Fireplace Facelift

You may remember our *lovely* shiny, brass, dated fireplace from when I installed the gas starter last year.

Dear Husband (DH) said it reminded him of a marching band instrument.
As our 90's house came with all shiny brass finishings, we have slowly been replacing light fixtures, cabinet handles, and door handles to lessen the outdated glare.

Well I am finally getting around to updating the gleaming fireplace.
The first step was cleaning and sanding. Since the metal had a high shine, the paint wouldn't have stuck to it.






If you look past the cobwebs, you might be able to see that to the right of the handles is a little less reflective. That side I have gone over with some steel wool to "rough up" the surface a bit.

I should have used a coarser wool, but all I had on hand was super fine. I'm hoping the paint won't scratch off too easily.

After a thorough sanding, vacuuming, and wiping, it was ready to paint... almost.

The paint I used was a spray paint used specially for high-heat situations (grills, fireplace exhaust pipes, etc.) This is key because while I wasn't painting the inside, the outside can still get pretty hot. It only comes in a matte black color, but that is so much better than glaring gold.

Since I was spray painting, and I couldn't exactly take it outside, I had to spend a few hours taping off the tile, walls, and surrounding areas. This is one of the most boring, but important steps. It's tedious, but it makes the difference between a great paint job, and a crummy one. (I used saran wrap on the glass which worked better than I expected.)


Spray paining inside gives little ventilation in an enclosed space, and the fumes will be bad. It was so hot out, I tried to avoid opening the windows but in the end we had to.

Turns out it was actually an advantage because the paint dried so quickly in the heat, I was able to do a touch-up coat of paint less than an hour later.

Thankfully, before I actually started painting, I did put a respirator mask on. (I should have gotten a picture of that!) The house still smelled of spray paint for a couple days though.

Removing the tape is the fun part. You really get an idea of the finished product with pristine lines as you peel back the coverings.

After all was said and done, the finished product looked exponentially better. No more eye-sore glare!

Hopefully it won't scratch too badly, but I could always touch it up again.