Houseologie


Living Room Progress: Painted Fireplace

Hey y’all!

HAPPY FRIDAY! This week has been busy, long and (mostly) productive. Hope yours is going well and that you have amazing plans for the weekend! We are meeting an awesome friend for dinner and haven’t really penciled anything else in. I’m hoping to hit some yard sales though 🙂

As you know I’ve been updating our boring living room over the past week or so. I just finished painting the fireplace.

Painted Fireplace After 1And here’s a refresher of what it looked like before:

Living Room Before 3

I love it all crisp white! Before it was very lightly whitewashed by one of the various owners of our house. Unfortunately, the white wash over the original brick gave the whole think a blueish purple hue. It was not good. I procrastinated painting it for almost 2 years. My hubby was not on board with me painting it for some time. He finally agreed it would look better white. That brick was sucking all of the life/light out of this room. Even my paint looks like it’s supposed to now! Grey NOT Blue!! Woop!

Painting the fireplace is a bit tedious but not hard at all.After taping it off, I cleaned it with a dry dust brush, then put two coats of primer on it with a thick nap roller for textures surfaces. I went back through with a paintbrush to get to the deeper grout lines that the roller didn’t touch.

Then I went through with a tube of paintable caulk and filled the especially deep holes in the brick that are naturally there. I did this because if I hadn’t those “holes” look black with the white every where else.

 

Caulking the Fireplace Fixing Fireplace Grouot

Next, I had to fix the concrete “shelf” that goes all the way across the fireplace. It has a spot where the connecting grout was missing. I filled it with joint mortar (the tube in the picture above) in a tube. It’s sticky but fairly easy to work with. I let it dry then painted out the entire fireplace in Valspar Satin off-the-shelf white. Most people would go with semi-gloss but I didn’t have any on hand and I didn’t really want the fireplace to be super shiny. This way it’s still easy to clean and isn’t over the top sparkly.

 

Painted Fireplac After 2

Up next is probably the gallery wall around the TV. It needs to be updated! Any thoughts on what I should do to the frames? Leave them and just update the photos, add some prints, etc.?

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Comments

  2. Sarah @ Little Red Brick House says

    Holy smokes, Leigh Anne! It looks SO much better; so bright and airy. You did a phenomenal job! I’m having fun following your living room remodel. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

    Reply

  3. deonnawade says

    That does look so great…I have a fireplace wall too and would be painting if we weren’t moving out soon. Go look at Michaels in the paper dept. for these gallery wall paper packs for frame inspiration. I bought one yesterday and can’t wait to put the prints up…they are coordinating prints that you just tear out! I do love the pictures too.

    Reply

  5. Amber says

    I love the white paint on the fireplace. For the wall, I would do a mix of prints, maybe a letter here or there, and more photos! I LOVE gallery walls. You could easily fill most of the wall if there were some prints added in. Hobby Lobby usually has prints 50% off. Can’t wait to see what you do!

    Reply

  6. Ellie says

    I love the white paint over the bricks. I also love the frames around the tv- I think it’s a fantastic idea! I’m keeping my house picture bare whilst we get it ready to sell, but will definitely keep it in mind for the next home!

    Reply

    • Leigh Anne says

      Thanks Christina! It feels os much fresher in this room now. The only thing I’m struggling with is leaving it empty or adding something to kind of soften it a bit. Pillows? Basket? I dunno lol

      Reply

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