Our house is old, and when we bought it, it was in severe need of some up-dating. Fast forward 5 years... and FINALLY we are getting around to making some changes.
After some research, and some convincing (of my husband) we decided to paint our old dingy fire place. The best instructions that we found for this DIY project were from Young House Love. If you follow their instructions you will have no trouble at all!
I can tell you what NOT to do:
- DO NOT use a water based paint, any leftover soot stains WILL show through!
- Use a brush! We tried using a sprayer and there were plenty of places where the paint didn't cover. Our brick was very textured. Plus we got paint splatters all over the place!
Step 1- Wipe down your bricks with a moist (not sopping wet!) rag to remove any cobwebs or soot.
Step 2- If your bricks are especially soot stained, you’ll want to prime them with oil based primer to ensure that no soot stains bleed through your paint job. Neither of our fireplaces had this problem so we skipped right to step three.
Step 3- Use a nappy roller meant for textured surfaces to apply two to three coats of flat or semi-gloss latex paint (the finish is up to you). You also may need to rely on a paint brush to get into those deep grout crevices. Brick is an especially porous material (which explains why your fireplace may call for three coats) so be sure to have more paint on hand than you’d usually rely on for such a small surface area (our den fireplace took over a gallon of paint, and the one in our living room took nearly half a gallon).
Step 4- Do the happy dance cause you’re done. Easy, right? If you can paint a wall you can definitely paint a brick fireplace.
You can also check out the original post by clicking the link above!
BEFORE:
What not to do:
Spraying = MESS!!
Almost done, with our new paint color on the walls!
TADA!!
I love it, and it brightens up the room SO much! The total cost was about $30 for the can of paint and brushes.
Love it! Looks good! And I LOVE the YHL blog, too!
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