This has got to be one of the most visually powerful updates of all. I am in LOVE with my new fireplace!
I knew that the existing fireplace was not what I wanted. It was dark, dreary, and made the room feel like a dungeon. Gross. This is what I was starting with:
So I shopped for DIY updates on pinterest, of course. I found several I really liked, and collected them on this pinboard: Fireplace Makeovers
The trick, in my case, was working with something that would freshen everything up, brighten the room, AND keep my beautiful wood mantel unpainted. It's a nice wood mantel, and it helps to tie in the wood banister at the steps. I love this banister, and even though I'd like to modernize it by painting it white, too, I can't bring myself to cover the wood. So, to keep the wood mantel while updating the look was my mission.
I googled how to paint fireplaces, and found out you basically clean it and slap some paint on. Easy peasy. I got special, heat-tolerant black paint for the firebox. The fireplace isn't currently operational, but there seems to be a gas line in place, so it could be in the future. I wanted to make sure I didn't regret not getting the right paint.
Here are my gathered supplies. After I was a dummie about cleaning the bathroom fixtures and since this was brick, I knew I was going to have to spend a lot of time cleaning. I used white vinegar and water at 50/50 in a large bowl and scrubbed with a brush. Then it took a surprisingly long time to dry.
You can see here I used a lot of drop cloths. This is important!! While I was cleaning, the brush flung drips of disgusting black brick goo water all over everything. I'd just had the carpets cleaned, so protecting them was a high priority. I was glad I'd been so careful because those bricks were DIRTY.
After everything was mostly dry, I taped off the walls and floor and under the mantel. In some of the fireplace pictures you can see we have custom bookshelves at each side; I removed them from the fireplace in order to paint it properly. You can see we were good and even moved them to paint the walls behind them brown :)
I painted the firebox black first after carefully considering how much of the edge I wanted to be black. From my Etsy board, I saw people who had the black wrapping around to the edges of the trim bricks, and I saw some who had gone along the edge of the face of bricks... I decided to go with the latter option because I thought that painting the trim bricks black would make it harder to create a straight line between the black and white.
Well.
It's beautiful.
It's very modern and looks so good with the white upper buildout. The whole room is brighter and feels more updated because of it. And I was so glad to see the hideous, dark brick gone!
Here's another angle where you can see the colors better:
Love it.
You almost can't tell here, but the window trim next to the fireplace is off-white. So, this is part of the trim-painting project I mentioned in an earlier post: that needs to be white to complete the look! We currently have white sheers on those windows, so you can't tell the trim is off-white, but I know it.
~S
I knew that the existing fireplace was not what I wanted. It was dark, dreary, and made the room feel like a dungeon. Gross. This is what I was starting with:
So I shopped for DIY updates on pinterest, of course. I found several I really liked, and collected them on this pinboard: Fireplace Makeovers
The trick, in my case, was working with something that would freshen everything up, brighten the room, AND keep my beautiful wood mantel unpainted. It's a nice wood mantel, and it helps to tie in the wood banister at the steps. I love this banister, and even though I'd like to modernize it by painting it white, too, I can't bring myself to cover the wood. So, to keep the wood mantel while updating the look was my mission.
I googled how to paint fireplaces, and found out you basically clean it and slap some paint on. Easy peasy. I got special, heat-tolerant black paint for the firebox. The fireplace isn't currently operational, but there seems to be a gas line in place, so it could be in the future. I wanted to make sure I didn't regret not getting the right paint.
Here are my gathered supplies. After I was a dummie about cleaning the bathroom fixtures and since this was brick, I knew I was going to have to spend a lot of time cleaning. I used white vinegar and water at 50/50 in a large bowl and scrubbed with a brush. Then it took a surprisingly long time to dry.
You can see here I used a lot of drop cloths. This is important!! While I was cleaning, the brush flung drips of disgusting black brick goo water all over everything. I'd just had the carpets cleaned, so protecting them was a high priority. I was glad I'd been so careful because those bricks were DIRTY.
After everything was mostly dry, I taped off the walls and floor and under the mantel. In some of the fireplace pictures you can see we have custom bookshelves at each side; I removed them from the fireplace in order to paint it properly. You can see we were good and even moved them to paint the walls behind them brown :)
I painted the firebox black first after carefully considering how much of the edge I wanted to be black. From my Etsy board, I saw people who had the black wrapping around to the edges of the trim bricks, and I saw some who had gone along the edge of the face of bricks... I decided to go with the latter option because I thought that painting the trim bricks black would make it harder to create a straight line between the black and white.
Well.
It's beautiful.
Here's another angle where you can see the colors better:
You almost can't tell here, but the window trim next to the fireplace is off-white. So, this is part of the trim-painting project I mentioned in an earlier post: that needs to be white to complete the look! We currently have white sheers on those windows, so you can't tell the trim is off-white, but I know it.
~S
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