LaNi1 − x Cu x O3 (x = 0.05, 0.10, 0.30) coated electrodes were prepared by brush painting using Ni foam substrates in order to increase its active surface area. For comparison, coatings with x = 0.05 were also prepared using vitreous carbon substrates. Cyclic voltammetry was used to evaluate the coating roughness (R f). Values between 5,145 ± 148 and 6,334 ± 277 were obtained, depending on the x value, for the coatings on Ni foam. These results show that the electrodes prepared with LaNi1 − x Cu x O3 powder, obtained at 600 °C, lead to a big increase on the oxide electrode roughness when compared with LaNiO3 electrodes prepared by a similar method. Much lower values were obtained for the coatings on vitreous carbon indicating that the substrate nature is also a key factor for the preparation of high surface area electrodes. The calculated kinetic parameters for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) show that the partial replacement of Ni by Cu has no beneficial effect on the intrinsic catalytic activity of the coatings. On the other hand, a big increase on the active area is observed even for small amounts of Cu (x = 0.05), leading to a better overall OER performance for the LaNi0.95Cu0.05O3 coating on Ni foam. For this composition, the activity is dominated by geometric effects.