Have you been
wondering if you can paint a stone fireplace?
Well you can, and I did. I whitewashed both the stone and the wood
mantel, with beautiful results. Here's the story…
So, as with most
anything I do in life, I completed another home improvement project on an
impulse. When I decide I want to do something, it'll take an act of God (or the
offer of a frozen margarita) to change my mind. This time, I decided I was
tired of my living room fireplace. I didn't like the dark wood of the mantel,
and the brownish stone surround and hearth were so eighties, man. Frankly, it
was an eyesore.
Here is the 'before'
picture:
And here is the
'after' picture:
I used a whitewash
painting technique on both the stone fireplace and the wood mantel, which
produced a more natural look than full-on latex paint.
Perhaps the coolest
part is that this project didn't cost me a dime. As in nothing, nada, zilch. All
materials were things that I already had around the house. The only investment
was about 5 hrs. of my time.
Like the
transformation? Read on for the How-to...
First, clean out the
fireplace.
If it's a gas
fireplace, make sure to turn off the gas as well as the pilot light if it's
accessible. Spread a tarp or an old shower curtain over the hearth and on the
floor so you don't make a sooty mess everywhere. Remove any logs carefully,
brush them off, and set them to the side. Sweep out all the old ashes, soot,
dirt, gravel, etc. with a small broom and dustpan, and then use a vacuum
cleaner to finish up. NOTE: My fireplace is gas with an electric vent system to
"push" the heat out into the room. You can see the black electric
cord in the first photo. I thought about cutting off the cord since I rarely
use that feature, and even pulling the vents out for good, but decided against
that for now. I wiped down the black metal vents so they'd be really clean for
painting.
Now- on to painting
the black vents and fireplace screen. Because I didn't want to take the time to
pull out the metal vents and spray paint them, I painted them using a 2"
paintbrush and Valspar
(Lowe's paint brand) Bonding Primer for glossy surfaces (not paint) in Tintable
White. I know I should have used a product that was heat resistant, but didn't,
so we'll just have to see how it holds up next winter when the fireplace is in
use! The brush allowed me to get into the slots nicely. I was careful not to
get primer on the stone, so didn't need to tape it off. I took my old, black fireplace screen outside and used White Rust-Oleum High Heat Enamel Spray and gave it 2 coats. It looked
brand new!
Next up, painting
the stone. I used a whitewash technique so as to preserve the basic beauty and
the natural stone look. This can be achieved by mixing 3 parts water with 1
part paint and mixing it in a bowl. I used 1 cup of paint, and 3 cups of water,
and applied it using the same paintbrush I used on the metal vents. I already
had a gallon of Valspar
Ultra Paint+Primer in White Semi-Gloss on hand from when I painted my kitchen
cabinets, so I used that. Be sure to tape off surrounding areas and cover the
hearth when you do the vertical surfaces, as whitewash can be messy and drips A
LOT.
Working in small
sections, brush on the paint mixture (the brush should not be dripping) and
then wipe it off with a white cloth or rag. You want to kind of rub the paint
into the stone as you wipe it off. It the whitewash drips down to the hearth, wipe it off
right away.
...and this is what
it looked like after all of the stone was whitewashed:
Kind of has the same
effect as Annie Sloan chalk paint, but a heckuva lot cheaper!
Moving on to the
mantel, clean it using a good degreaser or TSP, and then sand it down, just
enough to get rid of the shiny varnish on the wood. I used a medium grit
sanding sponge.
Wipe down the wood
with a tack cloth or similar to remove the dust, and again, tape off the walls and protect
surrounding areas from drips.
I decided to use the
whitewash mixture for the wood as well because I wanted to avoid the stark
contrast of a bright white fireplace in a room that doesn't have a lot of other
white in it. I wanted it to be a focal point, but not to dominate the room. I was
able to use the same original whitewash mixture that I had used on the stone to
completely cover the wood mantel with 2-3 coats, with some paint still left
over! Amazing - and cheap!
Using the same basic technique that was used on the stone, paint the wood with the whitewash mixture (I used another 2" paintbrush), using long, smooth strokes to minimize visible brushstrokes. You can wipe off/rub in the paint with a rag again if you like, but I found that removed too much of the paint, so I just let the paint absorb into the wood an dry, and then decided if I needed another coat. If you want a more rustic beach wood kind of look, then 1 coat might do just fine. I ended up applying 3 coats to get the look I wanted.
TIP: Since the whitewash paint is thinner and tends to drip more, as it dries (particularly on vertical surfaces where gravity is working against you) use your paintbrush to continually brush out the little "pools" and drips. This may take a lot of extra brushstrokes, but it's worth it.
...and this was the look of the paint after the 3 coats I applied:
And that's it! It really wasn't very difficult at all to give my fireplace - and my living room - a dramatically different look. From eighties eyesore to cool and contemporary!
I hope you like it, and I hope this gives you the inspiration to try this yourself!
