Were you able to figure it out? If not, here are some photos that will give you a better idea...
Yes, at some point in the history of our 91 year old home, someone decided to brick over the beautiful original brick fireplace... and they did an awful job. Just take a really good look at the brick on the right side of the fireplace. Huge gaps, and many of them sagging. It was really a disaster, and a huge monstrosity in our tiny living room.
It didn't take much to get the white brick off either, just a little pressure loosened up those bricks and one by one they came right off. As previously stated, whoever did this didn't do a very good job, when we got near the end, we had huge chunks of bricks coming right off...
It took us less than an hour to get all the brick off the fireplace itself (and Halle squealed with excitement from my Mother's lap the entire time), and then my Dad took care of removing the brick hearth and ugly brown red tile from the floor. But here's a better idea of what we are now left with...
Though the original brick is a little rough looking, it does look a lot nicer than that white brick mess we had before. We also all agreed that it makes the room look a lot bigger. Now we have to do more sprucing up! My Dad is building us a temporary mantle to use until we are ready to renovate the room and put in new flooring and built-in's on either side of the fireplace. We have also discussed cleaning up the red brick and leaving it, since there is original brick hiding behind the panelling above the fireplace, that we would like to reveal in the future. However, when we went to clean it up (gently) with a wire brush it seemed to do more damage to the brick than we had anticipated, which leaves us thinking maybe it will be best to once again paint the brick? We did't really hate that the previous brick was white... we just hated the poor job that was done bricking it up.
What would you do if you were left with a fireplace looking like this in your home? Any other suggestions on how we can clean our brick without damaging it too much? We are open to any tips you may have!
Holy smokes!! To be honest I kind-of liked the white... Since it might be too damaged, and risky to clean it, would you be opposed to bricking it up again? Or painting the old brick...?
ReplyDeletebrick over brick? why would they not just paint it white? i'd either paint it white..or a shade darker than the wall? or to match the wall and make an attention getter mantle?
ReplyDeletelove your built in ideas around it, too.
Wow that's amazing!! Yes for sure on the built in bookcases on both sides of the fireplace, I'd mostly likely paint the brick white since the wire brush wasn't being helpful - but maybe wait until the built-ins are done then see how you like it?
ReplyDeleteWow, what a fun project! I love the bookcase idea and have seen some really cool darker painted fireplaces these days too. Have fun with that, it will totally change the look of you room!
ReplyDeleteI would have said white, but I love the cape on the corner's idea of painting it a little darker than the wall - that could be really interesting.
ReplyDeleteThat is so crazy! Isn't it fun when you get rid of something that has been bugging you! Getting rid of our red brick wall made our living room look SO much bigger and brighter!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the look of exposed brick in it's original (albeit cleaned) state. If you have brick underneath that panelling, I would try and leave it. It's easy for me to say though when I'm not living with it everyday!
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love uncovering original parts of your house! So fun! If the brick can't be cleaned up, painting it will look just as great I think!
ReplyDeleteOK so now I'm wondering if our fireplaces have been bricked over. Hmmm.... How did you know?
ReplyDeleteWe have some loose bricks, I am going right home to take a look!
How excited are you about your soon-to-be-new space?!
I NEVER would have guessed this is what you were up to. Way to keep us on our toes, Ker!
ReplyDeleteSo I helped myself to a tour of your fireplace posts just to see how large your fireplace is. You're right - the painting part may not be a bigger job than mine was, but at least we didn't have to go through what you did with this! WHY in the world would someone have put bricks over the original?! I can't wait until you tackle it!!! :) Best of luck!
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