Red brick is one of the most iconic design materials in Chicago

During America’s golden ages of construction – in the late 19^th century, the “roaring twenties” and following World War II – huge quantities of red brick were used to build towering structures in major cities across America.

Perhaps nowhere was the use of red brick more prevalent than the Windy City, Chicago; where brick offered the perfect insulation against the bitter Illinois winters.

Today, as glass and steel become the building materials of choice, a thriving business in reclaiming red brick from demolished buildings has emerged; re-purposing these reclaimed building materials for use in the home, garden and for interior design.

The appeal of reclaimed brick is obvious. Beautifully imperfect – with color and texture earned through decades of exposure to the sun, wind and rain – reclaimed brick adds an instant air of timeless solidity to any surface it’s used on.

However, even though this brick is “reclaimed”, it remains a fairly expensive material to use and is labor-intensive to install correctly. Some walls may even need to be reinforced to mount reclaimed brick because of its weight.

That’s why FauxPanels.com recently added some great new products to the lineup intended to offer an affordable, easy-to-use alternative to reclaimed brick.

Their two new Regency panel designs, Old Chicago Brick and Regency Contempo, are both inspired by the beautiful brick surfaces found in historic American cities like Chicago. The brick veneer panels are stunningly realistic, because each design was molded from the authentic brick face itself; perfectly capturing every detail in tough, light and durable molded polyurethane.

Regency Old Chicago Brick perfectly captures the look and feel of reclaimed brick

These panels even offer an improvement on the authentic; that they’re are available in a variety of intricately rendered colors and hues perfectly matching whatever project you intend to use them for. You can also order them Class A Fire Rated, which makes them ideal for use as fireplace surrounds and on chimneys.

We’re already receiving before and after pictures of home design projects our customers have accomplished using our new Regency panels – keep checking back with Creative Faux Panels and we’ll post them soon. In the meantime, if you decide to add a little old Americana to your interior or exterior walls with our new Regency brick panels, don’t hesitate to send us all the details, at info@fauxpanels.com.

New Lines and Styles

	Cambridge Panels
	Carlton Fieldstone
	Nailon Stone Wall Siding
	Raised Grain Panels
	Wellington River Rock Panels
	Windsor Random Rock Mailbox
	Woodland Panels
	Universal Accessories

New Colors for Old Favorites

New color choices were added to the ever-popular Carlton and Norwich lines, making it even easier to find the right faux panels for your design project, indoors or out. Harvest, Desert Sky, and Smoke are now available on Carlton’s Cobblestone, Ledgestone, and Castle Rock styles, while Norwich’s Colorado Stacked Stone is now available in Toasted Vanilla.

Ledgestone in Harvest

Cobblestone in Desert Sky

Castle Rock in Smoke

Stacked Stone in Toasted Vanilla

To see all the new customer projects, head over to our photo gallery and testimonials pages which just keep getting bigger! We hope the best for you in 2011 and can’t wait to see what you can accomplish with Faux Panels this year.

Mailbox Troubles?

Has your mailbox been the victim of a rousing game of mailbox baseball? Or has it met its maker from a snowplow assault? Or maybe it’s just become rusty or discolored and is now an eye sore on your property.

Faux Stone May Be Your Answer

The new Windsor Random Rock faux stone mailbox column provides you with an opportunity to add instant curb appeal with its look of real stone in three strikingly realistic colors and easy DIY installation. The polyurethane material has a rugged durability that will stand up to abuse from severe weather, moisture and pests, and also is compliant with federal crash regulations.

Solar Lighting Too?

The coolest part about this mailbox? It comes with a free solar panel kit that absorbs sunlight during the day and then lights it up all night. The actual mailbox and flag are also included so there’s no need to hunt around for a mailbox to fit – it’s all in one!

Expand the Design Possibilities

If you’re happy with your mailbox column, you may also want to expand on your design with Windsor Random Rock exterior siding or driveway columns in coordinating colors. Take a look through the photo gallery and see what other homeowners have come up with.

We write a lot here about faux brick and stone veneer, but let’s not forget faux wood panels. And while we’re at it, let’s not forget other coordinating faux wood materials like beams and corbels — which you can find at our sister site FauxWoodBeams.com.

Two of our newest panels are Woodland and Raised Grain, and they’re each part of a larger family of faux products. The Woodland family includes custom beams, corbels and mantels. The Raised Grain family includes beams, corbels and scrolled-end beams.
When you combine flat panels with solid beams and accessories in a single project, you can get really amazing results. The photo shows what one of our customers did with Raised Grain panels and beams to transform a high ceiling into an architectural feature that defines the entire room.

