Kitchen Countertops, Painted Cabinets, Brick Backsplash, Inner Sunset, San Francisco, 2018

The goal for this Inner Sunset kitchen was to brighten the room. The counters went from dark granite to soapstone, and the cabinets were slated to be painted white. The project was eventually scaled back, and our part became the piece that sets the tone: a brick backsplash.

Real brick, sliced thin

This isn’t imitation brick. These were reclaimed bricks shipped from New York, turned into veneer by slicing the faces off real brick with a masonry saw, about a half inch thick, one veneer from each side of a brick. That’s what gives a brick backsplash its credibility: every face has a century of character that no molded panel can fake. It’s the kind of detail people feel before they can name it. The veneers were set in mortar, with even spacing left between them for the joints.

Why the grout bag is the only way

Filling the joints is where brick backsplashes go wrong. With tile, you spread grout across the face and wipe it off. You can’t do that with old brick. Its surface is porous and rough, and grout that touches the face stays there, staining it permanently. Knifing or troweling mortar into the joints, even with special brick-pointing tools, puts mortar on the face sooner or later.

The only clean way is a grout bag: a piping bag, like a pastry bag, that fills each joint from the tip without touching the brick. Once the mortar firms up, the joints are tooled smooth and the loose crumbs brushed off. It’s slow, careful work, joint by joint, and it’s the difference between brick that looks laid and brick that looks smeared.

Getting the color right

If you want the bright, bleached look of whitewashed brick, don’t use gray mortar. Gray joints pull the whole wall darker and muddier. A light mortar lets the brick read clean and makes the kitchen feel brighter, which was the point. Color theory applies to mortar joints as much as to paint: the joint is a grid of lines across the whole wall, and its color sets the tone for everything around it.

Thinking about a backsplash? See what we install, or send photos for an estimate.