painting a fire surround

[chairandchairalike]

We rent and have got a horribly dated mahogany fire surround in the living room m. With the landlords permission, we've decided to update it by painting in a mushroom colour. Any advice (even if the advice is don't do it!)

I've recently done this and it's looks great. I used Rustoleum chalky furniture paint and Rustoleum varnish. I gave it a good clean with sugar soap and then Two coats of paint and two of varnish.

Prime and two coats of water based satinwood paint. Durable, washable and lots of colours to choose from.

That looks great, I'm pretty clueless, do I need special chalk paint brushes? No need to sand first? Can I mess it up? Should I get a pro?

You don't need special brushes just ordinary decent ones. Make sure the fireplace is clean and dust free. I usually water down the first coat slightly. There are lots of tutorials on You Tube you could watch. I'm not an expert but I've done a few bits of furniture and they always turned out well.