Even if you’re not ready to do any major renovations in your home because of a tight budget, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make some updates on the cheap! Using just a few bottles of spray paint, I made several small, simple updates to our family room to make it feel less dated. Today I’m sharing the details on how I spray painted our brass fireplace to give it an instant update! (post includes commissionable links; for more information, see my full disclosure statement {here})
Our family room has great bones with tall ceilings and beautiful arched built-in bookcases but it was a bit stuck in the ’90s with ornate scrollwork on the fireplace and shiny brass accents on both the fan and fireplace:
By removing the ornamental fireplace appliques and knocking out three simple spray painting projects, it’s a few steps closer to the room I envision it to be:
Painting The Brass Accents on Our Dated Fireplace
I knew it would be a few years before we were ready to give our fireplace a big makeover (including replacing the brown marble with something that’s more my style). But until then, I knew a few quick updates would make it feel a whole lot less dated. The first thing I did was remove the large decorative wood applique in the center of the fireplace:
I used a putty knife and a hammer to get behind the applique and pry it off the face of the fireplace,
filled any gashes and scratches with wood filler, sanded smooth, and then repainted it (luckily the previous home owners left the old paint behind!). Then I moved on to spray paint idea #1: spray painting the ’90s brass trim on our fireplace. First I removed the whole front cover (it was as easy as lifting it up and then away from the rest of the fireplace):
To prep it for painting, I lightly sanded the brass parts with {this 220 grit sandpaper} (scuffing the surface with the sandpaper will help the paint adhere) and then cleaned the sanding dust and any grime off with a damp cloth (if it’s really dirty, give it a good scrub with soapy water first):
I then covered up everything but the brass parts I needed to spray with painter’s tape (I just used the tape I already had but {this delicate surface tape} is probably best):
Honestly if I were to do it again, I might go ahead and prep and spray the entire front except for the screen because even though the existing black parts of my fireplace front were in good shape, after spray painting the brass some of the existing black areas looked a little dingy in comparison to the freshly painted ones.
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I used {this spray paint} in a Bar-B-Que black (a matte finish) which is specifically made to be used on surfaces exposed to high heat like fireplaces and grills:
Unlike many other paints, you don’t need to use a paint primer first (the instructions actually say priming is NOT recommended). If you’re spraying outside, be sure you do it on a day that there isn’t much wind.
Using appropriate protective gear (eye protection, mask, etc.) and after shaking the can thoroughly, I applied my first coat of spray paint. You want to hold the spray paint can about 12-16″ away from what you’re spraying, moving the spray can back and forth the entire time to apply just a thin coat. This is what it looked like after the first coat:
The recoat time for this spray paint is very different from what’s typical with paint you’re putting on your walls. You need to recoat within an hour OR after 48 hours – so basically if you haven’t recoated within an hour of the first coat, you need to then wait two days to recoat! The paint dries to touch pretty quickly (about 15-30 minutes) so I did a second thin coat 15 minutes after the first. Once your last coat is dry to touch, remove your painter’s tape from any areas you were protecting with it.
If this is the only part of the fireplace that you needed to paint, you’re done but my fireplace also had a single brass strip at the top of the fireplace opening that I had to spray in place. I taped up newspaper surrounding the entire area (and probably went overboard but better safe than sorry!):
and then did the same sanding and cleaning prep as before and gave it two coats of spray paint. After everything was thoroughly dry I rehung the front fireplace piece and…. we’re done!! Here’s another look at the “before”:
and here’s the “after”…
A few years later we did a full fireplace remodel – check out it’s new look in my post about putting a TV above our fireplace.
Want to see other spray paint projects? Check out my posts on how to paint recessed light trim and how to paint a ceiling fan.
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