Painting a Brick Fireplace

My husband built this fireplace many moons ago and we decided it needed an update. I read up on whitewashing brick and we agreed that was the way to go.

It didn't take too long to do, but longer than most posts I read implied. They say you can paint your brick fireplace in about 1 hour. Well, that is true... sort of. My husband did all the prep work (taping and papering) which took about 1 1/2 hours. And he painted all the black stuff, two coats. So another 30-60 minutes. Then the painting of the brick took me about 1 1/2 hours (so about an hour of actual brick painting as they claim). I'd say you're looking at more like 3 or 4 hours in total, but it's definitely worth it!

He removed the black vents then papered and taped everything else, leaving the brass doors uncovered as they were going to get painted as well.

I stirred together 1 part white latex ceiling paint with 3 parts water, mixed very well. I used only about 1 cup of paint or less before adding water. Using a small piece of sponge I tapped on the paint, wiping any drips that happened right away and trying not to have them happen at all.

Didn't load the paint mixture on the sponge. Just a little goes a long way.

Once finished I stood back to see how it looked. They say you can go back and put a second or third coat on, but we like how the colours of the bricks still come through so we stopped at one coat.

My husband used this Rust-Oleum High Heat spray paint used for painting barbecues to paint all the black parts of the fireplace along with the brass doors to give it a more modern look.

We can't get over how much brighter the room looks!