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Paint It White? Three Fireplace Questions

Tess Wilson
Tess Wilson
After many happy years living in tiny apartments in big cities, Tess has found herself in a little house on the prairie. For real.
updated Dec 30, 2019
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Q #1: My husband and I recently purchased a home built in the late ’70s. We are slowly updating the interior and we aren’t sure whether or not to paint the brick fireplace white in order to give the original red brick a facelift? I feel like the current trend is to paint everything white, so I don’t want to paint over the original brick only to regret it later if the “paint it white” fad goes away in a few years. I’m curious what others would do – paint it or leave it? -Sent by Kayla

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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
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Q #2: The previous owners of our Edwardian committed numerous painting atrocities, including sponge-painting an entire room a hideous yellow, and (we think) staining the brick/stone fireplace yellow. It doesn’t look obviously painted so we thought it might be the natural color of the stone, but our downstairs neighbor’s identical fireplace is a normal red brick with off-white stone. Now that we’re repainting the room a normal cream color, we’re not sure what to do with this yellow monstrosity. Is there any hope to restore this fireplace to a more natural-looking color-scheme? Or should we just paint it white and be done with it? We’re worried the dark, glossy trim might clash with a white fireplace. -Sent by Lee

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Q #3: We’re closing on our first house next month (yay!), a 1952 ranch with some charming features. I’ve been brainstorming ideas to update the fireplace in the living room on a budget. The attached images are from the listing. To me, the height of the brick makes the room feel small. I was thinking of white washing the brick, but I’m wondering if that will work on brick that’s stained? The fireplace also has a bronze post- wondering how I could freshen that as well. Thanks in advance, fellow Apartment Therapy fans 🙂 -Sent by Julie

Editor: I receive so many fireplace-related questions, I’ve decided to periodically combine them in groups of three so that this column doesn’t become Good Fireplace Questions & The Occasional Puppy Photo. Please advise Kayla, Lee, and Julie on their respective fireplace conundrums, and keep those fireplace questions (and puppy photos) coming!

• Have a question for our community? Send us yours with a photo or two attached (questions with photos get answered first).

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