How to White Wash Your Brick Fireplace (German Smear Look)

For under $40 you can completely uplift your home and give it a whole new look in just a few hours! We were pretty hesitant to take this step with our home because you can never go back to what it was before. But I am SO glad we went through with it because it looks so amazing! AND it was so easy! I was really shocked with how easy it was. Not only did we update our fireplace with the painted german smear look, but also did our indoor brick planter that was built into the house. We used that as a tester piece first, since it was down low and if we messed up it wouldn’t be as noticeable as our fireplace. It took a few tries and we got the perfect mixture and figured out the best supplies to get the texture we were going for. I really hope the mixture we created works just as well for you!

How to Whitewash Your Brick Fireplace

Things You Will Need
°White Paint
°Interior Valspar Limewash Glaze
°Sponges
°Paint Brush
°Rags
°Paint Mixer Cup
°Bucket (optional)
°Towels for Cleaning Fireplace
°Multipurpose Cleaner
°Water
°Painters Tape
°Drop Cloth (optional)
°HIGH HEAT Black (or color of your choice) spray paint
°Paint for Mantel

Step One: Clean and dust your brick very well. First, we vacuumed all of the brick with a bristle brush attachment. Then we sprayed with multipurpose cleaner and wiped clean. If you have a mantle that is removable- I would take it down so that it’s easier and you don’t have to tape it off. Remove any of the fan covers and doors that are on the fireplace.

Step Two: Using a paint brush, take your white paint and paint all of the grout. This refreshes it and give its a good base. If you think it’s too white- add in a little bit of water into the paint. We wanted the grout lines to be bright so we didn’t add any water to ours. It should look like the picture below once finished with this step.

Step Three: Mix 60% paint with 40% water in a mixing cup or even a bucket. Slowly add in the Valspar Limewash Glaze until you have a mixture that easily coats the sponge / paint brush but also isn’t super thick.

Step Four: I highly suggest setting up a work station with your dampened sponges, paint brushes, bowl of water, bucket or mixing cup of paint mixture, cleaner (in case of a mess up), and your rags.

Step Five: I’d suggest starting in a small section that is less visible to see how to use your sponge and paintbrush to create the perfect look. You can start by soaking a bit of paint on your sponge and pat it into the brick slowly. You’re going to want to do a light coat for this first application, because you’re going to go over it again to texturize it. Also every brick should be different from each other. When we first started we were making small lines or X’s with the paint brush and using a dampened sponge dipped into the paint mixture we created in step 2.
*TIP: if you do mess up or don’t like where it’s going you can take a rag saturated in the multipurpose cleaner and quickly remove it by patting it until it picks up most of the paint.

Step Six: Place the fan covers and fireplace doors on cardboard or in a safe to spray paint area and spray them with the color you would like evenly. You’re probably going to have to come back and do a second coat. We also painted our mantel with black paint and love how it turned out! I’d suggest doing the same. Let dry overnight.

Step Seven: Once you have your own technique down, you can then pat on another layer, when we did this step we added more limewash to the mixture so that it was a tad bit thicker. Repeat step five again.

Step Eight: Step back and look at your masterpiece!

We kept our supplies out for a little while and kept touching up as we were walking by and noticing spots that weren’t as white as we wanted them to be until we were satisfied with the new look!

Step Nine: Once your fireplace fan covers and doors have dried, put them back together. Put mantel back on.

Step Ten: Comment and post a picture below of how your fireplace turned out!