Hi ladies, I am remodeling my kitchen which has antique brick on one wall. It would look fantastic as the backdrop to my range (with range hood). But it seems impractical as a backsplash. My builder says just seal it every two years and scrub it when it needs it. Anyone have brick in their kitchen and how is it to keep clean?
Another proposal is to cover it with glass (the industrial kind, like range hoods are made out of, with a spacer to hold the glass away from the brick). But my builder is worried about grease and steam getting behind it. It will be difficult to set countertop against it too, because of the space between bricks. So I'm wondering if brick is just used as a backdrop in furnishing catalogs and not in "real kitchens.' Does anyone have experience with this?
My mom has brick behind her stove.
She does not cook as much as she used to. But we do get some hearty and messy holiday dinners going on there every so often.
Don't think it has ever been a problem.
I'll try and get back to you on that.
Her brick is very old and uneven too.
Hi K.,
You would probably have to get heat tempered glass too, so the heat doesn't affect the glass.
I had the red brick in my kitchen behind the stove years ago in a townhouse. It was already there when I purchased the townhouse. I never tried to seal it, but I finally painted it in a gloss, so I could clean it. I was sad to cover the pretty red brick, but I had to keep it clean. It did work, but like I said, I hated to paint it.
I rented a house downtown with a brick wall in the kitchen behind the range. It did tend to get a little greasy and dusty if I didnt keep up on it. I just scrubbed it down with a scrub brush and dishwashing liquid when it needed it. Sealing is really easy and only takes a few minutes. I would definitely avoid the glass barrier - part of the appeal is the brick's texture.
My last house had the fake bricks around the stove. They were the kind that are flat on the back and only about 1/2 inch thick. We never had any problems with it, and it looked good. I wouldn't want to put glass over the brick if there was a space in between. I can see how all kinds of flies and bugs would get in there and there would be no way to remove them. I know you would probably try to seal them real good, but those buggers have a way of finding all kinds of tiny spots to get in.
In several houses.
LOVE it.
My two favorites have been unsealed (but the house was 200 years old... 200 years of cooking had given the bricks a "sealing" of oil and smoke that left them as lusterous and smooth as pearls, but were anything but oily to the touch... just wiped them with a damp rag), and sealed with DARK mortar (light mortar shows stains).
If you hid them behind glass... it would become a greasy, impossible to clean, nightmare.
