Problem was he used it behind the stove and the steam plus grease from cooking turned those fake bricks into a greasy mess you could not wipe down without smearing the paint. He ended up covering the whole thing with beadboard after two years. The other thing nobody mentions is that joint compound soaks up moisture like crazy, so in a bathroom or kitchen you would need to seal it with a few coats of poly or it will crumble. Out on a porch in Cleveland it holds up better because it gets airflow and the rain never really hits it direct under an overhang. Indoors in a dry hallway or bedroom it would probably last ages. Just do NOT put it where water or grease can get at it.