Paint Your Fireplace in 2 days or Less with Miss Mustard Seed Paint

My husband went out of town for a business trip right after his birthday and he said he wanted a clean house for his birthday.  I am a creative type, so I get bored cleaning the house easily.  I read an article about painting brick with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint and became very excited.  I love, okay maybe I am a little obsessed, with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint.  I contacted the owner to make sure Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint was brick fireplace safe and she assured me it would work great.  So I jumped right in, because what my husband really meant by clean the house, was move all the furniture and paint the fireplace, right??

One thing I love about Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint is it is free of harsh chemicals and smells.  I used two of my favorite colors Marzipan and Schloss.  I am so obsessed the Miss Mustard Seed Paint, I already had these on hand.  I ended up using about two bags of the Marzipan and less than one bag of the Schloss.  I like to use a plain plastic cup of paint for smaller projects, however this is bigger area than I normally paint with Miss Mustard Seed Paint, so I used a little paint container for the first coat.  I also used a paint mixer to help mix the paint, you can also use an old blender.

I made the paint a little runnier than normal, but not super thin, as the brick really soaked up the paint quickly.  The first coat will look a little thin when applying to the brick, but I promise it will look great when you are done.  The first coat is more of a base coat, try not to worry too much about the cracks in the brick or the spaces between the bricks.  I touched up those spots with the second color.

I ran out of paint from my first bag of Marzipan, as you can see on the top of the fireplace and it was late, so I finished off the top in the morning.  I went back and filled in the cracks between the bricks.  As you can see, the first coat is not super thick, but is already making a huge difference in appearance.  For the second paint color I chose Miss Mustard Seed Paint color Schloss, as I thought it would go well with our gray flooring.  I LOVE gray!!  You just need to wait for the first coat to dry before starting the second coat.  It should be dry within two hours.

A quick tip to help your Miss Mustard Seed Paint last longer is to place your plastic cup in a gallon zip lock bag.  It should stay fresh in the zip lock bag for a week or sometimes more.  It may need to be stirred again when opened.  If you are painting everything in one day, you may not need this at this time, but you have some leftover at the end.  This is when I search my house for something that is crying out to be painted.

I did not have a painting sponge on hand, so I went up to the kids bathroom and stole a bath toy duck sponge.  Shh!  Do not tell them, they have noticed it is gone yet.  It worked out well, however as you can tell it was pretty beat up after using it for two colors.  The picture above is actually after also using for the second coat of the Marzipan color.

Everything I read or watched about sponge painting recommended applying the paint with the sponge in random spots.  Random spots was a hard concept for me to grasp, as I wanted some type of pattern.  I focused on the cracks in the bricks, pieces that were missing in the bricks and the space between the bricks.  These were also the spots were the first coat of paint did not take.  After the second color of Miss Mustard Seed Paint has been applied, it may look a little dark at first and you may think to yourself, what I have done?  Be patient and give it a moment.  It will lighten up as it dries and we still have a third coat of paint to add.  You will want to wait for the Schloss to completely dry before starting the third and final coat, it again should dry within 2 hours. Now for the third of final coat.

For the third coat, I used Miss Mustard Seed Marzipan again. Instead of a paint brush I used the sponge for this coat.  This time I focused on spots where the the first coat of marzipan still looked thin in smooth areas.  There were a couple spots I felt I painted too much gray, so I tried to help them blend a little better.  I tried not to do this in too many spots, as I was trying not to cover up the gray paint.  This coat went the quickest.  It took me two days to complete this project, however if you do not have two toddlers to also chase around, it could be easily done in a day. I was very happy with the way the new painted fireplace looked, but I could not get over my the eye sore of the brass doors.  I looked at prices for new doors, but they were quick expensive.  I found some Rust-Oleum Specialty High Heat Enamel and decided to paint them myself.

What do you think?  Do you like the fireplace makeover?  Please let me know if you have any questions and please let me know if you decide to paint your fireplace.  I would love to see your before and afters!

Suggested Supplies:

Miss Mustard Seed Paint Marzipan (you may need two depending on fireplace size)

Miss Mustard Seed Paint Schloss

Black Rust-Oleum Specialty High Heat Enamel

Drop Cloth

Paint Brushes (For the Miss Mustard Seed Paint)

Paint Brush (For Rust-Oleum High Heat Enamel and can be used instead of paint)

Plastic cups

Paint Mixer

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help us keep this site up and running!  Thank you for your support!