What To Do with Your Boring Brick Fireplace

Paint it a BEAUTIFUL, BOLD color!

When we bought our house I liked the white brick on the fireplace surround. Then we started to paint and the beige color on the wall made the white fireplace look off-white and dirty. I wanted the fireplace to stand out, not blend into the wall.

 

 

 

If your fireplace is already painted then you have saved yourself a few steps (cleaning and priming). I used a tack cloth to wipe off any dust. We picked Benjamin Moore’s Gentleman’s Grey in eggshell to complement our living room wall color (soon to be completed!). I painted with a roller first (which you could skip since it didn’t provide much coverage). Then I hand painted each brick twice. (What I really mean is my friend Tina did the majority of the work while I stressed out over my spilled paint!).

The trickiest part of this project was painting the brick on the bottom that bordered the carpet. The tape didn’t stick to the carpet at all. I used a small detail paint brush and a wallpaper scraper! (I knew they’d come in handy again). I pushed the carpet down so I could get to the brick and then wiped the scraper off each time I painted to avoid leftover paint from getting on the carpet.

 

Tips for painting your fireplace:

1.       Use a handy paint pail or paint trim cup to hold while painting. I spilled the paint on my carpet because I was using a small coffee cup and it tipped over while I was trying to fill it.

2.       Consider covering up parts of the wall close to the fireplace. We were painting the living room walls again anyways so it was okay that we got some of the blue on the beige, but that might not be okay if your walls are already painted.

3.       Think about ways you can incorporate this new bold color into the design of the room. We’re using the same color on our front door. Can you use this new bold color in a few pillows, some artwork, a new rug? A new color may change the whole look of your room!

 

 

 

This project took a half day to complete. (Every now and again my husband will see a few high spots that I missed and we will touch up so make sure a tall person takes a look at your work!) The results were well worth the half day of work.

Now off to finish painting the living room!