Painting a fireplace

[AndreaMoore]

Please help! I listened to someone tell me that white washing my brick fire place would look better than painting it. Well...it does not look better. It looks horrible! It looks like I have a watered down acrylic laytex paint on it in some places and thick paint in others. Can I paint over this with an oil base high gloss paint? Have I ruined my fireplace. Any suggestions are welcome.

[robinmm01]

I too wanted to do something with my huge brick fireplace. I took the advice from this forum and painted primer wash. It did not turn out the way I wanted. Problem is you can't just remove it. It would take a lot of wire brushes and paint remover than its worth. I ended up just painting it a taupe color. I really like it. Though my mom says I should have left it brick. Remember once you paint it, it will never be the same. That said dont use oil base if you do decide to proceed. Oil seals the brick and does not allow it to breath from all the heat. I used a satin finish latex paint plus this allows for easy clean up. I hope this helps!

Robin

"I can do anything I put my mind to!" Robin Mathews