Skip to Content

How to Paint a Brick Fireplace

Sharing is caring!

Learn how to paint a brick fireplace for an instant update. Fireplaces can be a gorgeous focal point in your home, so updating them to fit your style is easy.

Fireplace painted white
Painted fireplace

This post contains affiliate links. I will make a small commission if you purchase from one of these links. However, you can rest assured you will not pay more for any products.

Painted Brick Fireplace Step by Step

The first step is gathering your painting supplies and selecting your paint/primer.

I choose a white paint to lighten up our living room.

Before painting the fireplace
Before Painting the brick

Step One Supplies

Note: If you want to paint the inside of your firebox, you will need to use safe paint for high temperatures.

Paint, primer, roller pan, roller sitting on the hearth
Fireplace painting supplies

Second Step Cleaning

I used a vacuum with a brush attachment to clean the fireplace surround and face to remove dust and cobwebs.

You can easily remove soot, ash, and carbon deposits; read more about how in this cleaning brick post.

Lady vacuuming brick fireplace
Vacuuming

Third Step Primer

You will want to use a good-quality masonry primer to prime the brick.

It is easily applied with a roller made for textured surfaces. For the taller areas, I used an extension pole on the roller.

Painting brick with textured roller and extension rod
Painting with a roller

Next, you can use a paintbrush to paint the areas the roller misses, such as the mortar lines.

Using a paintbrush to fill in unpainted areas
Painting

The primer does not entirely cover the brick color; however, the fireplace only required one coat of paint.

Fireplace painted with primer
One Coat of Primer

Paint Brick Fireplace Step Four

Use a roller to paint the face of the brick.

Painting brick with a roller and white paint
Painting

While the paint was drying, I refinished the oak mantel. I used a stain to darken the wood, then finished it with polyurethane. To update the wood grate, I used high-heat spray paint.

White painted fireplace with mantel
White Painted Fireplace

See you soon,

Kippi

Ps. You can find this post on Between Naps on the Porch.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Leanna

Friday 17th of March 2023

Paint is certainly a homeowners best friend. It looks great Kippi, so much brighter.

Darina

Thursday 16th of March 2023

Nice work! Made a big difference, wish I had my old fireplace back. Thanks for sharing.

Cathy

Thursday 16th of March 2023

I did the same thing to our fireplace! What a nice outcome-it looks super! Nice job!

Susan

Thursday 16th of March 2023

A beautiful transformation. You made a great decision to paint. And you make it look effortless, and I know it's not. Thank you

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sharing is Caring

Help spread the word. You're awesome for doing it!