Faux Fireplace Overmantel Makeover with Faux Brick Paneling

I never thought I would find myself to be a fan of faux brick paneling, but I’ve now actually used it on several occasions, most recently for my Faux Fireplace Overmantel Makeover. It ended up being a really inexpensive way to transform the area over my fireplace mantel, and make it look a little more like it belongs there!

(This post is sponsored by HomeRight, opinions are entirely my own. This post also contains affiliate links)

I have to be honest, when I had the idea for this project, I had no idea what the area was called over the mantel. Of course it’s “overmantel”, which should seem obvious, but took a little googling to find out. We recently added the rustic faux box mantel, and it gave our faux fireplace an instant upgrade. Of course, after we did that, I knew something felt like it was missing. I decided I really wanted to finish off that area, and I liked the idea of continuing the faux brick.

At Home Depot, I bought a huge sheet of 4 x8 faux brick paneling. It was the biggest piece I could get. I had them cut it down to the size I needed in the store for my project. Knowing that that was the biggest width (so the bricks ran the correct way was 48 inches), I decided to use 1 x 4’s to trim it out on each side to make it roughly 8 inches wider, and give it a little more presence. You can see how I also used faux brick here.

Once I had a good “dry fit”, I pulled it down, attached it together with brackets on the back, and painted it with the HomeRight Quick Painter, which I love for smaller projects and edging… I even used it to paint my bathroom.

Once it was edged, I used the HomeRight PaintStick EZ-Twist to paint the rest of the paneling. I love that I can load the paint right in the stick, and there is a splash guard for any stray splatter. It’s that time of year where I have to paint inside in my main kitchen area on a tarp, and the less mess and clean up, the better.

Once the paint was dry, I screwed the brick into the wall, and patched any holes, and areas around the panel. We also pre-drilled the hole in the paneling where the mirror would hang into the wall anchor(The overmantel is just decorative, and anything hanging needs to get anchored directly into the wall.)

The total cost was about $25 for a full panel sheet, and $8 for the wood on the sides. I think for a faux fireplace makeover, this has a lot of impact!

With the faux brick overmantel makeover, It seems like it has a lot more weight and permanence to it, and I still have the remnants of the leftover brick paneling to use on another project!