painted fireplace how-to

Remember when our hearth room was incredibly brown and dark?

Yeah, me too. It was kind of scary. Once we painted the paneled walls, though, it was like the whole room lit up. We liked it so much that we began debating about whether or not to paint the brick fireplace as well.

We knew we would at least need to clean it really well, but still couldn't decide if we wanted the original brick color. Then there was the stove insert to think about. 

I hated this thing in the beginning. I felt like it would be a huge eye sore in the middle of my favorite room in the house. What this Alabama girl didn't think of was the fact that Louisville actually gets very cold winters, & often has ice storms that knock out the power. My ever-practical husband said we needed to keep it. I figured, if we were going to keep it, we at least needed to paint it. Since we would just be painting it black, I wondered what color the brick should be. 

I have always loved the color combination of grey, black & white, especially on homes like this one:

Since our stove insert was going to be black, & our bookshelves were going to be white, I liked the idea of the brick being grey. Once I had a color combination in mind, painting the brick sounded much more appealing.

First, we used this amazing stuff to paint the stove:

All I had to do was scrub down the stove & start spraying. The fumes were a bit intense in the room, & the floors had a thin film of black paint, but other than that it was a complete success! 

Next, we primed the brick. It was a pretty long process since brick has so many nooks & crannies to fill.

Once the priming began, I started feeling even better about our decision to paint the brick. It seemed much cleaner with just one coat of Kilz, which we have used in almost every project so far. 

Then I forgot to take any photos for a little while, and voila! The next photo is the almost finished product. Painting the primed brick was not very difficult, but it did take some time. I wanted to make sure I was covering all the white spots. 

G & I love how it turned out! Especially the stove.

I still need to spray over the spot I missed on the right knob :)

This week, G & his dad began building the bookshelves on either side of the fireplace, & the mantle. I found a mantle that I loved in a magazine a while back, but I didn't see it again until a few weeks ago when I spotted it on Pinterest. 

It is the inspiration for our mantle, which will be finished sometime today! My next post will show the amazing built-in bookshelves & the mantle that frame our newly painted fireplace. I'm so excited about how everything is turning out, & I'm doubly grateful for a husband & father-in-law who know how to do so many things!

{alli}