We have a wood burner. The fireplace in which it stands has bricks in a column on either side and a wooden beam as a mantel piece. The bricks are the awful, 80s/early 90s-style very obviously machine made dark brown ones with very straight ridges across them, and the mantel has had bits gouged out of it to make it look weathered and has been varnishes dark brown. Basically, I hate it!
Will it look awful if I sand the mantel down and paint the bricks cream? We can't afford to do anything else to it! What sort of paint should I use? The hearth is reddish stone with brick edging but those bricks aren't as bad!