How to Paint a Brick Fireplace
Dark to Bright Fireplace Makeover
Project Steps
You may have heard me talk about painting our fireplace on Instagram stories. When we first painted the living room, I left the fireplace alone. (Go to the bottom of this post for your chance to win a Super Finish Max!)
The brick was a nice color so I thought I'd just see what the white room looked like with an au-natural fireplace. But nope. It lasted about a week. Our living room stays pretty dark and it was pretty apparent, pretty quickly that a white fireplace was what it needed.
Honestly, I would have dragged my feet a lot longer if I had to paint all those grout lines with a regular paint brush. UGHHHHH. It would have been so tedious and still would have needed a few coats. Thankfully, my friends over at HomeRight were awesome enough to send me a : paint sprayer, which is precisely the reason the fireplace is DONE.
Before I started, I cleaned the brick with a scrub brush and some soapy water. A ton of soot came off and even though I couldn't tell a difference in the look of the brick, I'm thinking I at least got a couple layers of gunk off so that the paint could adhere better.
Once that had a while to dry (maybe a day) I took off the dated, brass screen. I used a drop cloth, taped off the floor, covered up the sofa and got to work.
The paint sprayer has different nozzles and the manual lists the use for each one. I attached the one used for primer, loaded the paint into the container and watered it down according to the directions.
I started at the top corner of the fireplace worked diagonally so that I wouldn't have to move my ladder a bunch...or because I'm a spaz and don't do things methodically.
After one coat of primer I let it dry and did another the next day. After the second coat dried, I used the wallcolor to do the last coat. SW Extra White is what I used in here.
This is where I stop and tell you the importance of primer. See that purple stuff that's blocking the actual fireplace?
After I finished the project and removed that foam board, I decided to paint the side of the outermost brick. I just went over it with a brush and my wall color without a thought. Not even a week later I noticed that the paint on that part was becoming dingy looking.
Can you tell the difference? It's not super noticeable and certainly wouldn't stand out to anyone else but I'm so thankful it's only happening in these areas. It'll be such a quick fix. USE PRIMER, PEOPLE!
The mantel was primed and when I was done I painted it by hand with the SW sealskin. It's a warm brown, almost black.
Ahhhhh! I'm so happy to have it light and bright in here.
It's been so much fun playing with mantel decor. Our last house didn't have a fireplace.
Honestly, if I had done this by hand, it would have taken so much more time and I'm not sure I would have tackled the project already. Spraying it took about 10 minutes with each coat and about the same to rinse the parts. So much easier.
I'm so happy to have taken it from dark and dated:
to light and bright!
Download project steps & shopping list
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