Oh good for you on your brave decision! I love painted paneling and painted brick. I've painted paneling in 2 homes and never tire of the look. I'll see if I can figure out how to work my new scanner to show you a massive fireplace I painted. It was a dirty, light-sucking beige brick. I painted it the same color as the wall, so instead of screaming for you attention, it was just a subtle textural addition. Off to find the photo.

Here's a pic. The house was a beautiful 50s contemporary, since damaged in Katrina and gutted (we'd moved long before). This picture was taken 5 months after moving in. Painting the fireplace, woodwork & walls the same creamy pale yellow was the first upgrade we did. The fireplace was fake, but beautiful with limestone and slate (didn't paint those!). The baby in the picture will be 22 in a couple of weeks. I, of course, haven't aged a bit.

awm, thank you so much! It looks beautiful. On my monitor, the color looks very close to what I painted my paneling....have been trying to decide if I should go for contrast or blending.

Check out the fireplace forum on GW. All kinds of people painting their brick over there.

I also love painted brick and think it's a wonderful solution for those fireplaces that are built in awkward colors. We did our fireplace and wall treatment almost exactly as Awm03 did. As she says, "light-sucking...". Our fireplace matches the walls and is now the focal point for our favorite works of art.

Perhaps Ingrid will see this thread - she has a *stunning* painted fireplace-wall.

jesse-
I plan on painting a brick fireplace as well. We found one in the master bedroom while we were removing the hideous paneling. The brick is dark and dingey, I don't care for it at all. I can't wait to paint it. I also painted 2 full rooms of knotty pine paneled walls a creamy white. Some would consider it a sin to paint wood, but it really looks beautiful painted.
What you have sounds like the "after" pics will be beautiful.

Jessie, I painted my brick, but maybe not like you are thinking? I wanted mine to still look like natural brick, just not that dark depressing life-sucking color.

Before:

After:

oceanna, that's fabulous. How did you do that?

Thanks, Awm! Do you want to do your fireplace back to look like brick? I just used craft paints, though they're not heat resistant so I didn't paint inside the rim. I used three colors, made three puddles on a paper plate. I dipped my sponge in them, and dabbed the excess off on some newspaper. Then I just patted the bricks, turning the sponge as I went.

wow, oceanna, that is fantastic. Still looks like natural brick. How did you manage to avoid the mortar stripes? REally nice and thanks for posting.

thanks, neecie, I didn't know we had a fireplace forum!!

Here is mine, it was already panted when we bought the house.
{{!gwi}}De casa

Sable, thank you for the compliment, although I know you don't care for the new painted gray walls around it. But, still, I hope it will give Jessie an idea of how a painted fireplace looks. I have a much prettier flower still life oil on the mantel now but otherwise it's the same.

Oceanna, your before and after pictures are like night and day. You do have a way with a paintbrush. I really like the mirror over the new version, very elegant. Painting the walls beside it also adds so much to the new look.

abymas and ingrid, thank you for posting the pretty pics!

abymas, I envy your nicely scaled fireplace and the pretty mantle. Mine is way too big for the dumpy little basement room it is in...and has an ugly concrete mantle.

Ingrid, yours is big like mine but yours is wonderful! I think the fact that it suits the room, as well as your great paint job make it look so inviting.

Can I ask you and others.......what type of paint did you all use? Normal primer? Latex paint or oil-based, or something I don't know about? Please share your paints!

I used Behr's Premium Paint in semigloss. The fireplace already had paint on it, but in a funky pattern with two colors so we just repainted it.

Boy, ingrid, you sure turned what must have been an eyesore into a very attractive feature. Your fireplace is terrific. I love the wall color too.

abymas, yours is very nice too. What a lovely room you've created.

Jessie - we used a regular primer on the brick and two coats of regular latex paint over it, just like the walls. I always give primers and paint plenty of time to dry. This was 21 years ago; the wall and fireplace have been repainted a couple of times and no problems.

Ingrid - I am amazed that you remembered my opinion! I was raised in an apartment in which all the public rooms were painted gray with white trim, and gray wall-to-wall as well. My mother designed it very elegantly, with mahogany furniture, oil paintings, a grand piano, and pretty objects from their travels, and rose and gold as accent colors. Something resonated badly with me, though, as I cannot tolerate the color now and don't have so much as a gray flowerpot on my deck! And - what happened to that gorgeous plate that was over your fireplace? IMO it was perfect there!

Thanks, Jessie. I just used the kitchen sponge and it had straight edges on it, and had body, so it wasn't hard to avoid the mortar. I did my son's too, and his wasn't hard either.

Ingrid, thanks. You know what they say... it's only paint. I think it pays to be brave with paint. Your fireplace is lovely. I wish I had a mantel.

sable,I can completely understand your aversion to gray. Overexposure can be deadly and gray is a color that I would only use in small doses in a house. Mine actually looks completely sage green at night and even during the day it's a very warm, soft gray. Please notice the Chinese charger on the lower rung of the coffee table. It's supposedly from the 18th century but who really knows about these things.

oceanna, if you happen to see this please notice the gilding I later did on the gray walls. It seemed too dead to me so I painted some little gold decorations on the walls to liven things up. The picture to the left of the fireplace of the vase with flowers is actually a needlepoint I did years ago without any kind of pattern. It's rather amateurish but it is an "original".

Ingrid, I think the gold deffinitely helps out your grey walls. I love that painting on the right. It reminds me of Frieda Kahlo. I'm so impressed that you did an original needlepoint! You go, girl! Your living room looks lovely.

Darn I wished I still had a photo of my old house where I painted the brick. What i did was take some yello and cream and tan paint and water and just sort of glazed it so it looked like the red brick was not originally red but white all along. It did not look painted just like it had always been that way. I really loved it.

Good luck!
Amy

Ingrid - I can see why you love that flower painting above the fireplace. It and the portrait make a wohderful statement together. Can also see the green in the gray walls, which anyway is pretty light.

Just wondering if Jessie has decided to paint her fireplace after seeing all these pictures!

Lovely room, Ingrid---very personal and lots of style, and it looks so comfortable and restful!

sable, I'm in limbo about it. Getting some resistance from DH, so I'm waiting until the new carpet is in before deciding. That won't happen for at least a week so it will be a little while.

I REALLY do like the look of all the painted fps I've seen here........sigh.......

Of course I never took a picture of it...but the fireplace in our basement, which we built out as several rooms...an office/sitting room where the fireplace is...was made of old factory brick from our city, and some of the bricks still had the remnants of the painted advertising on the buildings. Some of them were "clinkers" - black and shiny from something that happens in the firing. But it was dark and looming and not pleasant.

So I mixed three parts water and one part paint (the light tan latex of the walls) in a bucket, washed it onto the wall with a really big brush, and followed along blotting with a handful of rags.

The effect was to lighten, soften, and tone in the brick without sacrificing its texture and interest. It looked great, and it was easy and fast...I do not have Oceanna's talents at all!

Here is mine. I did not paint it with a solid paint. I mixed with water and used a yellow and white. It looks like white brick vs. paint. I also re-stained our mantel and it looks a thousand time better that with the reddish orange brick and med stained mantel.

{{!gwi}}

Here's the fireplace I painted at my cottage. I don't have any posted of the finished room with carpet and all, but you get the picture!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cottage Fireplace