Painting Our Red Brick Fireplace White

We are currently working on updating the living room in our 1950s rancher and started by giving the red brick fireplace a makeover with some white paint and a new mantel.


Here's what the fireplace used to look like. (When this picture was taken we had installed new flooring on one side, but not the other.)






We started by removing the brass doors. The outside doors just lifted up and out. The rest of it was held in place with just two screws, so removing it was super easy.
After vacuuming the brick, we started the actual painting with some masonry primer. I tried using a roller, but I found it easier to get into all the nooks with an old paint brush. The brick really sucked up the primer so we did two coats of primer.






For the actual paint, we used Benjamin Moore’s Aura (Matte) in Snowfall White. It took two coats to get the coverage we wanted.
We also painted the inside of the firebox. We applied two coats of Rustoleum High Heat Paint in BBQ Black.






To build the new mantel, we bought a sheet of 3/4″ thick MDF at Home Depot. We had the folks at Home Depot cut the MDF close to the size we needed, so that it would fit in our mini-van and be easier to handle, and then we cut it to final size at home with our table saw.






We glued and clamped the MDF pieces together, and after the glue had dried, we sanded the joints a bit with our random orbital sander. We ordered a 2′ by 8′ sheet of paper-backed oak veneer from Amazon, cut the veneer to size with scissors, and adhered it to the MDF with non-flammable contact cement.






Finally, we applied one coat of Varathane Ebony stain and three coats of a water-based polyurethane, letting it dry overnight after each application. And then we simply set the new mantel box over the old. It just sits there with no further attaching needed. There are many more pictures and much more detail about the mantel building process in the link at the bottom of this post, if you are interested.






By the way, we also spray painted the brass doors with Rustoleum Universal Advanced Formula Metallic Paint and Primer In One in Oil Rubbed Bronze, but we ended up liking the open feel, and haven't hung the doors back up yet. Re-tiling the hearth is also still on the to-do list. We are finishing the rest of the living room floor installation first.
Anyhoo, we are really happy with how this project turned out and think it will work great with our vision for this living room!






What do you guys think? For or against painting brick?







Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/13213575/painting-our-red-brick-fireplace-white site