To paint or not to paint?
I think anyone that has purchased an older home goes through the agonizing thought of what can stay original in the house and what do we paint ?
I had thought about painting my 70’s stone fireplace for a year and a half before I finally took the plunge and painted it flat black. I am so happy I did it! The space looks modern and clean now.
When I bought the house I loved the fire place as an anchor for the room but after time i saw it as a very large eyesore.
Here it is in all its glory. This is a horrible picture but it shows the brass and some of the dark tiles that are falling off at the bottom.
The very first thing I did was tape off and paint the brass with high heat black paint.
Next I removed the crappy 70’s tiles at the bottom. Later I replaced these with a large white ceramic tile and wood molding.
Man everything about this picture is yuck. This was the start. I had tried to paint the bottom by HAND! I do not recommend this at all!
The next step was to just get over it and call a friend with an industrial paint sprayer. The hardest part of the job was to tape everything to make my friend Rob’s life easier. I had this part prepped well in advance of him coming. I used anything I had around the house because it was cold out and I didn’t feel like running to Lowe’s.
Here it is. At this point I was SOOOOOOO excited.
Here is my amazing friend Rob. He ended up doing about 3 coats and I was sqealing with delight after every spray. Rob’s lovely wife Angie came over as well and we shon flashlights under and around the stones to see if there were any spots missed.
This is what it looked like imediatly after. It took all of me not to pull the paper off when it was wet.
We just used a flat black Benjamin Moore paint.
Here it is the next day! I absolutly LOVE it now.