Fireplace Decor Videos

How to easily update brick with a DIY german smear technique!

Hi Gems! I am so ready to share a great transformation with you! Do you have a brick fireplace that you’d love to brighten up? Or even a brick wall in your house that could use a refresh? You do? Great. I’m going to show you how to do it. And I’ve also put together a basic list of supplies that you’ll need to get the job done! Ready? So my super sweet clients are in the process of completing a lot of projects in their house. They have this great fireplace that makes such a great statement piece but just looks tired and worn. First step is to remove everything around the fireplace and on the hearth. This is a messy job and you don’t want to get paint on anything else. This is a gas fireplace so there isn’t any soot to clean off just a little dust. But you really want to give it a good clean before painting. Use a vacuum if you need to and if you have a wood-burning fireplace clean off as much soot as you can. After giving a good clean you’ll want to cover the surrounding walls and floor with plastic. The homeowner’s decided not to paint the mantle and because it wouldn’t come off without a fight I made sure the mantle was covered as well. Trust me, once you water down your paint it gets very drippy and splattery. I didn’t bother taping off the brass insert as the brass was going to get spray painted later. So now you’re ready to mix your paint. These are the supplies I used. My favorite go to white is Behr’s Hazelnut Cream but you can use any color you like. Make sure it has a flat finish. I had a quart of paint mixed and I used about 10 oz mixed with 10 oz of water. And I had quite a bit of my mixture left over when I was done. So you can see it really doesn’t take much paint. If you want it even more washed looking add more water. If you are uncertain start with a very light wash. You can always add more paint but you can’t take it out. I started applying from the top and worked my way down. That way paint wasn’t dripping on the areas I had already finished. I wasn’t sure which method I wanted to use to apply the finish so I started with the foam brushes. They worked ok but it was slow and the foam fell apart pretty quickly from the rough brick. So I tried just a sponge. Big no for me. Too messy. I ended up using an old bristle brush for most of it and that worked great. Brick and stone are porous so as the paint first went on it looked much darker than it did when it was dry. It will soak into the brick and lighten up as it dries. Every once in a while stand back and take a look. We wanted some of the brick showing through. You can go back and add more to different areas if you need to. Once I had all of the brick finished I took all of the plastic off and this is what we had. At this point it was already so much better and brighter. But we wanted to get rid of that brass. So the next day I came back and took the doors off. Take the opportunity to clean the glass. You’ll be glad you did. I taped off the firebox with plastic so I wouldn’t get any spray paint inside the box. Also be sure to tape off all of the brick! Don’t forget this step! You will get some over spray from the black spray paint and you don’t want to get it on your pretty white brick. I’ve never spray painted in a house before so I was extra cautious. At the hardware store in the spray paint aisle you will find High Heat spray paint. I chose black in a matte finish but it also comes in a gloss finish. I didn’t want it to be shiny so I went with matte. Ready, set, spray… I removed the glass from the doors and took them outside and sprayed them as well. Once the spray paint dried (it dries super quick) I did a second coat. Once dry, the plastic came off, the doors got reassembled, and I got to take some pretty pictures! The homeowner got the glass so clean you get to see my lovely reflection in the glass! So are you ready to tackle painting your fireplace? Go for it! And don’t forget to grab your supply checklist! Leave me a comment below and tell me how your project went.