I hate my brick fireplace. I hate the bricks and I hate the color (weathered red brick). Tearing it out is not an option. Too much work and too much money at this time. We’ve decided painting is our best solution for now.
Has anyone done this? How has it turned out? I’m sure you must need a special type of brick paint, right? Is there prep needed? or a sealant?
If anyone has any ideas, links for info, I’d be truly grateful.
Here is a link that tells you the proper way to do it. I have also painted bricks that I knew I would never restore and have not bothered with sealer just a thinner wet coat of paint first.
I lived in a beautiful victorian apartment with two guys… We painted the bricks around the fireplace a vintage orange with the cheapest latex paint we could find. Where a fire normally would go we built a glass Iguana haven. The end effect was very cool (So much the landlord didn’t want us to paint it back)
The project took 4 coats and than some spot touch up. We bought a bunch of the cheapest brushes possible and just layed the paint on as thick as possible. The idea was to just stuff a brush into a brick (so as to get in the millions of little holes)
I imagine it will be easy to paint over it and switch colors, as the bricks were smoother after 4 layers of paint…
Good luck and take pictures so we can all see!
I hate the dull ugly colors like weathered brick and grey stone that decorators seem to go gaga over. My sister and I painted the ugly grey stone at her house a lovely pearl white. Gorgeous against warm peach walls. Worked beautifully, good luck!
I lbelieve she just used interior semi-gloss.
So you are all the people whose houses I bought and said “They painted the brick? What the heck were they thinking?” You probably painted your solid oak trim also because “It was too dark.” Heathens.
Everyone should all have the same taste in house decoration and I should be the arbiter of said taste. I will have to go to General Questions and see if anyone knows how I can make that happen.
I suppose you’re one of “those” people:D, the ones who think things must be “distressed” to be fashionable, or to whom only body fluid colors (puke green, baby poop yellow, diarhea brown), are alowed.
Ala Doug and Hildi on “Trading Spaces”.
Hehe
I haven’t done it myself, but I’ve seen it done. In the case where I was just a bystander, the painter used thinned paint to soak into the brick. The thinning was so instead of just lying on the surface, looking sort of plastic, it was a bit more natural. If natural is what you’re going for, that is.
BoringDad, you are soooo correct. Saddest thing I ever saw was a Craftsman cottage that was suffocating in paint. But I’m the arbiter of good taste. You can be my henchman and head paint stripper. Can’t have enough henchmen.
Distressed is soooo over, and happy color is in in in! Really, I don’t get when someone decorates only in dust brown. Neutral is great, but does *everything * floor to ceiling, have to be such a relentlessly dead color?
I wouldn’t mind the brick so much if it was a nice red brick color. But weathered brick in an otherwise modern home just looks out of place to me. I’m one of those people who hates “weathered,” “distressed” or other “shabby chic” techniques that make otherwise nice furniture look old.
I will try to get some pics, before and after. I will likely go to the paint store this weekend.
If your going to do it, make sure you do it right.
Clean it all first, with a degreaser if if feels sticky anywhere (be sure and rinse off all the degreaser if you use it). Then prime it with a block fill (sealer). Regular latex paint or even a Kilz type of stain block is not good enough for this step. It has to be block fill, a specially formulated paint meant to seal masonry, mortar, etc… Yes, it comes in a water borne formula too, for easy clean up.
After all that (and plenty of dry time), paint with your finish paint. DO NOT paint the firebox (the inside of the fireplace) with any of this. First off, the firebox would need to be thoroughly cleaned with a different method, then a specially formulated high heat paint is used. NOT RECOMMENDED for DIY.
Instead of a Home Depot/Lowes type of store, visit your local paint store.
I haven’t painted a fireplace, I shudder at the thought, but I have helped scrape the paint off of my friend’s red brick fireplace. Damn you all to hell! It took days and days and about 1 gross of brass bristle brushes. Looks good now.
DON’T DO IT!
Ditto. Painted masonry (brick, stone) look awful. I blame this trend of covering everything in paint on these inane ‘redecorate your home in bright orange and aqua’ TV programs you see on the Discovery Channel.
