How to paint an old brick fireplace.
I was excited to have a fireplace in the living room but that excitement quickly faded when we realized it was in the only space that could hold our tv. After a lot of discussion, we decided that the only place for the tv was over the fireplace. Not my first choice but, when you live in a small space, you do what you gotta do.
The mantel wasn’t wide enough to hold our tv, so we did what any good DIYer would do…
We slapped a piece of plywood up on the mantel, hooked the tv up and called it done.
It stayed this way for 6 months until I couldn’t stand to look at it one any longer.
It took awhile to find the perfect piece of wood but we eventually got there. Now the mantel looks 100% better, the tv fits and we ditched the ugly plywood.
Now that we finished the mantel makeover, it was time to paint the old brick fireplace.
When we moved into the house the brick surround was painted black and inside was a bunch of propane logs (with about 20 years of dog hair and dust). It was dirty, dusty and completely gross. I wasn’t sure how I wanted it to look but I knew it needed to be cleaned up. I removed the screen, as well as the gas logs, and gave the firebox a much needed cleaning.
We lived with the surround painted black for months, trying to figure out what we wanted to do. Unfortunately, inspiration never hit. After we finished the mantel, though, I decided to freshen up the surround. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money or time doing a makeover, so I decided to just give the fireplace a fresh coat of paint.
Before any paint went up on the old brick, I donned my snazzy yellow rubber gloves and gave the surround a thorough cleaning with hot water and TSP.
The rest was easy. A couple coats of the paint we used on the mantel, SW Alabaster, and the old brick fireplace makeover was looking fresh and new.
It only took 6 months and a little bit of paint on the old brick fireplace, but it’s looking so much better and brighter.
The walls are on the list for paint (eventually) so that will change things, too.
I still want to do something fun to the surround but I can live with this…for now.
Check out a couple of other projects we’ve been doing around the house
