Faux Stone Accent

This is a fun project that didn't cost a lot of money. I wanted stone around my 3 way fire place, so I decided to do it myself.

I took that white Styrofoam , you can buy in handy packs at Home Depot 2' x 4', with a sharp knife I cut them into round pieces and oval pieces , and on the side facing out I knocked off the edges to make them more round . Glued them to the wall with drywall mud , then covered the entire outside pieces of rock with drywall mud , and painted them to look like rock mostly browns and grays next with white , then I used real cement as grout

Step 1:

There was some dark blue tile around the mantle. After i finished the stone on the chimney, I made the tiles with the real stone for the mantle. The chimney was just drywall before.

Step 2:

I priced it out with just the fake stone would have been over $ 2000.00 just in materials alone
so I decided to try and make my own @ about 150 dollars

...so i got the stuff and started fitting the white foam stone on the wall

Step 3: Supplies Needed

-2 inch foam cut with a sharp knife to resemble rocks
-dry wall mud to stick foam rocks  on wall and and smooth over the foam
-assorted paints found at discount, in correctly mixed ones are cheap
-ready mix cement for grout lines

Step 4:

Then I made some tiles to match my foe rocks. I made a frame of foam and filled it with cement , and just pressed some stones I found in the back alley in to the cement . I set up the cement frame on some waxed paper , so i could remove it easily ,once the cement was dry,

Step 5:

rocks from alley

Step 6:

This is what the tile looked like before I put it on the fireplace

Step 7:

Step 8:

They were a little heavy , so to glue them on the mantle, I had to brace  them till they were dry

Step 9:

It is pretty hard to tell that the finished product is not real stone. The trick to making the stone look real is using a variety of paints, some glossy, some flat. You can use brushes, sponges, a toothbrush to mist the paint on. My daughter quite enjoyed adding her artistic touch to making them look realistic.
Using stiff brushes and spoons to put the grout in between the fake stone also worked well.