What a transformation our guest room has had! Above is a Before shot, clearly. An adequate space for guests to sleep - but completely uninspiring. I think it's fair to say it had no character.  

The room has come a long long way. And one of our goals, along with making our guests feel welcome and comfortable, was to add layers of texture and interest to this supremely boring space. We've achieved a lot through our other basement makeover projects: Click here to check them out!

In this case, the plan called for starting with the most difficult part to make sure things looked good. 

We used cut-off pieces from the bookcase backing to cover a duct box. At this point, it was an experiment, but the planning rules still hold: 

Look at the sections you are using and line up the bricks like they would be on a real wall section. 

This means 'half' bricks are ends and should meet 'full' bricks on any outside corners. 

Now for the fun part... Drywall compound like you're partially plastered. 

Don't skimp on the compound up that middle seam, then drag it out in various random directions to look like an old wall. When complete, you can use your sculpting skills to make the seam bricks look connected or simply obscure everything. It's art!

Lightly sand, prime, finish paint and you're done!

[Psst! You may also like to check out our basement closet turned powder room renovation... You can check it out here!]

Here's how it turned out... Pretty fantastic, am I right?!

For even more before and after photos, and more detailed instructions, head on over to the blog for the full post!