Curbly

I wonder if there's a quicker way to do this, I have a huge piece of concrete I would love to dress up.

For a patio, it would work great!

I have seen this done using a square sponge.  The sponge gives you the holes and divits like brick.  Use concrete stain  and perhaps darken the edges of each brick with a small pouncer brush as you go.

Love this idea!  I might try a small sidewalk.  I know that whatever you use there will be fading, even with sealer.  I had my pool deck done about 4 years ago and had brick professionally painted around the edge of the pool.  It looked great but did fade.  It will have to be repainted at some point, but the look is worth the work!

Uh, the bricks aren't driving by obviously.  hahaha.  It will look more realistic to people in cars driving by.  

And, forgot to mention, I stained my back patio a terra cotta color and sealed it. It looked beautiful for about 4 years.  It is fading now, but I think with another coat of sealer, and periodic reapplications of sealer, it would have continued to be beautiful.  Adding another coat of sealer every 2 or 3 years is much easier than having to repaint all those bricks.  And yes, it was special paint made for concrete/cement.

I love this and I think it would be even more realistic if you took the roller and ripped little pieces out of it, not a lot, but varying the size of the chunks to give it a more mottled appearance when applied, like a real brick.

Also, you know those sprinkly chips they use on epoxy garage floor paints?  Some little flaky chips of a color of your choosing, not overly done, but just a sprinkle, would also give the bricks more realism, especially driving by on the road.  

If you wanted to add even more realism to these, you could take a darker color than your brick, a shade or two, and sort of faux paint shadows on the edge of the bricks, making sure you just do two sides to give it the look of the sun and shadow.

I am so doing this this year.

Joyce - I love the idea of using a stain/sponge instead!  No worries about it flaking off--brilliant!

I did this to a concrete walk and porch. It turned out great. Instead of using paint and a roller I used stain and a sponge. With the stain I didn't have to worry about the paint pealing. It did fade some after a couple of years but was easy to redo.

Awesome. Good luck, Christina!

I love this idea. I am doing this today in my kitchen. Looks easy and I love to paint...so I believe it will go fast and be easy to do. I am going to do it free hand. Love it!

Tiffani, I know there are special paints available for concrete and outdoor patios, but a sealer would probably not be a bad idea!

It looks really cute, but I worry about how it wold hold up with long term usage and foot traffic along with the weather... Hmm Is there a special paint needed, or maybe a sealer???

Becky, I think concrete / patio paint would probably work!

Do you need concrete paint? Or outdoor paint? I would love to do this on our little walk and steps up to our front door.

This is such a neat idea, though I am curious as to how the paint would fair in the weather, too.

Looks cool

I like how hers looks but wonder how well regular paint would hold up to weather. When I bought my house last year I looked into acid washing concrete and it's truly remarkable what can be done with it to create either a faux brick or rock look or to create a marble appearance. I don't think my HOA would allow anything like it in the front yard but I may do something fun with my back patio.