Fireplace Makeover {in a day!}

 

Since we bought this house almost six years ago, I've told my husband that one day he would come home from work and the fireplace would be painted white. Last week...that really happened. He came in about seven that evening as I was pulling paint tape off the floor. And {thankfully}, he loved it. 
Whew.

The thing about painting brick {and I know there's lots of people against painted brick...including my parents who aren't even a little bit shy about sharing their opinion on it}...is that it's pretty much permanent. Unless you feel like sandblasting. Which I don't.

No turning back now!

I had chatted with my Sherwin Williams' guys a floppity-jillion times about painting my fireplace. It was getting to where my family wouldn't go into SW with me anymore since I always turned the conversation to the fireplace. And truthfully, there couldn't be a more simple project. SIMPLE.

Since our house was built within the last ten years, all of the "working parts" of the fireplace are actually contained within the fire box area. Because of this, I didn't even have to use heat tolerant paint. I used plain white semi-gloss latex paint {it was actually leftover paint...even better. This was literally a no-cost project}. If you have an older fireplace with vents and all that, you may need to chat with your paint store about what to use...there's rules for all the different fireplace ages {apparently}.

It did take three coats, probably about a gallon's worth of paint total. Brick is super porous and just soaks up paint like crazy...especially in the mortar. I used a very nappy roller so it could get into all of the nooks and crannies with the paint.

I started out with a foam brush for the mortar...which was ri-donk-ulous {and not in a good way}. It was ripped to shreds in a moment.
{This photo is after two coats of paint}.

Then I switched to my trusty 2" angled brush. Much easier to work with. I ended up doing the entire third coat with just the brush...I kind of liked the brush strokes so I just went with it.

Ta-da!
So much fresher and clean looking. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

This whole fiasco started with these adorable little cardinals I bought {as a bday present to myself...I'm not alone in this tradition, right?}. They reminded me of my late grandma who adored cardinals {and I adored her}, so I had to have them. I wanted to put them out for Valentine's day. They didn't seem to pop too well against the old brick, though. So out came the paint and I ended up doing a random fireplace makeover in a day. My family lives in constant transition...I hope this makes for well-rounded, easy-to-adapt-to-change kids. Or maybe lots of therapy later on. It's a toss up.

I also created a simple Valentine's banner for the new fireplace as well.
It's available for free downloading here.

The Valentine's stuff is pretty simple...but I really like how it looks against the new white.

And I love how the white looks against our floors.

Okay, I take back the no-cost project part...

I was out $2 for this Goodwill birdcage that I stumbled on the other day.

It took a can of spray paint and was ready for my hearth!

Really enjoying our "new" addition to the living room!

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