fireplace upgrade
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One of the first projects I tackled in the house was the fireplace. When we had the house inspected, we found out the damper was broken and the pointing on the brick chimney needed repair. Repointing is basically repairing gaps in the mortar between the bricks.
The fireplace was underwhelming to be sure, but I was so excited to have an—almost—working fireplace in our new home. First things first, we had our fireplace professionally inspected, cleaned, repointed and damper repaired. He also painted the inside of the firebox with high temp black paint to give the inside a nice clean start. I can’t stress enough to have your fireplace regularly cleaned if you use it. Creosote buildup can cause house fires and is completely preventable with regular maintenance.
One night, while my then 2 year old was asleep, I decided to tackle the fireplace. We didn’t have a budget for a complete upgrade, but I loved the look of whitewashed brick. It would go perfectly with a rustic industrial I was going for in the rest of the house.
Supplies:
White, water based primer paint
Clean rags for dabbing off paint
Painters tape and tarp to protect mantel, floors, and walls.
Wide paint brush, nothing expensive
Bucket for paint
Step One: Prep. Wipe off any visible, loose dirt from the brick and the mantle, which was getting a coat too.
Step Two: Tape of the mantle, adjacent walls, and cover your flooring.
Step Three: Gather supplies. I used basic water-based white primer paint, a small bucket, and a wide brush. I made sure I didn’t care too much about the brush, since I was going to be slamming it into the brick to get all the nooks and crannies. I also got a bag of cotton wiping cloths which are essentially like shreds of men’s cotton undershirts to wipe the paint off as I went to get the desired paint saturation.
Step Four: Begin. I watered the primer down with 1:1 ratio of paint to water. This gave me a decent level of saturation on the brick without being too thick since I wanted the brick to show through a little bit. I started with three bricks at a time. I painted those three bricks with a full brush and then immediately dabbed off some of the paint with the cloths.
I continued this way for the rest of the fireplace doing 3-4 bricks at a time. This is because with water added to the primer, it was drying really fast and I didn’t want to leave it on for too long and not be able to dab it off.
For me the last step was to paint the mantle with white semi-gloss that will hold up to the fireplace soot.
Step Five: Enjoy the fruits of your labor. I absolutely love how this came out and it goes great against the Benjamin Moore Nimbus we painted the walls. Now if only I could get my husband, who’s afraid of heights, up on the roof to whitewash the chimney top.
