After months of indecision and a fair bit of apathy… or maybe it was just plain old avoidance? (To be fair to us there were so many other nagging little DIY jobs on the list) Anyway, we finally got around to painting our crumbly old, red brick fireplace, white. Guys, it’s absolutely transformed the room!! If any of you are on the fence about doing it, like we were, consider this the gentle nudge you need and go for it!

Because our little home used to be a coach house and was only developed into actual living space (for humans, not horses) in the mid-’50s, its layout is a little quirky, let’s say…

For example, there is a second bedroom plonked into one corner of the main living space downstairs (can’t wait to knock the walls down and open it up into one big space!) with the rest of the space forming an L shape around this spare bedroom (or, currently – office). It means that the part of the room reserved for lounging and cosying up in front of the fire is long and really narrow – just a bit of a nightmare when it came to furnishing it. It also means that the fireplace intrudes into what is an already narrow space and even though the space obviously isn’t any larger, after a quick lick of paint – it definitely feels that way.

The fact that the fireplace is now the same colour as the floors, has opened the space up in a huge way – nifty colour trick or not, I’ll take it!

Without any further waffling, here is the space before painting. As you can see the bricks are a mess and the back of the fire was pretty grim after years of fires from the old stove that was here before our shiny new Arada;

And after;

Honestly, I’m in love – I keep walking into the room and stopping to stare at it for a second all *heart-eyed*.

Also, whilst on the subject of things that make me go heart-eyed, I just found this amongst fireplace pics… You’re welcome.

HOW TO PAINT A BRICK FIREPLACE – A STEP BY STEP

Materials you’ll need to paint a brick fireplace;

• Fire retardant primer – we used this one.
• Fire retardant pain – we used this one.
• Wire brush & hoover for scrubbing the old bricks and removing any debris.
• Rag or cloth, to wipe down and remove any leftover dirt, dust or grit.
• Paintbrush and a mini roller, if you have one handy. (The roller isn’t 100% necessary but could make your life easier if you need to cover a large surface area.)
• Masking tape to protect any edges / other surfaces.
• Plastic sheet – if there’s anything else that you need to protect?

The process

I mean, this is all pretty basic stuff but here’s a step by step breakdown;

1. First, we scrubbed and cleaned the old bricks and allowed them to dry.
2. Then we used the masking tape and a plastic sheet to cover the wood burner and the edges of the mantel.
3. Primer time! (The brand of primer and paint we used were incredible quality and so we only needed one coat of primer and one top coat and the finish is perfection!) Allow the primer to dry fully, won’t take more than a couple of hours – we just took the dogs out and by the time we got back, it was ready for its top coat.
4. The final bit of magic – the top coat.

 

Just to clarify, this post is NOT sponsored, or anything like that but after months of renovation and countless hours spent painting a whole multitude of surfaces (again and again), let’s just say we definitely appreciate paint that has this kind of finish after one coat so will happily shout about it!

It’s not cheap and you can only buy it in massive 5ltr tins but it’s so, so worth it! The white is the perfect shade of white, with just enough warmth in it so that the bricks really settle into their surroundings, colour wise. Before we cracked it open we were slightly worried that it might be similar to brilliant white (with a slightly blue, jarring undertone) but it’s perfect.

Anyone else staring at some ugly bricks and tempted to grab a paintbrush? Let me know if you need any more persuasion! I’m kicking myself that we didn’t do it sooner!

Now, I just need to convince Dan that the walls in the conservatory need doing too…

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