Opinions regarding whether to paint brick fireplaces?
Question by patticakewithfrosting: Opinions regarding whether to paint brick fireplaces?
I have a ceiling to floor, nearly 8 ft. wide real, red brick fireplace, and am consdiering painting it a white-ish gray, to make it look kind of antiquish. Opinions? Suggestions? Thanks.
Best answer:
Answer by sharon s
If you paint it , it will be hard to remove and you may not like it because of the size of it. White on something like that can be overbearing. You can put a white mantel on it on the point where it will look good to the eye. You can hang copper pans or cleaning things that will look good on the top over the mantel. Or hang a very large framed picture about it. Look at pictures that appeal to you that would look something like what you have and see how they were decorated.
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I personally love brick just as it is I would never paint brick, I always wished my houses had red brick walls on the side and they never have.
Not a fan of painting brick. It usually ends up looking like total s***. Unless you live in a light house, and want a nautical theme, I would suggest not painting red brick.
Just make sure it is a color you can live with and that is matches your decor and other color schemes on the wall next to it.
You can also get a large mantle surround and large mantle panel to go behind the mantle to take away from that brick and fill in that space.
do not paint the bricks
There is a big debate over painting brick. Some decorators look at a brick wall and see it as a wall screaming for paint, others appreciate the rustic quality of exposed brick. Before you make this decision, I would do a google image search to see what you like better. Ultimately it depends on the rest of the decor of the room. To be honest, if you are looking for an antique look, you should check out antique faux finishes before you land on a greyish white. If you paint the brick a solid grey, it won’t look antiqued, it will look like a big grey mass, and possibly favor a wall of cinder block. You might want to go with a cream, then to give it an antique look, take some paint about 3-4 shades darker, water it down a lot, like 3 parts water to 1 part paint, and do a light wash over the brick, and you should decide if you want the mortar a contrasting color. You might want to go to the home improvement store, get a couple of red bricks and paint them to see what you like best. You can find sample Glidden paint for $ 3 a bottle at home depot. Removing paint from brick is a big mess & hassle, I think it would be a good idea to see the finish before you commit.