The 411 On Painting Our Bricks

I’ve had a couple of people ask me to give a little more info about how I painted our brick mantle, so I thought I’d try to do a little tutorial! I hope this helps any of you who might be attempting such a project sometime soon!

We went from completely raw exposed brick to bright white, which was a little bit of a challenge, but here’s what we needed and how things went down:

WHAT YOU NEED

Primer
Eggshell* finish paint in the color of your selection
Roll of brown paper
Paint tray
GOOD painter’s tape (Our local paint store highly recommends this kind: Frog Tape!)
Small roller
Medium angled paint brush
Ladder
Clorox Wipes or wet paper towel (for little clean-ups!)

(*I recommend eggshell because it has just a little more life than flat PLUS it is much easier to clean than flat! We used eggshell to paint the bricks at our old house and if the bricks started turning darker due to fireplace use, I could literally just wipe them down with clorox wipes and they were almost good as new!)

WHAT YOU DO

1. Start by vacuuming the floor around the bottom of the brick, where it meets the floor. Then switch to a hand held attachment and vacuum your raw bricks really well to get any loose debris that may be hanging out. Brick dust can really mess up your tape sticking properly and your painting going smoothly!

2. Roll out your brown paper and use your frog tape to carefully tape the brown paper down where the floor is completely covered but the brick is completely uncovered.

3. Use your frog tape to tape any wall that may butt up against your brick

4. Pour your primer in the paint tray and start layin’ it on! I like to roll first and get as much as I can with the roller, then go back with the angled brush and get the edges. If your exposed brick is anything like ours, there was a LOT of variation as far as the depth, so getting the primer REALLY on there was key. I had to go back with a brush in a lot of places after rolling. There were some holes that I pretty much filled in with primer. Like LOADED it onto the brush and slopped it into the hole. It was effective, but I had to really watch for dripping. You definitely don’t want any paint drips to dry or you’ll have vertical streaks going all up and down your brick! So beware of that 😉

(This priming step takes a while, but is really worth it, PARTICULARLY if you are using a shade of white as your top color. More on that shortly.)

5. Let the primer dry and pour any extra from the tray back into the can.

6. I hate washing painting equipment, so I just let the little bit of excess in the pan dry overnight. I did, however, wash the brush and roller.

7. The next day, I started all over again with the actual color. (We used Benjamin Moore White Dove for anyone interested in knowing that. It’s one of my new favorite whites!) I put the paint in the pan, rolled as much as I could, then went back with the brush for the edges and holes.

(The great part about the primer being white and the actual paint being white was that I didn’t have to be quite as careful with getting every little crack and crevice with the White Dove. This phase went much faster than the primer phase. If you’re using a color other than a white, you’ll have to be just as careful on this phase as you were on the primer phase.)

8. Allow to dry completely.

9. Pull up the tape and the paper and enjoy your new room (because it probably looks so much better now that you’ve updated that brick!)

I’m no professional painter – although over the years I have gotten my fair share of experience! – so if any of you who are better at this than I would like to share any tips, go for it! I’m always looking for ways to up my skillz!

Thanks so much for reading! It really means so much! 🙂 Have a great day!