I would like to paint or stain our poured concrete basement walls. They are in a "brick" molded pattern and I would like them to look like real brick to give the basement a "loft" look. Any suggestions on what to use to give the poured concrete some texture? Should I use some kind of stain rather than paint?

I did a search and found your question on this forum--- I have the same question and wondered if you had ever completed your project and could give me any tips.... Our basement walls are poured to look like brick but I would like them to be a red, like old brick.. .any ideas? Thanks!

I would post this the painting folder.

http://www.bobvila.com/BBS/Paint_Paper_and_Plaster-1-C8.html

But this is how I would trackle something like this.

Get an water based concrete stain.

Get a dark red, black, white, and gray.

Get a small 3 or 4" roller. Randomly use it to stain a brick or 1/2 a brick with the black. Then repeat different bricks with a black red.

And again with white and maybe a white/red mix.

Then using a full size roller go over it with the dark red. the idea is that it will tint everything red, but that the other colors will show through.

I have no idea of how well that will work. And there is probably no place that you can experiment with unless you that you will later be covering up a wall. So so a few samples down at the bottom where it is less noticeable.

Just work on getting the face painted.

Then using a brush go over all the "joints" with gray.