LESLIE: Time to talk decorating with Debbie in Texas. She needs some help with a fireplace. What can we do for you?
DEBBIE: My husband and I, we just recently purchased my childhood home that’s in Neptune Beach, Florida. And the fireplace in it is very ugly. It’s kind of an orangey-yellow brick.
LESLIE: OK.
DEBBIE: And I was wondering can you do – can you paint a faux finish over that brick? Someone was telling me that you can do it.
LESLIE: A faux finish as far as – what do you want it to look like?
DEBBIE: My original plan was to put a stone over it; to just have someone come in and do a stone over it. But I’m trying – it needs so much work. It’s like a 45-year-old house and it needs a lot of work and I was trying to maybe save a little bit by doing – someone suggested, “Why don’t you just do a faux finish?”
LESLIE: You can absolutely paint brick. I guarantee you it’s not going to look exactly the same as, you know, a new brick or a different color brick would. And I always feel really bad about painting brick unless in a situation where you’ve got – you know, the color is just awful.
There’s a product – I know you were talking about stone. There’s a veneer product from Owens Corning that they manufacture. They have one for the exterior and they have one for the interior and I believe the website is CulturedStone.com.
DEBBIE: Oh.
LESLIE: And if you look on their interior product, they have a stone veneer. It’s much thinner. It’s lighter weight. You can get it to look like river rock or …
DEBBIE: Oh.
LESLIE: … flagstone or the edge of flagstone and it really is a beautiful product, it’s not terribly expensive and I believe their interior one is a do-it-yourself product. Check them out before you make the decision to paint.
If you are going to paint, you want to make sure you use a paint that’s made for stone, for concrete. You want to use several tones of the color that you’re looking for. You want a dark tone, a light tone and a middle tone and you want to make sure that you mimic – you know, get a lot of pictures of the brick that you want it to look like and mimic that as best you can. Remember, anything that would be closer to you would be lighter in color and anything that would be further from you would be darker in color. So you want the edges to sort of show some wear and tear, so add some darker tones in there. Work with a couple of brushes. Keep the paint as wet as possible. Even use some small, fine sponges in there to add some texture. But take your time and work on some practice pieces first.
DEBBIE: Right. Thank you so much. I really appreciate all your help.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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