I am now a firm believer that natural brick should NEVER be painted over.
Let me explain:
It is almost impossible to remove paint from brick because it is so porous that it just soaks up the paint so deep that removing it is not really an option. There is one way that I have heard of to remove paint from brick and that is "sandblasting" this is basically just using high pressure to chip away several layers of the paint and brick to reveal the "clean" brick that is left underneath, which isn't much. Oh and you would be crazy to try that method inside your house, on oh lets say a brick fireplace for instance? Now I know many of you are thinking "but what if the brick is an ugly color, why shouldn't I paint it white?" well friends I will tell you why: Right now you think it is an ugly color, or you don't like the "brick look" but let me tell ya a little secret...trends come and go, your taste changes over the years, and it is unlikely that you will live in your house forever and even less likely that you and the new owner will have the same taste. So save yourself and possibly the next owner of your house the trouble and leave the brick alone, or maybe re-stone if you must change it.
In the 70's (my house was built in 1976) natural brick of any color was all the rage, not so much in the years between then and now. However, low and behold the natural brick look is back in full force and I'm stuck in the 90's (ish). Over the years several previous owners of my house decided that the brick fireplace was dated (or so I can imagine) so they chose to paint over it, many times. The last couple in my house who just happen to be insane in general kept with their crazy pants theme and decided to paint the brick an awful shade of yellowy tan (yes that IS a technical term). They also painted the mantle, the trim and one wall in the living room the same god awful color. I hate them. OK, back to the point. I looooooove the original color of the brick, I know this because the fireplace extends through the wall into our garage and of course they did not paint that part. I'm convinced they didn't paint it just so I could see how pretty my fireplace could have been, thus further adding to my tortured life in this house.
Soooooo as I said before, there is no removing the old paint, I had no choice but to paint it again. Since I have clearly not lost my mind (yet) I went with WHITE. I really would have loved to have the natural brick but as with the mantle and several other things in my house I must make do with what I was given. With that said I LOVE the way the fireplace looks now! We painted the first coat of white on Sunday evening and the second coat last night. The bright white looks fabulous with the dark walnut color of my beautifully refinished mantle. The mantle didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned but I still liked it, now that the brick is painted I like the mantle even more. It's not how I would have chosen to do room had I been given a blank slate, but man I did a lot with the hand I was dealt. LOVE IT! With out further ado...
This is the only picture that I have of the fire place from before we moved our stuff in.
This is the fireplace right after we moved in, yellow tan wall, trim and all ;)
Right before we started on the mantle.
The mantle taped and the fireplace with one coat done.
Two coats done and drying, almost ready to unveil the mantle.
ALL DONE!!!!
Pretty :):)
With the overhead light off.
The finished product!!!! Yes I took a million pictures, I am soooo proud!