Tastes vary, of course, but perhaps you’re focusing too much on the brick and not enough on the surrounding areas like the mantle, surround, fireplace doors or the area over the fireplace (where a nice picture would be a focal point)
If you really hate the look of the brick masonry - before painting it - try repointing the mortar. It’s messy, but not very difficult to do:[ol][li]Remove some of the existing mortar joints with a 4 1/2 grinder and a diamond tipped tuck-pointing blade. Enclose the area in poly sheething or a tarp. [/li][li]Clean up all the dust - There’s gonna be alot - That’s why you wore that NOISH approved mask. [/li][li]Select a colored mortar (masonry cement) that looks good with the brick you have. There are a rainbox of colors available an in my opinion, a weather red / flashed face brick looks very good with deep black joints.[/li][li]Select the type of mortar joint style you like (grapevine, convex, concave) and use the appropriate jointer / tuck pointer.[/li][*]Re-point your brick joints with the tool & mortar color you selected and Viola…an entire new look.[/ol]
Actually, I hate the whole artificially distressed look. If I’m buying or making something new, I want it to look new. I then proceed to actually USE our nice Crafstman dining room table and it is slowly distressing naturally over the years.
Bodily fluid colors are bad. So are rust and avocado. Lots of nice bright natural colors, or, when called for, muted stone colors.
I am off to purchase my henchman costume now. Do you mind if it is covered in Rhinestones?
We have a brick fireplace. It looked hideous after we remodeled our family room. It looked hideous before, but the whole room was hideous. I was nervous about painting it, but I love the way it came out.
Before and after - sorry the after isn’t a better picture, bit still you can see the difference. And this is just temporary. We intend to build in the fireplace with cabinetry. Some day…
Now if everyone keeps updating the rooms put in in the 70’s, will our children really believe us when we tell them just how hideous yellow shag carpeting and cheap wood paneling really was?
And when I was envisioning a fireplace, I was envisioning a fireplace, not a monstrous wall of bricks. Yes, that wall was not a gem to be saved, and. Wood overlay or cabinets would indeed be the way to go.
Thirded. Emphatically.
Painted masonry looks horrible*, and it’s something that can only be undone with hideous effort. Don’t do it!.
Fashions (and tastes) change rapidly but the bones of a house can only bear so many changes. Painting brick isn’t just cosmetic because the material is porous. It will never be the same.
I prefer muted brick because it’s less obtrusive, but that’s me. If you don’t like the weathered brick, use it as an accent to the overall room. A focal point can be a minor chord in the overall space. Consider solid bright colors on the walls, with the brick as a balancing counterpoint.
You know, it just occured to me, perhaps you could build a new surround for the fireplace. Instead of painting the brick, there’s got to be a way to put up sheetboard and a new mantle if neccessary. I saw it taken down and then re-done on This Old House I believe. You’d have to use the right materials to be sure it was safe, but that way you won’t set yourself up for an eternity of scraping if you ever changed your mind about the painting.
FCM, that’s the new place? I can’t believe how good it looks already. The original room was purely stunning in it’s awfulness.
Yay! My very own henchman! I will love him and pet him and…
Definitely rhinestone away, baby. Liberachi is my idol.
Your before picture looks a lot like my fireplace. Only mine is even more weathered. There isn’t a single brick that doesn’t look like someone started sanding it. Oh, and we don’t have any red bricks or any bricks that are just one color. Most of the bricks are the sort of whitish color that you can see in the before picture.
I will try to get a picture soon so you guys can see how truly awful it is.
I’d love to tear it out and put in nice stone or something, but finances prevent that at the moment. I honestly can’t see ever wanting it back the way it is now.
A new surround is a possiblity, but again…finances. We might look into it.
Every now and then Trading Spaces has a decent idea. They overlayed 12x12 slate tiles on a hideous fireplace. Just masticked and grouted it down. They didn’t have floor to celing brick, so they built a skinny wood box to put from the mantle to the celing to make the fireplace area one level. This was all covered in slate tile. They also overlayed the bricks at the bottom. The only tricky part was building a little saw horse the same height as the inside of the fire opening to hold the two tiles there up so they wouldn’t slide while the mastik dried. The look was fairly modern for my taste, but nice. And certainly better than the crap Hildie usually comes up with. I think it cost them a couple hundred. More expensive than paint, but oh so much better looking and less common.