So yes… I’m sure you’ve seen a theme in my posts these days. But seriously, these projects have been my life for the past 3 months! And that is exactly what this blog is about!
So! Here’s one of my latest projects!
When we moved in, our fireplace was brown/taupe brick color. Honestly, it wasn’t the worst color ever. But against the beige walls, it was just too “muddy”. We knew the living room needed to be brightened up a bit!
I LOVE white brick. Interior white brick. Exterior white brick. You name it. I LOVE IT!
But brick, as most of y’all know, is a bear to paint. It’s extremely porous making it difficult to fully cover with a thick layer of paint.
PRO TIPS
First of all….. not a pro… but here are some things I learned along the way!
- Get a brush you don’t care about totally destroying. I purchased a $3 paint brush from Lowe’s and threw it away when I was done because of how badly it was torn up.
To fully cover the brick and get in every nook and cranny, I had to jam the paint brush in with TONS of paint on it. I did this over and over, layer by layer which is how I got the grout so white.
This is why the brush was totally demolished by the end of the project.
After a few layers I used a roller over the brick faces. This went a lot quicker than slapping on paint with a brush.
2. Use actual brick paint. I used Valspar Masonry Stucco and Brick paint and it really did an amazing job.
3. Be sure to prep and tape well! My fireplace is on carpet! So I had to be ultra careful while prepping to truly cover it all. I also didn’t want the black grate or the stained mantel on the fireplace to get any white on it either so I was sure to cover them well.
As you can see from the pictures below, we also have our TV mounted that we were definitely not going to try to take down. SO I had to work around that as well.
4. The most important thing I learned with this project is patience. (Which I’m not always awesome at!) I could see the end goal and I wasn’t going to stop until I had reached that point! This took me 2-3 nights to complete. And this fireplace is not deep like many. (You can see that in the picture taken from the side angle below).
So give yourself time. It would probably take most of a day to complete if I had started painting in the morning.
We couldn’t be more thrilled at the finished product! It was definitely worth that last night staying up until 2:30 am to finish it! HA! (My other DIY crafty mamas out there know exactly what I’m talking about…Can’t wait to decorate the mantle for C H R I S T M A S ! ! !
Our house is feeling homier and homier by the day. I plan to do our kitchen update reveal soon too! Stay tuned and subscribe so you don’t miss it!
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Have you painted brick? What method have you tried? I’d love to hear from you! Shoot me an email! Be sure to subscribe below so you don’t miss a thing as well as follow me on Instagram and Pinterest!
What a great update! Really brightens up the room!