DIY GERMAN SMEAR/MORTAR WASH

I am a big fan of HGTV's Fixer Upper and loved all the transformations Joanna and Chip have done. I absolutely fell in love with the technique they were using on the bricks in their shows.

We have a 1978 ranch that we are renovating one room at the time. The first step was our family room remodel. You can see the before and after here.

I did a german smear/mortar wash technique to our fireplace and 2 other brick walls in our family room.

Check out the video and steps below:

A big THANKS to my daughter, Little Mouse, for the video filming and editing!

The first step was mixing the mortar.

I used 1 bag of TEC Skill Set Porcelain 50-lb White Powder Polymer-Modified Thinset Mortar from Lowe's.

I mixed a small portion at a time of the mortar with water just enough that it was the consistency of pancake batter. Not to wet and not to dry.

I used gloves and starting smearing the mortar on the bricks randomly leaving some spaces where I did wanted the bricks to still show.

The next day I used H&C CLARISHIELD Water-Based Wet Look Concrete Sealer from Sherwin Williams. This product enhanced more of the original brick and somewhat sealed it with a wet look. It really doesn't look wet. This phase was applied in the last part of the video. It truly made the difference.

The overall project wasn't hard and didn't take very long, but it was a little messy. I am very happy with the results and it surely brightened up the room!!