How to German Schmear (Smear) Your Brick!

A black front door. That’s where this all started. I knew I wanted to paint my door black, but was that enough? My porch needed a serious overhaul, I hated the red brick and that ugly storm door. But do I lime wash the brick? Paint it? What’s German schmear? I stayed up ALL. Night. Long. I read up on every possible way to update my brick, and I ultimately went with what I thought looked more authentic. And here you have “German Schmear” aka “German Smear”. Read on to find out how I did it!

Disclosure: The links provided may be affiliate links. That means by shopping these links, we make a small commission at no extra cost to you! We only promote what we actually use. :)

This technique is pretty much fool-proof. I bought this stuff right here —-> WHITE THIN SET MORTAR Whatever kind you get, make sure it’s white (it will look gray when wet, but dries white). I mixed about half the bag with water until it didn’t drip off the mixing stick. I had to add more thin set like three times. When you think you have it thick enough, you probably don’t, just sayin’. The problem with it being too watery is it will be runny, and you don’t want that.

Wet your brick with a hose or a wet sponge before you start. It will allow your thin-set to be touched up as you go. It won’t set or dry as quickly.

I read a lot of tutorials and some of them said to put on gloves and use your hands, some said to use a spackle knife, but what I found to work best was a GROUT TROWEL #affiliatelink. That little bit of rubber was SO much better than a hard, straight spackle knife, and my fingers just weren’t doing the trick. I started in the joints with quite a bit, mushed it in to fill as much as possible, and feathered it lightly towards the center of the bricks. I would put more or less wherever I thought it needed it. I wanted texture. I wanted randomness. An irregular pattern, not perfection.

Almost all of the tutorials I read used a wet sponge to blend. I did NOT. I actually tried it in the top corner before I went too far, and I did not like the look. It looked cloudy. It was too much white. I was losing that texture I wanted, that contrast in colors, that authentic look, if you will.

BEFORE AND AFTER

Guys. That’s it. Done. Let it dry. This project probably took me about 6 hours, I would guess that an average size fireplace would take about 4/5 hours.

We got the new front door and painted it black, got rid of the old storm door, and I painted our bench to match the door. Isn’t it so much better? And totally easy and affordable!

Love it? Pin it!

PS.. we also made that planter box with our house number. If you’d like a tutorial for that, let us know!