Good Idea Gone Bad ...I Think

While, I am excited about the bakery, I am dreading the idea of doing the bricking of the exterior, and my design "idea" included the inside of one interior wall. I feel that using the stencil and the brick compound is easy and less time consuming than cutting the brick from egg cartons, although I have never tried it.

My Problem: Brick compound is limited in colors and the MDF is heavy

Soooooo, I came up with the great idea of using a wood burner and a brick stencil (I was planning to trace the pattern onto the board) and spraying the whole thing with stone textured paint like I did on the outdoor fireplace and the vinyl brick sheet. 

Then I started to think AFTERWARDS can you do pyrography (wood burning, I just discovered the formal name) on MDF? Many internet searches later no one knows for sure but the general idea is NO, due to the chemicals that bind the sawdust. But some say a mask and working in a well ventilated area (outside for me) and seal it with latex paint. Michaels had the "Creative Versa-Tool" on sale for 19.99 reg. 29.00, it does a lot of cool stuff (hot stamping and craving, wood burning, leather crafting, image transferring, etc.) so it was not a bad buy if I do no use it for this job.

2nd Plan: Use builders' foam from home depot and carve the brick pattern in with the hot knife tip and paint with acrylic.

Still thinking...