Painting a Brick Fireplace

When we were searching for a home to buy one of the things we were looking for was a wood burning fireplace, not gas.  We love the smell and the ambiance a REAL fire gives off and were over the moon when the house we fell in love with had one in the living room.  And to top it off, it was such a statement as it was floor to ceiling brick.  We lived with the red brick for a couple months and I could just never warm up (pun not intended) to it.  I felt like nothing matched it and I wanted a clean, cohesive look.  I used younghouselove.com as my inspiration (who doesn’t?!) and decided a crisp white paint job would do the trick.

All I did to prep was wipe down the brick and scrub the spots where there was a lot of soot.  We had carpets at the time so I taped off some drop cloth on the floor.  I used a roller that is for tough jobs and just started rolling.  The sides were a little tough since they were next to the wall but an angled brush worked perfectly. 

I just used a basic Sherwin Williams paint called Extra White.  It took almost a gallon since the brick soaks up the paint a lot.  You probably would not need this much if you have just a half brick fireplace.  Don’t you love how everything seems so much crisper?  I love it and I feel it is much easier to decorate the mantle with color now.  And I debated painting the mantle but I love how the black looks so much bolder now.

I will let you know that after each winter season we do get a good film of soot around the fireplace opening.  We just do a little touch up every now and then and it works out fine.  The price you have to pay for a crackling fire!