One of the coolest features of our house is the wood burning fireplace in the living room. It has a brick hearth and traditional white mantle. The only problem was the outdated brass fireplace insert.

I immediately knew that insert would need to go. I initially thought about buying a new one, but I came across the idea of spray painting the brass black and decided to experiment. Due to the high temperature the door comes into contact with, it’s really important to use a spray paint formulated to withstand high heat. Enter Rust-Oleum Speciality High Heat Spray Paint. You can find this product at Home Depot for about $5.

There a few other items needed for this project and you can find a complete list below:

• Rust-Oleum Speciality High Heat Spray Paint
• Steel Wool – Grade 0000
• Painter’s Tape
• Rag
• Plastic drop cloth or large old cardboard boxes

Before painting, we removed the insert and cleaned it, making sure to get rid of all the dirt and soot. This is an important step so that when you go to spray paint you’re not painting over dirt or the spray doesn’t send soot flying everywhere. Next, I made sure to lightly sand the brass with grade 0000 steel wool rough up the surface a bit. Due to the brass being so smooth, roughing up the surface gives it some grip so the paint has something to adhere to. After sanding, I wiped the insert down, removing all dust to give me a nice clean surface ready for painting.

I used painter’s tape to tape off the glass panes then did three coats of the paint. A note about the finish of this spray paint. The can itself does not indicate a finish, however the Home Depot website lists the finish as Satin. I bought my can in-store not registering that I didn’t know the finish. It was not until after the spray paint dried that I noticed the finish was very, very flat. I would almost describe it as matte. This threw me off initially, but it grew on me and now I think it suits the space really well. Here is how it turned out:

I love how modern and updated it looks now. I’m thinking about white washing the brick to give the fireplace even more of a facelift.

Has anyone tried this with their fireplace? What do you think?

One of the things we loved about this house was the spacious and open living and dining room spaces. As with the rest of the house, the walls were that beige-ish tan color that we knew we were going to change.

When we toured the house prior to putting in an offer, it was nicely staged and decorated as many homes are when on the market. Part of this decor were what we thought to be two fairly large wood framed signs on the living room and dining room walls. Imagine our surprise during the final walk through, after all the staging was gone, that they were not “signs”, as in separate physical pieces that could be removed. Oh no – these were wooden boards cut into the shape of a frame and GLUED to the wall. The middle of the frame was actually the drywall painted a different color than the rest of the wall and the lettering was black vinyl decals.

We did not want these to stay so we went about removing them. The vinyl lettering was super easy, I just pulled it right off. The boards were adhered really well to the wall so unfortunately when I pried them off they took some layers of drywall with them. We were left with the below:

Now we were left with drywall that needed to be repaired, which neither of us had experience with. We did some research and the process seemed fairly simple – scrape, mud, sand, and prime. Hubby wanted to attempt the wall repair ourselves, but I chickened out and insisted on hiring a professional. Ultimately, I was afraid that we wouldn’t do it right and when we went to paint over it, it would bubble or some other catastrophe would happen. So, $600 later, the damaged drywall was fixed and we were left with large noticeable squares of white primer on the tan walls.

Shortly after the walls were fixed the pandemic hit and we needed to conserve finances, so we had to live with the walls like this for a few months. Then thanks to a gift card we received for signing up with our cable company, we were able to buy the paint we wanted and paint the entire first floor of the house. We went with the Sherwin Williams Duration paint in Repose Gray for the walls and the Sherwin Williams Urethane Trim Enamel for the trim and fireplace mantel. I really love the Repose Gray – it’s a light, neutral, but slightly warm gray. It instantly modernized the space, giving it a bright, fresh look. 

For the window treatment for this room, we put up a black curtain rod with semi-transparent white curtains. We also took the opportunity to makeover the old brass fireplace door – stay tuned for a separate blog post on that! Here is how it turned out. 

Love it! We have since replaced the dated chandelier and soon we’ll be furnishing the living room, which I’m patiently waiting for. Until then, I think this is a pretty good start.

If you’re interested in where I picked up these super affordable curtain rod and curtains, it was none other than Target!