Monday, November 21, 2011

PAINTING UGLY BRICK FIREPLACES?

The brick on our fireplace is mismatched and poorly installed, not to mention just plain ugly. We've been talking lately about painting the brick white to help connect the rest of the room with the white box beam ceiling, and to freshen the look of our mantle. I think this could be a good update, but I'm torn. When I went online to look at inspiration pics, I could only find one person that painted their brick white and left the regular wood surround. Most everyone else also choose to paint the surround white and that's just not going to happen.



The question is though, would the white brick be too stark? Would it make the area look disjointed? Because you know, once you start down that road there is no going back. Painted brick is painted brick. And I'm really afraid of making the wrong decision and then regretting it for as long as we live here. But then again, could it be any worse than the current bright red ugly hideous brick?

While I'm posting pictures, I thought I'd show you how the rest of the room turned out with the blue paint. We kind of love it.



We need to do some touch-ups here and there (including the tiny strip between the fireplace mantle and the built in china cabinet), and then re-hang the pictures, but it's coming along. With the darker color though it's really obvious what a horrible painting job the previous owners did before we moved in. Almost every single part of the wood is covered in primer or pink paint. It's really quite sad that no one cared enough to clean up after themselves along the way. We're going to pick up some brown paint to match and start covering up their carelessness but that project's going to be extremely slow going since it takes a bit of precision.

So, going back to the fireplace - what would you do if you were us?

14 comments:

  1. The blue looks great!

    I don't think white brick would look right in that room. Maybe grey? But I would be too chicken to paint it myself.

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  2. Sharon Kidder1:45 PM

    I'm probably in the minority--but once you paint that brick--there is no going back. Removing paint from brick is a huge pain! I hate to see people paint brick, but it is your house, you can do as you choose. Maybe you could try cleaning it with something to remove the mortar. Or, if you do have to paint it, there are some wonderful earthtone paint jobs I've seen. I could share links if you're interested...

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  3. Gene Anderson3:12 PM

    I agree that the white wouldn't fit. With the mantle and built-ins being dark wood, the white would look out of place. If you do decide to paint, a darker earthtone would look better. I did a quick mockup in Photoshop here

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  4. Kilauren6:48 PM

    What about tiling over the brick? You might be able to find enough tile at a local salvage company or Habitat ReStore. Go for something warm and neutral!

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  5. Kilauren6:50 PM

    Like this: http://www.hewnandhammered.com/hewn_and_hammered/2009/08/quartersawn-white-oak-tile-fireplace-surround.html#/ (I typed craftsman tile into Google Image search.)

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  6. I did exactly what you're thinking of doing and it looks great.  I left the mantle and the surrounding bookcases a darker wood and changed the bricks to white.  I didn't use paint, though: I followed the directions in this post: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/how-to/how-to-make-your-brick-walls-like-bddws-004202 and covered the brick with a mixture of joint compound with some plaster of paris mixed in.  The result was a softer look and if I ever tire of it it can be scrubbed/sanded off.

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  7. I'd love to see a picture of how yours turned out!

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  8. That's definitely an option, but we were hoping to do something that took minimal work. When it comes to anything beyond painting we tend to get very behind schedule after initially starting the project. For instance, we started installing board & batten in our bathroom last Thanksgiving. It's still not finished.

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  9. Thanks Gene. We were initially thinking that the white wouldn't look so stark because of the bright white ceiling & criss-crossed beams and could potentially help ground the room with all that white, but the more we think on it we're not so sure. 

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  10. Oh, I know there's no going back ... truthfully they I would NEVER want to go back to what this looks like. In person it looks horrible. They did such a crappy job on the installation and the bricks are all different color & sizes with mortar everywhere.

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  11. I love that tile, actually, but the raised hearth of the fireplace is what gives me pause on tiling.

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  12. I would tile. It seems like such a small area you could probably do it fairly inexpensively, even hiring it out!

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  13. I like the idea of tile. I saw a nice tile job the other day. I should definitely look into this.

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  14. We're definitely chicken!

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