Whitewashing a Brick Fireplace

Our family room has quite a large fireplace and hearth, and while the brick itself was attractive, it badly needed brightening up. The trouble was, we genuinely like the texture and the look of brick — so painting a thick, solid coat over the top to hide it was out of the question. We did not want to cover the brick. We wanted to enhance it.

The inspiration

The idea came from those gorgeous old brick houses we have always loved — the ones that have been painted white and then left to soften and distress through the years. That gently faded, lived-in white is the look we were after. So, knowing full well we would be stuck with whatever happened, we decided to just dive in.

Starting with the mantel

Before touching the brick, we painted the mantel itself in white, distressed it, and waxed it. That step alone made a remarkable difference — the white mantel suddenly stood out against the brick where before it had almost disappeared into it. With the mantel done, it was on to the main event.

Mixing and applying the wash

For the brick, we made a simple wash using Annie Sloan Old White chalk paint and water, mixed to roughly a 50/50 consistency — the same soft, watered-down approach we walk through in our guide to the soft beauty of a whitewash. The technique could not be more relaxed:

• Saturate the brush in water first, then dip it into the watered-down paint
• Brush it on haphazardly — there is no need to be precise
• If it looks too thick in one spot, add more water to the brush and go back over it
• Vary the coverage so some areas read more opaque than others
• Step back often, and either add more wash or lift it off with a rag to get the look you want

That contrast — some bricks nearly solid white, others barely veiled — is exactly what makes the finish look aged and natural rather than coated.

A whitewash brightens brick without hiding what makes it brick.

The result

It turned out beautiful — so much so that it had us second-guessing why we ever painted other brick PURE white! The wash keeps every bit of the brick’s texture and warmth while lifting the whole room out of its dated, dim mood. Where the before was heavy and dark, the after is soft, bright, and current.

A few notes for your own project

A wash like this is forgiving and inexpensive, which is part of what makes it so satisfying. A couple of things worth keeping in mind:

• Start lighter than you think — you can always add another pass, but pulling whitewash back off is far harder
• Test in a corner first if you are nervous, especially over a different base color like grey stone, where Old White tends to look better than a yellow-leaning cream — you can see how that creamy white reads on furniture in our Annie Sloan creamy whites before and after
• A wet brush in one hand and a rag in the other gives you full control over where the wash sits

Few projects shift a room this dramatically for so little money. A thinned coat of Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White, brushed on with a little patience, can completely transform a tired brick fireplace — and leave it looking like it has always been beautiful.