Our poor bricks! Strip them? Paint them? :-(
We bought our him three years ago and have wanted our 1970’s brick fireplace and wall whitewashed or otherwise lightened/brightened. We also wanted the stained brass surround replaced with something simpler and more country/rustic/farmhouse.
Rather than do the whitewashing myself, I thought it would be best to give such a big (square foot) job to a professional. (Oh, the regret!)
Very unfortunately, the professional proceeded to paint the *entire brick wall dark grey* while I was away from the room with my small children, and then basically painted faux bricks—including adding red paint—over our original brick.
The carpenter she worked with built a massive mantle, with many more elements than we’d specified. We had wanted and specified simple in scale and detail.
I am so unhappy with the result. We ended up sanding some of the bricks down to the original color (see last photo), and I then whitewashed those, and painted the grout lines white, too. (<-thinking this was a mistake!)
We pried off the smallest squares of wood on the mantle, and ended up staining the whole thing a darker color (final pic).
The room is now too gray/washed out and just. . . cold. And I miss the bricks. :( I wanted them brightened, not obliterated.
Should we attempt stripping with something like Soy Gel? Just paint over the whole thing in a white?
I have other photos, but seem limites to adding four. (This is my first Houzz post, so still learning.)
Thank you for any insight or suggestions.
Comments (14)
Teacher Mom
5 years agoRelated Discussions
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PROBeverlyFLADeziner
5 years agoTalk about over complicating a design solution!!!
Should have just painted it white and added a wood mantle.
Teacher Mom thanked BeverlyFLADezinerTeacher Mom
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoThanks to each of you for replying to my post. I apologize for not coming back to read and respond to your thoughtful comments.
I’m attaching a pic of the fireplace wall as it looks now, and plan to write a new post looking for suggestions for the room as a whole—including the bricks, which I’m still thinking I should just paint white, or the wall color (Benjamin Moore Calm). I’ll post a link to that as soon as I have it up.
Thank you again!
PROS Reed design
5 years agoIs this the look you like? If so you’re close to it and I would go with a barnwood beam (or looks like a beam) first to see if that balances the whole thing.
Teacher Mom thanked S Reed designTeacher Mom
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
Thank you.
We chickened out on just doing a beam, bc the original 1970’s mantle was a wall-to-wall beam and it came **crashing** down without warning about six inches from where my kids play! Crushed the baseboards. Could have killed someone. Scared me off from anything that wasn’t supported with actual wood.
This is what we we were hoping for for, and what was sketched out for carpenter, before he built and installed something very different, and I didn’t know how to stand up for what I wanted In the moment. :-(- PRO
S Reed design
5 years ago Teacher Mom
5 years ago
jay06
5 years agoTeacher Mom
5 years agoTeacher Mom
5 years ago
S Reed design