Our fireplace (surround) is an old 60's style with small rectangular pale quartz bricks and a couple of alcoves (for displaying ornaments or whatever) that are lined in black marble, as is the rather large hearth. It's quite big so covers a large area of wall and I hated in on sight when we first saw the house - we agreed we would rip it out and get a modern style asap but of course time passes and money is always needed for something else more pressing and urgent so the fireplace has never been addressed and is still here and still an eyesore. Now we are ready to decorate the very large living room and have a miniscule budget that will just about stretch to wallpaper and paint, as well as new flooring and shutters for the windows. It won't cover the cost of removing the horrible fireplace and necessary remedial work so I thought we could just paint it white and replace the old painted wooden mantle with a piece of oak.
Has anyone has actually done this successfully and if so, how did you do it and what type of paint/materials did you use? I assume a good quality masonry paint would do the job but no idea really. Would it require any special preparation/finish? Would a general domestic painter and decorator know how to do this and do it well?