70s Brick Fireplace Makeover Without Painting The Brick

Our brick fireplace makeover did not involve painting the dated brick, but instead working with it to create a more cohesive living room.

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Painting brick fireplaces is a popular trend, and for good reason. They often look a lot better- less busy and dated- when whitewashed or painted a solid color.

And I am a big fan of painted brick; we have it in our sunroom and converted garage. However, I did not want to paint our 1970s era fireplace for a few reasons; we have enough painting projects on our plate and adding one more wasn’t appealing, and, I was worried I’d change my mind down the road and regret it.

Instead, we gave our brick fireplace a makeover without painting the brick, and instead focused on working with the colors in the brick, and matching the furniture and decor in the room to complement, rather than compete with the colorful brick.

Here’s what we did for our brick fireplace makeover, as well as some ideas if you’re considering one yourself.

By the way: last winter we (as in Daniel) converted our fireplace back to wood. We didn’t want to mess with fixing the propane line, and we love the coziness and inexpensive aspect of a wood stove!

Brick Fireplace Makeover

When we first moved into our house, this was how the fireplace and living room looked:

The fireplace and living room, before.

The fireplace on its own is not too loud given its tan/orange/beige hues, however, the varied tones of the brick competed with the varied colors in the wood accent wall, and it didn’t work together. It also clashed with the grey floor.

Additionally, the fireplace had been converted from wood to propane, but there was no insert and it was an unsafe area all around.

As you can see, our youngest son was using it as a rock quarry or perhaps a cement plant? Rocks everywhere!

So, here’s what we did to give it a makeover, and some ideas if you’re wondering how to help your dated brick fireplace out as well!

Paint The Surrounding Walls

I painted the wood wall Benjamin Moore Backwoods and the remaining walls White Dove.

Many times a colorful brick fireplace can immediately look better by painting the walls around it. In our case, we needed to paint the wood wall a solid color to tone down the busy-ness of the living room in relation to the brick.

We chose a beautiful dark green for the accent wall, Backwoods by Benjamin Moore, which complemented the other colors of the room and no longer clashed with the brick.

We also painted the walls around the fireplace from a blah beige color to a bright white (White Dove by Sherwin Williams.)

Add a New Insert

An insert, or lack of one, can really become a focal point in a bad way if its dated or shows an ugly gaping hole, like ours did.

The second order of business was to add a new insert- for safety reasons as well as looks. This particular opening is really large, so we had to order a custom insert.

This was fairly expensive, but we knew if we ever wanted to be able to use it, it needed to be done.

Daniel and his brother installed the new black insert, which immediately started making the fireplace look better and actually functional.

If your insert is an unattractive color and replacing it isn’t in the budget, consider painting it with a high heat spray paint!

Change Out, Clean Up, Or Paint the Mantle

We chose to keep our mantle and instead give it a good cleaning and shine it up; however, in some cases replacing the mantle or painting it may be the better option.

We like our mantle, and it matches the color of our piano, which now sits in the living room against the green accent wall.

I gave it a good cleaning with Old English Scratch Cover, which helped cover some of the scratches and shine it up.

I use this product on all my wood surfaces- I recently used it on my piano and could not believe what a difference it made!

Decorate the Mantle Well

Mirror

The mantle is a focal point of the fireplace and can really make a dated fireplace either look way worse or way better.

Mirrors are great starting points with mantle decor; they reflect light and create a feeling of spaciousness. A round mirror always works!

Before you decorate your own mantle, take a look at some ideas on Pinterest, read this post with tons of ideas, and shop your house for items that may work.

I added a mirror, a tall plant and short plant, candles, and a family photo.

I usually keep it simple, but I love adding in seasonal decor like fall garlands and white lights with our stockings.

Accessorize The Room

If your fireplace is busy, like ours is, keep that in mind when choosing furniture and decor for the rest of the room.

We chose cream couches (that I found on Facebook marketplace, of course!), a comfortable but neutral rug (to attempt to hide that grey floor as much as possible!) and brown and wood tones that matched the brick colors.

The fireplace needs to be the focal point; keep everything else fairly simple and complementary.

PIN IT!

What do you think- would you paint it? Let us know in the comments!

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