{How to Easily & Affordably Paint a Brick Fireplace White}

DTKAustin shares DIY tips on how to paint a brick fireplace white and how to brighten up a room up on a budget. Click for amazing before and after photos and more information.

Most of y’all know renovating houses is in my blood. I went to school for Architecture solely because I grew up renovating and building homes with my dad so the always having to be re-doing something bug is a part of me nowI purchased my first home back in May of 2015 and it was a complete gut job. I think the only person who thought that house was perfect the way it was is my hippie husband. He loved the popcorn ceilings and WALLS… yes, walls… and the 2 inch thick Spanish tile covering the floors. I mean, they had even put parquet flooring on the walls… Anyway, the house was a total gut job straight out of the 70s. As I’m writing this I realized I never did a before and after of my entire house remodel. When my house is actually finished, clean and organized I will get that post up!

Now that the renovation is coming to an end I finally tackled the easiest part of the reno… Painting that grey brick fireplace. When we first moved in and started changing things the grey brick didn’t seem so bad until we realized there is only a 2 hour window where there is good light in the living room from 8am-10am. If you’re outside of that window its pitch black the rest of the day thanks to the absolutely gorgeous old trees we have. I can’t stand having lights turned on so I figured I would finally paint the brick white to lighten the space up and did it ever!! I am seriously blown away by how big of a transformation the living room had from just a few coats of white paint. I ended up replacing the coffee table and added in a lighter chair to brighten things up a bit too.

Disregard the gun artwork too… It was literally the only thing I had to put up there and Grayson insisted that it be in the photos!! I am still on the hunt for a couple prints that could work for that space so if y’all have any suggestions please leave them in the comments!

how to paint a brick fireplace

how to paint a brick fireplaceWHAT YOU’LL NEED – 

Primer – I suggest using KILZ

White Paint – Behr flat white paint and primer-in-one

Painters Tape + towels to cover the floor

Paint Brushes 

Roller for the last coat

how to paint a brick fireplace

TIPS for a seamless painting process – 

Brush the dust off the brick first so the paint will stick better.

Tape off any and every area you don’t want to get paint on and lay towels down for paint drips or splatters.

Make sure to PRIME the brick first.

When you are buying your paint make sure you purchase FLAT paint. Glossy and latex tend to have a pealing effect after a while. Flat sticks the best over any other type of paint.

Also, make sure you do not paint the inside your fireplace with regular paint. There is fireplace box paint that is NOT flammable. If you plan to paint the inside of the fireplace make sure you clean the brick off extremely well for the paint to stick properly.

Be prepared to prime plus paint at least 2 coats if you have dark brick to paint over. My brick was a dark grey and it took a coat of primer plus 2 coats of paint.

I had originally hoped to roll the entire fireplace but quickly realized my brick was extremely porous and the mortar lines were really deep so rolling wasn’t an option. I bought 2 different sized brushes and hand painted the primer on as well as the first coat of paint. The last coat I was able to roll on since the holes and mortar were already pretty well covered. 

how to paint a brick fireplace

how to paint a brick fireplace

how to paint a brick fireplace

how to paint a brick fireplace

how to paint a brick fireplace

how to paint a brick fireplace

Striped dog teepee tentALSO! I’ve had so many people ask about Steven’s new teepee so I wanted to add it into this post! Pipolli sent us the cutest little teepee and Steven LOVES it plus they’ve been generous enough to give my readers discount code on their purchase! Use code TEEPEELIFE for 10% off your entire purchase!

30 Comments

  1. Pam Dorrell
    August 22, 2017 / 3:03 am

    It looks so bright, clean and fresh.

  2. Diane Flynn
    August 22, 2017 / 3:08 am

    Beautiful job. Stunning.

  3. Diane Flynn
    August 22, 2017 / 3:11 am

    Love it. Glad you left the mantle stained.

  4. August 22, 2017 / 3:13 pm

    That gun art piece tho! the white make a HUGE difference in brightening up the room, good job!

  5. August 22, 2017 / 4:03 pm

    I cannot get over this transformation!!! I am obsessed with the white and this ENTIRE space!!!!

  6. Stephanie
    August 22, 2017 / 11:07 pm

    It’s incredible to me how the white paint completely transformed the room. It’s so much brighter and welcoming! I love that about it! You’re making me get excited about my first place someday!

  7. August 23, 2017 / 12:17 am

    Thank you for sharing this! We are house hunting and the majority of fireplaces we’ve seen are unpainted brick, so we’ll likely be doing this exact project. I hope it turns out as great as yours! Beautiful!

  8. Sarah K Tripp
    August 23, 2017 / 3:06 pm

    Yours looks so incredible! Love it!

  9. August 23, 2017 / 3:52 pm

    Oh my goodness this is amazing! Wow what a difference.

    xo,
    Steph
    @trendyinindy || trendyinindy.com

  10. August 23, 2017 / 7:12 pm

    this looks incredible, I love what you did to the fireplace! SO much better in white and it really opened up the room!

  11. August 24, 2017 / 12:29 am

    I had to do this last summer in my bedroom and literally did it the exact same way! Also, LOVE the teepee ⛺️

  12. August 24, 2017 / 12:07 pm

    In my house we’ve never painted the walls of any color just because white is the only shade that can enlarge and illuminate the rooms! So, beautiful transformation!!! The only thing I don’t understand is the picture with the gun on the fireplace XD

    • August 24, 2017 / 5:49 pm

      Thank you so much! And the gun art is just a placeholder until I can get some new artwork in! 🙂 We’re from Texas so guns are a “thing” haha 🙂

  13. Margret
    August 24, 2017 / 12:15 pm

    Omg this is amazing!!! The room totally stands out with the white fireplace!

  14. August 24, 2017 / 2:20 pm

    Wow, it’s so crazy what a difference paint can make! The fireplace is such a great focal point in the space, it turned out beautiful!

    Birdie Shoots

  15. August 24, 2017 / 6:34 pm

    Everything looks wonderful – thank you so much for these incredible tips!

  16. August 24, 2017 / 7:06 pm

    So many great tips! Thanks for sharing!

  17. Nataly
    August 27, 2017 / 8:09 pm

    Looks so good! Really makes the space look bigger! Steven is so cute too!

  18. Brittney Buccat
    August 30, 2017 / 1:46 am

    Omg! This totally changed the room! I love this soooo much! Amazing!!


    Brittney
    Missxbo.com

  19. Lauren
    September 11, 2017 / 1:35 am

    It is beautiful! It’s crazy how much it completely changed the room!
    xx
    Lauren

  20. September 12, 2017 / 1:16 pm

    OMG, we just moved and we have the ugliest brown stoned fireplace! I’m def showing this to the hubs — fingers crossed we can do it. Yours turned out gorgeous!

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