What is an accent brick?
An accent brick is a facing brick or paver that deliberately looks different from those around it, scattered through a large surface to make it livelier. The Dutch term, strooisteen, literally means a “scattered brick”: here and there an odd one out among the base bricks. A large brick elevation or an evenly paved square becomes less monotonous as a result.
Types
- Glazed: the occasional glossy glazed brick among matt, sand-faced bricks.
- Different texture: a contrasting surface finish.
- Different colour: dark against light, or a deliberately bright colour.
- Different size: sometimes also handy for making the setting out work exactly.
- Decorated: bricks with an image or relief. In a wall, keep them low enough for the image to be seen.
Application
- Keep the proportion calm. Too many accent bricks make a surface restless. An example from Wienerberger shows that around 30% accent bricks with strong colour contrast looks chaotic. Too few, on the other hand, can look like a mistake.
- Limit the variants. Many different accent colours in one surface look forced.
- Agree the distribution. Tell the bricklayer or paver how often and how randomly the bricks should appear, otherwise unintended clusters or lines appear.
- Mix from several packs. This avoids colour patches from a single batch of base brick.
- Build a sample panel first. Judge it from a few metres away before the whole area is done.
- Photograph paving before it is lifted. After work on drains, water, gas, electricity or fibre, the “random” pattern is otherwise hard to relay. Keep some spare bricks.
- Consider weathering. Very different brick types may weather or discolour differently.
Another way to enliven a wall is relief in the brickwork, such as a dogtooth course.
Common mistake: leaving the distribution “to feel” without any agreement. The result is often too busy, or so sparse that it reads as an error.
Related terms
- Glaze
- Facing brickwork
- Clay paver
- Dogtooth course
- Bond pattern
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