Would you be embarrassed if your walls were lime this?

That wood burner should not leave the walls marked. My mum has pale walls and a burner and the walls are spotless, and she's not the hosueproud type who wipes them or decorates often. That needs checking.

If the walls are black what does the inside of your lungs look like? That can’t be healthy for any of you.

It takes no time to paint once you get cracking. Are you doing it the same colour or changing it? Taping up takes a while if you tape (which I do as I have unsteady hands) but the actual painting would take a few hours. If your DH won't paint then he looks after the kids and keep them out the way while you paint.

It won't take long. Go around the edges with a brush and small roller then use a big roller to do the walls. Depending on what paint you use you can do 2 (or 3) coats in a day.

But get that fire sorted out first.

Do it one wall at a time OP?

Before you paint anything, like PPs have said, get someone to check your chimney and fireplace - leave it as it is so they can see the staining.

Once that’s sorted, if you give the walls a good scrub with sugar soap (and/or magic sponges for smaller marks and scuffs) they will look a lot better even if you don’t get round to painting them straight away.

it needs to be done every year. had stoves all my life long standing every summer call out with the local chimney sweep he does all my neighbours at same time aswell. provides a recipt - very important as if you have a chimney fire your house insurance will look for this. I would alos suggest getting heat tiles or a fire soround of some sort there ti help keep the cleaning maintenance

We have our 2 checked annually. He checks every part of each woodburner. He uses those smoke pellet things to check that they are both drawing properly. If they aren't the wood won't burn. We also use a special powder to stop tar build up ( tar in the chimney causes fires). He sweeps both , checks that both carbon monoxide monitors are working and then issues a certificate for insurance purposes.

So get on and paint it then. Total none post.

Shouldn’t a chimney be swept yearly. If it was last done a few years ago you really need it doing. Could void your insurance too if it’s not been inspected to be safe b

I have 2 woodburners. My walls have never looked like that.Is yours drawing properly. Do you have it sweet every year.

A fire place with an open fire or a wood burner shouldn’t be leaving marks like that - there must be far too much smoke/pollution getting into the air. Do you have a carbon monoxide alarm in the room?

You must have it swept and serviced every year. You’d probably invalidate your house insurance if you don’t. Please don’t use it until it is done.

Ignore the poster saying it looks grim!
Get a professional to come round and service your log burner and definitely by a carbon monoxide detector.
Then sugar soap the walls and paint over the dark marks. It shouldn't take you too long!
Go easy on yourself though, you are busy and it's easy for house DIY tasks to be at the bottom at the priority list!

We have a log burner and that doesn’t happen. Do you get yours checked and cleaned regularly?

It’s a mornings work.
just buy some paint.
sugar soap your wall
and then paint it.
job done.

I have a few walls that look like this because of my children, mucky hands! I’m going to be re-painting with wipeable paint in the hope that it will help!

When was the last time you washed the walls?

As soon as your finished decorating one room, another needs done. Such is life - part of normal wear and tear and family life. Just grab a paintbrush and crack on.

I have some stains in my kitchen from a previous leak. It needs a specialist undercoat and then redecorating. I suspect I don’t have the time / energy / skills to do it well, and paying an expert isn’t a financial priority (it’s a rental as well, so I’m aware it’s not an investment). Sometimes it bugs me, but I wouldn’t say I was embarrassed 🤷‍♀️

Before painting it, I would try using a sugar soap spray and cleaning it. You're meant to sugar soap then rinse to prep the area before painting anyway, but if it was painted that recently and it is just surface dirt, you might find it cleans up well without having to repaint

but if you haven't used sugar soap before, be wary of it and definitely ensure you don't spray any in your eyes – use eye protection. Although it's called sugar soap so sounds fairly benign it is a fairly nasty chemical – but very effective for cleaning paint work.

I presume you know the make and model of the wood burner so you can Google the installation manual which will tell you the clearances required for that stove and you can then check if the hole is the correct size for that model stove.
Chimneys should be swept annually, some chimneys require sweeping more frequently than others. I’ve got one that needs sweeping every 3 months.
Check the baffle plate is in the correct position and the fire bricks are in good condition. The baffle plate fell down on one of my stoves and it basically stopped working emitted smoke

A HETAS engineer.