I used to think painting brick was some kind of design crime, like carpeting over hardwood or painting Victorian molding builder-grade white.
Turns out, brick fireplaces—especially those orange-y, dated ones from the seventies and eighties—can actually benefit from a fresh coat of paint, and the transformation is, honestly, kind of astonishing. The process isn’t particularly complicated, but here’s the thing: it requires more prep work than most people anticipate, and skipping steps will definately show in the final result. I’ve seen homeowners dive straight into painting without cleaning or priming, and six months later they’re dealing with peeling paint and exposed brick showing through like some kind of patchy skin condition. The key is understanding that brick is porous, absorbent, and often coated in decades of soot, dust, and fireplace residue that needs addressing before any paint touches the surface. You’re essentially creating a new skin over a material that wasn’t designed to be covered, so the prep work matters more than the actual painting, which is maybe the opposite of what you’d expect going into this project.
Wait—maybe I should back up a second. Before you even think about paint colors or finishes, you need to clean that brick thoroughly, and I mean thoroughly in the way that makes your arms ache and your knees protest from kneeling on drop cloths for hours.
The Unsexy Reality of Cleaning Decades-Old Brick Surfaces
Trisodium phosphate, or TSP, is the standard recommendation here, mixed with warm water at roughly a half-cup per gallon ratio, give or take depending on how grimy your brick actually is. You scrub it with a stiff brush, let it sit for maybe ten minutes, then rinse everything down with clean water and let it dry completely—and by completely, I mean waiting at least 24 hours, possibly longer if you live somewhere humid. Some people use a wire brush attachment on a drill to speed things up, which works but also kicks up an unholy amount of dust and requires serious ventilation and probably a respirator if you’re even remotely concerned about your lungs. The annoying part is that you can’t really skip this step or do it halfway, because any residue left on the brick will prevent the primer from adhering properly, and then you’re back to that peeling problem I mentioned earlier. I guess it makes sense that the most tedious part of the project is also the most critical, because home improvement projects seem to follow that rule with depressing consistency.
Why Primer Selection Actually Matters More Than the Paint Color You Spent Three Weeks Choosing
Here’s where people get tripped up: not all primers work on brick. You need a latex or acrylic-based masonry primer specifically formulated for porous surfaces, something like KILZ or Zinsser, brands that have been around roughly forever and have formulations designed to soak into brick and create an actual bond rather than just sitting on the surface. Oil-based primers can work too, but they’re harder to clean up and the fumes are intense enough to make you question your life choices halfway through the project. Apply the primer with a roller for the flat surfaces and a brush for the mortar lines and textured areas, and plan on using way more primer than seems reasonable—brick drinks it up like it’s been wandering through a desert. Most brick fireplaces need at least one full coat of primer, sometimes two if the brick is particularly porous or if you’re covering dark brick with a light paint color. The primer stage is where you’ll really see the texture and imperfections in the brick, all the chips and irregularities that were maybe less noticeable before, and you have to make peace with the fact that painted brick won’t ever look perfectly smooth because that’s literally not how brick works.
The Actual Painting Part That Everyone Thinks Is the Hard Part But Really Isn’t
Once the primer is dry—another 24-hour wait, or check the can because some products say they’re ready in four hours but I’ve never trusted that claim—you can finally apply the actual paint. Latex or acrylic paint in a satin or eggshell finish tends to work best because flat paint shows every mark and high-gloss looks weirdly plastic on brick texture. You’ll need at least two coats, possibly three if you’re going from dark brick to white or a pale color, and the same technique applies: roller for flat areas, brush for mortar lines and detail work. The process is repetitive and kind of meditative once you get into a rhythm, though your shoulder will probably disagree with that assessment after an hour or so. Some people use a paint sprayer to speed things up, which can work beautifully if you have experience with sprayers and don’t mind taping off literally everything in a ten-foot radius, but for most DIYers a roller and brush are more manageable and less likely to result in paint mist coating your ceiling fan and houseplants. The final result should look cohesive, with the paint settled into the texture of the brick rather than sitting on top of it like frosting, and if you’ve done the prep work correctly—cleaned thoroughly, primed adequately, applied multiple thin coats rather than one thick one—the paint should last years without significant issues, though you might need to touch up high-traffic areas or spots near the firebox where heat and soot can cause wear over time.
Anyway, the whole project typically takes a long weekend if you account for drying time between coats, and the cost runs somewhere between 150 and 300 dollars depending on the size of your fireplace and whether you already own brushes and rollers or need to buy everything from scratch.
