Before and After

After 11 years of living in our 1979 Colonial, I could look at the wall of chocolate brown brick of our fireplace no longer. It was literally sucking all the life out of my family room! After much research, I decided to attempt painting it. I still wanted it to look like brick though...I didn't want it to just be solid paint over brick. So I decided to 'faux' it. I am pleased with the results, and we officially have a 'new' room!

This is the Before...talk about DARK!




It took an entire weekend, but I feel like the labor was worth it in the long run!








There are a few bricks that I'm not thrilled with that I need to lighten, but overall it's done! I'd love to put a new wood burning stove insert in there...ours is ugly (hence the fireplace screen) and the new ones are made so much better too. But we just had to buy a furnace, so I suppose that'll have to wait!

Wow! What a difference that made!

It looks great Amy!

Thanks Carol and Savannah! I'm pretty happy with it....sure was cheaper than refacing it with stone!

LOL, I just noticed that from a distance the 'path' in my picture looks kind of like a ghost or something!

Great job, Amy! It looks so much warmer now.

Thanks Rhonda---definitely!! That room has a sliding glass door, so it gets enough sunlight, but that dumb dark brick was soaking it all up! Bill is going to build me some bookcases on either side of the fireplace too....when it will happen, I don't know, but I'm putting the pressure on!

Rob wrote:

Great job, Amy! It looks so much warmer now.

Thank you Rob! I almost can't wait until winter to have a fire in the fireplace and snuggle up! Almost.

Hopefully the paint doesn't peel off, from the heat. I've read some people who've said theirs has. But most of the DIY-ers say that if you use a very diluted paint (stain consitency), it should be fine. Hopefully! The first faux technique, BTW, is paint, and when that was done I decided it was too bright, so I added a stain and wiped it off. It's the stain that is giving the 'warm' appearance. Here is a pic of the process....you can see the left is lighter, which IMO looked more fake as well.

I love it, Amy!! It looks very natural. You did an amazing job!

WOW it looks Wonderful Are you sure you did it?

Awesome job, Amy! It looks wonderful and the lighter color certainly makes a huge difference.

It looks beautiful, Amy!! You did a great job!

Thank you so much everyone!

JW wrote:

WOW it looks Wonderful Are you sure you did it?

Hard to believe, huh?!

Lily wrote:

Wow Amy! You did a great job. Two thumbs up!! I love the new look...much brighter but still has that warm feeling to it. I could get really cozy in front of it. I also love that painting on the mantle. I love a painting with some kind of a river stream, a path or a road going across...makes my mind wonder where the "path" would take me...know what I mean? I think the bookcases on both sides would look perfect...makes the fireplace look embraced in...I love that!!

>>Thanks Lily! And yeah, I love a painting with a path too. My grandparents had a large oil painting above their couch when I was a little girl that I loved, of a path in the woods. I am still looking for that perfect painting for above the fireplace that is like that. In the meantime, this print is a nice 'homage' to them.

Great job, Amy and what a difference!

Thank you Maureen!

It's amazing how it can totally change the look and feel of the room, especially since the fireplace is most likely the focal point of the room.

Yep, it is the focal point...you come in off the kitchen, and you go down a step into a sunken family room, and it's not that big either...I would love to knock out a wall! I still can't get used to the new look---the room looks so much bigger!

And brighter too!!

What do Bill and the boys think of it?

That looks awesome, Amy! It really makes a difference.

Thanks Lori! Teresa, they LOVE it. Funny story though, Bill came in at the end of a long day (like 10pm) from work, and I was still working on it, and he didn't really seem to notice it. :unsure: I got really hurt feelings, LOL (I mean, how could you NOT notice your fireplace was no longer almost BLACK?!), and then he was like "OH!! The fireplace is painted!" Then he just said, "Looks good hon". Ahem, not the reaction I was really going for! It took him another day; he truly needed to get used to the change before he could 'embrace' it. Bill LOVES dark colors (the man could live in a dungeon), so he never really minded the dark brick! But he absolutely loves it now! And Nick hasn't seen it yet...he's at band camp and gets home tomorrow. He's my right hand man when it comes to decorating (good eye!) and he's excited to see it. Bren could care less, LOL, and was the one who thought I was totally going to ruin our fireplace. He should know I've watched enough HGTV by now! Anywho, he has since eaten his words and is pleasantly surprised.


LOL, sorry that response got a little long! :unsure:

Bravo! Come do mine now. I'm not liking mine now. It needs something else. Also I have a brass insert in my fireplace and I really want it to look like wrought iron.
Guess I will tackle that this fall....hopefully before Santa comes! :xmastree:

Thanks Gin! LOL, you know I would if I could!! Seriously, this is not as complicated as it looks, just VERY time consuming, so if you have the patience, you can do this! I am going to do my mom's probably next weekend (thank goodness she has a smaller brick section!), and she has a brass insert too. We are going to take that out and spray it with a heat resistant spray paint in a bronzey color. Not sure if the black 'textured' spray paint I've seen comes in 'heat resistant', but if so, that could give you a look very similar to wrought iron!