Some Like It Hot
October 3, 2009
I’ve received several emails lately inquiring about painting the brass exterior surround of a fireplace. My response has always been to try a brand of high temperature specialty paint. I’ve passed this product several times in the paint aisle at Home Depot and Lowes. Over the summer, I even considered repainting the outside of our old BBQ. But I have never actually gotten around to trying it out until today. This morning, I bought a quart of Rustoleum’s High Heat black paint at Lowes for $13 dollars. This afternoon, I was able to give my two fireplaces a fresher look for very little cost, and without replacing any parts.
First, I tackled the living room fireplace. I’ve always loved the existing cream marble tile surround and the white mantle, but the brass trim and wood handles? No thanks. It looked very dated in my opinion. I really wanted it to be less brassy. But replacing the doors was cost prohibitive. So I tried this specialty paint today, and in about twenty minutes, the fireplace was transformed into something I believe looks much more fresh and modern.
So long brass trim.
Here’s another glance from afar.
Here’s what I did.
I prepped the surfaces by cleaning the exterior brass trim around the fireplace and taping off the marble tile. Note that this specialty high temperature paint is oil-based, so clean up requires mineral spirits. For these kinds of smaller projects, I like to use a disposable brush.
This paint is also available in a spray paint form for those who prefer the quicker application that comes from spray paint, and can access a well ventilated area. The brush application just happened to work better for my situation.
The paint is a more watery than regular latex paint, but goes on pretty smooth.
The final product:
Next, I gave the master bedroom gas fireplace a fresh coat of black paint. Over the years, it has suffered some scratches, wear and tear. A quick coat of this specialty paint, and it was good as new !
Before:
After:
Rustoleum’s High Heat paint is available at Lowes and Home Depot, and comes in several colors, like white, silver, and almond. The High Heat Ultra also comes black, brown, and aged copper. Krylon also has a line of high temperature paints as well. These paints withstand temperatures up to 1200º F, but they are not designed to be used anywhere that comes in direct contact with flames, so they would not be appropriate for the inside of a fireplace or a BBQ grill. For $13 dollars, this was an inexpensive fix for me, and I’m pretty pleased with the outcome.
Now just for fun, take a look at the real ‘Some Like It Hot’ featuring the hysterical duo of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon dolled up as gals, and mixing it up with Marilyn Monroe. Here’s just one great clip among many.
And there’s still time to enter the Stella & Dot giveaway until Sunday October 4th at 8 p.m. PST. Don’t miss out !
I just bought some paint last week to do the same thing to ours! I wish they had more color choices for the high heat paint, but hopefully, it will come out as nice as yours!
Hey, we just did our fireplace too! Thanks for the great post! Here’s a link to see how ours turned out (and to see our little shout out to you!).
http://thathouseonthecorner.blogspot.com/2009/12/todays-before-and-after-fireplace.html
Thanks,
Caitlin
This is great. I was wondering the same thing about my old fireplace glass (changing the brass and wooden handles). What did you replace your wooden handles with? I don’t see handles in the picture…unless they’re black on black. Thanks for the post. I’m now inspired to do this today!
OMG – thank you so much for this idea! I updated my fireplace using this paint and LOVE it! I wrote about it over at my blog.
http://wherenorthmetsouth.blogspot.com/2010/03/fireplace-touch-up.html.
Thanks again!
Kate, thanks so much for this post! My friend recently asked me if I could help out with her fireplace and I knew just what to do!
http://mollythepirate.blogspot.com/2010/04/curse-of-brass-fireplace.html
[...] I tackled the brassy doors with some of Rustoleum’s high heat paint, the same paint I used on my fireplace last [...]
Thanks so much for this! I’ll be doing this asap. I’m sick to death of the brass fireplace insert!
[...] and here, all with great success. I’ve used the high heat (brush on) here and here, but the spray version is the same formula. Great for BBQs I [...]
I’m going to paint my brassy fireplace this weekend. Very excited! Off to purchase the paint on my lunch break! Thank you so much for this great tip.
Just a thought . . . why aren’t the insides of your fireplaces painted black? Is that a California thing? I live in the Chicago area and we all paint the inside of our fireplaces with a specialty black paint (probably what you are already using) so that you do not see any soot marks from the fire. It all blends in perfectly, in my opinion, and makes it look really clean. The whole inside of the box is spray painted including the floor. In my first house with a fireplace, I forgot to open the flue and nearly passed out from the fumes while painting!!!! Learned my lesson and opened up the flue and every window when I touched up my fireplace in my next house!! Another thing, have you seen any of those new fireplaces that do not use logs, but rather glass rocks that the flames come out of? They are so neat!!! I do not know of anyone who has them though, as of yet. I figured that you may be on the bandwagon all too soon. :)
This is great! I am going to go get the paint today… I have the same question as Brooke…. how did you update the wood/brass handles?
Great posting, it’s so nice to see someone else has my passion to paint just about everything! You can get loads of colors of heat resistant paints at the auto parts store. Car enthusiasts use it to paint their engines. You know that’s got to live up to some wear and tear.
Wow–what a difference a little black paint makes. It’s much better. I am thinking of painting my red brick fireplace front. Some Like it Hot is one of my all time favorite movies!