Would you want to keep the brick if it were not that purple color? There might be the option of having the brick blasted with plastic pellets or sand to remove the paint. Shouldn't be hugely expensive -- certainly less labor than covering the brick and adding more masonry.

If you want to strip the paint off the brick, I can give you pointers. DH and I stripped 3 layers of paint off our previous home's fireplace. Not hard - just tedious work. Let me know.

I would love pointers. I would keep the brick if I coudl get that purple paint off. If it is tedious work, that just means i'll be doing it on my own mostly :). So yes pointers woudl be great if you have suggestions. DH is that the name of the product you used?

No, DH is dear husband (who wasn't feeling too fondly toward me during this project!).

Our brick was fairly smooth and we used PeelAway 1 (can buy at Sherwin Williams or B. Moore at about $30 per tub - 2 1/2 tubs). Apply it in workable sized areas of the brick with their spatula, cover with their paper (if you run out of their paper use Saran wrap). Let it sit for the full 24 hrs recommended - do not scrimp on time. Rinse off as instructed. In some spots we had to do this twice. We found then that we needed to do a bit more paint removal so got some Ace Hardware concrete cleaner - white plastic bottle with green lettering. Applied and cleaned that off by scrubbing with a plastic bristled brush. Those steps took about 97% of the paint off. The last few % we covered up.

Tools used - 1" and 3" metal putty knives, a paint scraping kit with changeable heads from Home Depot, old toothbrushes, other brushes and a dental pick. Absolutely protect your floors with plastic if they are hardwood - the Peelaway will damage the floor finish. Have rolls and rolls of paper towel handy -you'll use them.

At that point, we could still some some residue (ivory, coral and pale green paints had been used). So then we used a 50/50 mixture of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits and wiped that on with rags. That removed (or hid) all traces of the residue and absolutely made the brick's original chocolate brown color pop.

I mentioned we couldn't get the last bits off. To cover the bits, we used a combination of 2 things - crayola crayons in the color of our brick for those bricks away from the heat and a tiny paint brush and oil paints to dot on color. It turned out beautifully.

Our fire place was 9' high and about 7' wide. Working at a leisurely pace - it took about 2 months in the winter. Would I do it again - yes! Would my husband - no way - although he was very impressed with how it turned out.