Top Faux Brick Wallpapers under £15

So as my living room makeover has been completed, my mind turns to the next couple of rooms that I want to work on.  These are the hallway and office, but first – the kitchen.

For the kitchen I’m clear on what I want to do (unlike my previous trauma on the living room, which you’ll remember clearly!).  I know I want to have a little bit of an industrial feel (but not too themey) – and it needs to be a cheap makeover after the cost of the living room! So I’m looking for wallpapers under £15 a roll as I’ll need 5 or so in the kitchen.

I’ve already decided I’d like to have some brick wallpaper on the walls.  It’s funny, what goes around comes around.  I have a picture from the mid-80’s in our South London flat with an electric bar fire and naff surround – and yes, red brick wallpaper.  Perhaps my Mum was well ahead of the trend!

I’ve had brick wallpaper before – in our last house (a Victorian Semi) we had to completely gut the dining room, we were back to the actual brick but it was in such poor condition we had to bond, and re-skim the whole room.  So I decided to get some red brick wallpaper for the chimney breast.  It was the Hemingway Brick paper by Graham & Brown and very realistic, and it looked great.  There was great texture and depth in it and when we were selling the house all those viewing it had to go up and touch it to see if it was real!  Here’s an old photo of how it looked:

In the kitchen I want to keep the light, white feeling and so I’m going to go with white brick.  I’ve had half a dozen samples in the post and they’re of differing quality and colours (some have more black or grey on them to make them appear more realistic).

I also want to keep the wallpaper reasonably neutral as my new upcycled sideboard from the wonderful MuckNBrass has to take centre stage!  For those who haven’t seen my brilliant sideboard it’s all over my Instagram, but for your viewing pleasure, here’s another photo!

So I thought I’d round up some brick wallpapers for you to take a look at if you’re thinking about it as well.  So in no particular order:

First up is the underwhelmingly named ‘Realistic Brick Wallpaper’ from Graham and Brown.  Despite the naff name it’s actually a quite realistic wallpaper and is neither too dark or too light for the design.  It does what it says on the tin (roll) and at only £15 a roll, it’s good value.

Photo Credit: Graham and Brown

Next up is a selection of wallpapers from Albany, who have a wide range of brick papers on the Wallpaper Direct website.  They have bricks in grey, white, red, white with graffiti art and more.  You can get industrial looking bricks, stones or breezeblocks, or just plain old uniform bricks.  They are all great prices (largely in the £9-15 range at time of writing) and all look fairly good.  However, some of the white ones are perhaps either too grey or too white for my liking.  If I’m going to have white brick wallpaper, I want to at least see the bricks, and some are too grey when I want white.  (I’m never pleased!).

From L-R below, ‘Brick Effect’, ‘White Brick’ and ‘Metallic Brick’.  This shows the different types and shades on the white and grey scale.  The one of the left, ‘Brick Effect’ has a lovely modern uniformity to it but if you’re looking for industrial, you might be best picking the ‘White Brick’ as it has a little rustic battered feel to it.  If you prefer something less obvious, the ‘Metallic Brick’ might be your best bet.

Photo Credit: Wallpaper Direct

You can also get a great range of coloured brick and painted brick effects too, should the white not be to your taste.  Here’s a couple of options.  If you’re a fan of the dark side and want a little bit of dark texture in your life then these two are great options.  On the left, ‘Industry Noir’ from Wilko (£13) and on the right, ‘Rustic Brick’ from I Love Wallpaper (£7) – I really like both of these, they both have a little edgy feel to them.

Photo Credit: Left – Wilko and Right – I Love Wallpaper

If you want to go a little more edgy with your Faux Brick wall then how about looking at different types of stone or even breeze blocks?

I’m not sure I could get away with the breeze block look myself  – the paper on the left below is from Graham and Brown (£13) and looks very realistic – if you live in a loft or older home you might well make it work.  Similarly, the rustic stone look would look great if you lived in the country and wanted that farmhouse feel.  This rustic stone one below is from Arthouse at Wallpaper Direct and is £10.99 a roll.

Photo Credit: Left – Graham and Brown and Right – Wallpaper Direct

So that’s my round up – so far my personal favourite is the first one, but I’ll continue to order some samples and put them up around the kitchen to see how they look.  I shall of course, keep you posted!

Will you be embracing the Brick trend?