How To Change A Painted Brick Fireplace

This is the beginning in a five part series on renovating our living room:

1. Simulated painting brick over a previously painted white brick fireplace (this mail)
two. Lightening up a room in 5 steps
3. Painting decorative graphics on a wall
4. Preparing to Install Antique Centre Pine Floors (and living to tell about it!)
5. Installing Heart Pine Floors and the Terminal Reveal

I know the trend lately is to pigment fireplace brick white. Particularly if the brick is an ugly bright crimson or some other ugly color. I'chiliad pretty certain that is why our fireplace was painted in the get-go place.

Earlier Shot

Painting Brick Fireplace

But, the fact that our fireplace, mantle and the built-in bookshelves on both sides of our fireplace are white, made for an overwhelming amount of white on that one wall. I idea about painting the mantle, but only briefly. I really wanted the warmth and contrast of bricks to set off all the white in our living room.

I stumbled across a few websites showing painted brick here and here. Then I idea, "If someone tin do information technology, so there is a 95% chance that I can do information technology too!"

I wasn't sure how it would turn out, only in the cease I am amazed by how real it looks. And, how like shooting fish in a barrel it was to do! The true test came when I fooled the builder of our business firm (he has lived on our street for over 30 years) into thinking I had stripped the pigment off the bricks! Sugariness success.

This is a relatively easy project. It took several hours, only can exist washed in sections.

Painting Brick Fireplace Materials Needed:

TSP cleaner
Scrub brush for use with TSP cleaner
Drop textile
Newspapers
Painters Tape
Paint Roller and Tray
Strong 2″ paint castor
Car wash sponge or large six″ x 3″ sized sponge
Spray bottle with water
7 newspaper plates
Rags for make clean Up
Acrylic Pigment (see below for colors)

Before you practise anything, buy some TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) cleaner at the hardware store and follow the directions to clean your brick. Be forewarned that you may really like the colour of your bricks once they are make clean and dry! If you lot still hate the color, proceed…

Afterwards working up a examination board by playing with several color combinations, I chose a warm brown brick color. I also tweaked my mortar color before painting it on my fireplace.

I covered the mantle and bookcases by taping newspapers to them. Then, covered the flooring with a drop cloth.

I mixed up a small container of my mortar color. I used some leftover latex satin taupe paint from our other house and added some black and a little dark brown to achieve the perfect mortar color.

My color looks like this warm gray cement color:

I painted all the mortar areas between the bricks with a two″ pigment brush.

As the mortar colour dried, I mixed up a saucepan of my base colour for the bricks. Then poured information technology into a paint tray.

And so, I laid out my seven paper plates and filled the first one with a deep chocolate oops paint (Valspar Latex Eggshell Chestnut).

And poured a half dollar size of the post-obit colors onto the other plates (one color per plate).

I used a paint roller to ringlet the base color onto small-scale 3′ x three′ sections of my fireplace. (Don't worry if the paint doesn't soak into all the grooves. Some of the white showing through made my bricks look one-time and rustic.)

While the base color was still wet, I covered my sponge with the Chestnut colour. Then dipped the sponge into one or two of the brick tint colors. I sponged 1 brick at a fourth dimension using the aforementioned color tints sporadically around the wall. Keeping the brick colors varied and random make them look real!

When the sponge needed to be reloaded with paint, I began with the chestnut color kickoff, then added one or two new colour tints to the sponge. You will accept to refill the paper plates equally you utilize upwards the paint.

I kept working in small sections, to be able to work while the base color was all the same wet (use the spray bottle of water to lightly wet the bricks if it dries too quick).

The all-time part was that if I didn't like a color, I could go back over information technology and try a different tint. Notice how I randomly dispersed the darker brown bricks. This is central to having a realistic look.

On the hearth I had to press more gently with the sponge since the mortar lines on our hearth were nigh level with the bricks. I kept a wet rag near past to wipe up any wandering brick paint.

Shut up film of the bricks.
Notice how the white specks showing through really make the bricks
wait like they are re-claimed and rustic.

After Picture

Daylight picture after busy for the holidays.

I can't believe what a huge difference painting the bricks made in our living room. Information technology warmed upwards the space and actually made our fireplace recede into the room. Allow's take 1 more look at the before and later:

Side note: The latex and acrylic pigment has held upwardly great (even after several fires using our gas logs.)  If you need to paint the bricks inside the firebox, you volition demand to use paint that is estrus tolerant.

And for those wondering how long this took. Including the prep work (cleaning, taping, mixing colors) it took about 5 hours total. Non as well bad since I'chiliad a night owl and could spotter DIY network while painting!

Exist conscientious non to put annihilation heavy on the hearth for a few weeks while the paint hardens.

Next up in the series: 5 Ways to Lighten upwardly a Dark Room.
Followed by: Painting Decorative Graphics on Your Wall.
And I saved the all-time for last (coming soon): Installing Antique Reclaimed Heart Pine Flooring

Source: https://www.prettyhandygirl.com/painting-brick-fireplace-from-white-to/

Posted by: pageothessonce.blogspot.com

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