Our 1987-built living room needed very little work, but the yellow brick on the fireplace had to have a facelift.
I tackled this project and got the job done in under two hours, but first I had to choose a method for the transformation. I considered three. One was painting the brick. Another was an authentic whitewash. The third was using paint and water to achieve a whitewash look.
I decided I wasn’t ready to commit to the complete cover paint would give us. An authentic whitewash was a touch too involved for me. But the paint and water approach would be just right.
Tips and tricks:
1.) Paint: Most people use paint, but we mixed water with leftover flat white construction drywall primer, which turned out to be a good choice for us. Here’s why: 1.) We already owned it. 2.) It was a little bit gray, which turned out to be a nice cover for our yellow-ish brick. 3.) It was provided the right amount of cover.
2.) Mixing: The ratio of water-to-primer we used was about 50/50, but anyone doing this project would want to chose a ratio that will provide the degree of cover desired for a given project.
3.) Taping: We taped the walls surrounding the fireplace to prevent striking them with whitewash. We also taped a black garbage bag over the fireplace opening for the same reason.
4.) Painting: We tested the whitewash in an inconspicuous spot, simply painting the brick with a paint brush. We were satisfied with that so we continued painting until the project was rapped up. During this phase you want to be sure to cover any the depressed spots in the brick and the mortar between them. To consider: Different surfaces absorb paint different ways. For example, the mortar on our project soaked the whitewash up more than the bricks. If the surface your painting on is porous, like the mortar, you might need to apply more layers. If your surface is less permeable, like our brick, you might want to blot to make sure it’s as transparent as you’d like for it to be.
5.) Blotting: Following the advice from another blog, which stated that we should have a dry cloth handy to chase drips and blot as we painted, we kept a cloth handy. As it turned out, we didn’t need that cloth for blotting. We decided we liked the amount of coverage the mixture provided without blotting, but another person might have preferred the blotting. The cloth came in handy, however, for for catching runs, which there were a lot of because the paint is expectedly very watery. So keep that clothe on hand, y’all. You also want to be really careful about splashes. Even the slight stroke of the brush can cause paint that thin to spray. If your flooring or walls are in the line of fire, they will get sprayed. Keep that in mind and use drop clothes as needed.
6.) Finishing: After I finished the paint job I asked my husband to check for any spots I missed, and he touched the job up. After that step was wrapped up, we let the paint dry and pulled the paint tape up.
Analysis:
There are other methods that might provide a similar, but slightly more enviable look. Formally whitewashed surfaces appear authentic because the process actually produces a hardened surface on top of the brick. However, I’m really pleased with the whitewash effect for our project.
The amount of time and money we spent on it made this project easy to tackle.
I was really satisfied with the finish project. I think it gave the fireplace the face lift and the authentically aged look I was going for.
Cost: A fraction of the primer paint used on our walls: Probably less than $5.
