To paint or not to paint a brick exposed fireplace?

[TerrysNo2]

DH and I are in disagreement. We are renovating the whole house and in the living room we have sanded the original pine floors and oiled them so they are a golden colour now. The room has been replastered except for the fireplace where we have exposed the original red brick wall.

Do you think golden pine floors will look best with red brick or should we paint the bricks white. FWIW the walls are painted a v light grey.

thanks!

Depends how orange-y the red is, what colour the mortar is, how even the brick colour is and what sort of decor you're having in the rest of the room. I don't usually like red-brick very much so I'd be tempted to plaster and paint - probably to match the rest of the walls.

You might be able to stain the brick instead ?! Might get a better finish that way ?! Ask at your local builders merchant for advice .

Agree with lala I would have to paint them unless they were really old, weathered, pale coloured bricks.
Personally I would have plastered the whole room.

I would if it could look like this.

I've painted mine cream, it looks lovely. Neighbour has left theirs exposed and it makes the whole room dark.

I don't really understand why you'd expose them if you're going to paint them. I'd get the plasterer back.

natural - that chimney breast looks amazing.

www.eastcoastcreativeblog.com/2012/11/brass-fireplace-update.html

I would do it like this.

I like the whitewashing a lot! the only issue is that there are a couple of breeze blocks in the middle of the wall and a lot of the bricks are half bricks so I'm not sure if it's going to look good. I think we're going to try and then if it looks terrible then we might retile it with grey bricks

If it's got breeze blocks in there then you're right it will look crap - not only are they are different size but the finish is different, they will really stick out. If the bricks are not a very regular size, it's not going to look great either. I'd cover up.

In that case I would just get it skimmed over.

I like the whitewashing picture, ours are bright red though so not sure how it would turn out.

conclusion has been not to paint, but we are refacing it with new brick tiles.

Not sold on fully painting brick but I am totally in love with the whitewash look and I am pretty decided that is what I will be doing to my own fireplace wall. It just feels sacrilegious painting brick but this almost doesn't count.

There are other tips I have come across but will have to update later as out right now!

I did mine , whitewashing was a disaster so I painted with chalk paint\pics on my profile

We left exposed brick - but is pale old brick - not red. Pic on profile - but now has an oak mantle as well.