So today’s tip is simple: When you’re thinking about using faux panels for your project, think beyond the flat stuff. Think about solid, three-dimensional stuff like beams, corbels and mantels as well.

Hey, I’m not making this up.

The point is, what would the story of Rapunzel be if there weren’t a fabulous stone window for her to let down her hair from? And the point also is, now you too can have fabulous stone windows that Rapunzel would be proud to call her own. The only witchery involved is using faux keystones, trim blocks, trim strips and ledgers.

Here’s what the blocky pieces look like. There’s the full keystone that goes in the center, the left and right keystones that fit against the center one, and square trim blocks. You buy each piece separately, so you can piece them together as you like. The closeup shows the nice depth and texture.

With these four simple building blocks plus trim and ledger pieces, you can create just about any look you want, from the simple to the fanciful. Here are eight examples (click to enlarge).

But, you may ask, what about that nice arched window Rapunzel is leaning out of in the photo? Not a problem (click to enlarge).

So what are you waiting for? You don’t need a stone tower or even a fair-haired maiden to make this project an enchanting success.

In my case, my old railroad-tie retaining wall was so ugly, I finally had it ripped out and the whole yard re-graded to eliminate the need for it. But if I’d found this idea first, I would have given it serious consideration. I do believe it would have cost a heckofalot less.

The idea is to turn that ugly stack of railroad ties or poured concrete or masonry blocks into a nice faux stone wall. You know faux stone veneer works great outdoors, but you might not have thought of using it on this kind of wall.

The key to the project is not to just stick stone veneer on the front surface but to keep and enhance the look of a solid, thick wall. And you do that with wall caps. They absolutely make the whole project. They come in gray or tan to coordinate with just about any stone veneer you like, and they’re available in two widths for thick or extra-thick walls.

The wall caps are made of polyurethane just like the faux panels are, with all the same advantages of light weight, easy installation, and durable good looks.

The fact is, this is a project that delivers a lot of bang for the buck, and for the time and effort you put into it. You transform ugly into beautiful for a very reasonable investment of time and money, and have a blast doing it. It would even be a great starter project for someone who’s never worked with faux panels before.

Makes me wish I hadn’t torn out that old railroad-tie wall.

Of course you only want to do this to a retaining wall that’s stable and sound to begin with. If yours isn’t, then you may soon have more serious problems than your neighbor’s disapproving eye.

Fieldstone (also known as Flagstone) is characterized by its artsy, mosaic style. One very distinct feature of Fieldstone is that it comes to you in pieces made from 4 different molds, resulting in a less uniform and a more randomized, natural look. Flat stones of varying shapes and sizes are arranged organically, like natural puzzle pieces, creating a lovely, old New England feel, indoors or out.

Another important note about Fieldstone is that it is the only one of its style on the market that’s made of polyurethane – not concrete. So you’ll have no problem installing it yourself, no mason needed!

And as usual, we have tons of color options to choose from. Use Desert Sky’s mix of dusty reds and beiges to add warmth to your dining room, or the deeper grays and steels of the Smoke style to build a new fireplace.

As with the rest of our faux wall paneling and siding, you can install these all by yourself—or with a friend—without a mason. And the Fieldstone panels interlock both vertically and horizontally, just like a real tongue-and-groove installation. Check out more details and installation tips here.

Comment below with how you think Fieldstone will work to meet your decorating or remodeling needs, or post a review to help other readers make a choice. We want to hear from you – we really DO listen!

We are excited to announce our NEW River Rock panels! You can find these ultra realistic panels on our Wellington page.

These River Rock panels interlock for a seamless look. Why hire a mason when you can install these River Rock panels yourself? These panels can be installed on any Interior or exterior flat surface.

Click here to check out Wellington River Rock panels.

Birmingham Panels

We’ve just recently added a new line of faux panels called Birmingham panels. These great new panels come in two realistic styles, Ledgestone and Random Rock.

Birmingham Panels also come in a choice of three eye popping such, River Ridge, Desert Blend, and Stormy Sky.

With a smaller overall size than most of our panels, Birmingham offers some advantages.

Check out our photo gallery for some ideas:

Click photo below to enlarge
Ledgestone Desert Blend	Random Rock River Ridge	Random Rock Stormy Sky