whitewashed stone fireplace

How to take a dated stone fireplace from blah to wow

Some days we all wish we had a fireplace that looked like this:

Giannetti Homes

Or this:

Magnolia

Or one of these:

Oakstone Homes
Cuppett Kilpatrick
Birmingham Home and Garden
Black Birch Homes
Emily Henderson

Gorgeous, right?

BUT…

Sometimes, reality looks more like THIS:

A dark, very brown fireplace with a shiny sealant over the stones and bits of gray grout sticking out. Yikes.

Painting the walls can help…

But it’s still an eyesore.

Hiding the stone behind a thick coat of white paint isn’t going to fix the problem. It needs something modern. Yet timeless.

See how our whitewashed fireplace held up 2 years later

The happy discovery: a terracotta paint technique and an easy whitewash method!

The goal: texture and warmth with a neutral pallette. A whitewashed limestone look of sorts. But without the price tag.

The plan: paint individual stones in warm stone colors (think gray, brown, and greige), then apply a whitewash and “german schmear” to fill in the cracks. Goodbye spider hiding spots and hello lovely focal piece.

The cost: ~$60

The time: the project took a few weeks of sneaking in painting during nap times and in the evenings after tucking the kiddos into bed. But obviously if you didn’t have those time constraints I’d say it’d take a weekend for the painting and a day or two for the whitewash and filling in the cracks with joint compound.

Part way into this stone fireplace makeover I really thought about just painting the whole thing white. It would be so much easier! But now I look at my fireplace every single day and I LOVE the results.

So invite a DIY friend over and make a cost effective upgrade to your home.

This is a BIG IMPACT diy!

Related: 10 Ways to Refresh an Ugly Brick Fireplace

How to Paint and Whitewash a Stone Fireplace

Supplies:

  • Big bag of large foam craft brushes (you’re going to use a lot)
  • Old bristley paint brush
  • Rubber gloves
  • Acryllic or chalk paint (4-5 colors plus white)
  • Baking soda
  • Plastic drop cloth
  • Painter’s tape
  • Plastic cups
  • Plastic knive or pallet knife for mixing paint
  • DAP Wallboard Joint compound, 12 lbs (for whitewash; ONLY this brand, the Walmart brand is yellow!)
  • Plastic gloves

Step 1: Clean the stone

If your fireplace is anything like mine it hasn’t beened cleaned in a while.

Who dusts their fireplace anyway? Or dusts at all for that matter, ha. Another reason to fill in those cracks, amiright!

So treat your fireplace to a good wipe down with a damp microfiber cloth to make sure you have a clean surface for the paint to stick.

Step 2: Put down plastic

Protect your floors with a plastic drop cloth and some tape. And put on paint clothes. Then tape underneath your mantle too. (Wish I had done this–learn from my mistake)

Step 3: Mix your paint

The secret to getting a matte stone texture is DIY terracotta paint. It also happens to be ridiculously easy to make. Just mix about 2-4 tablespoons of baking soda to 1 cup of paint. The more baking soda, the more texture. You’ll know it’s working when the baking soda reacts with the water in the paint and it becomes a fluffy mousse.

I started out measuring, but honestly you’ll get a feel for it and just add baking soda until you get the texture you like. It’s a pretty forgiving recipe and turns out gorgeously matte every time.

*Heads up, the paint dries quickly so have everything prepped and all supplies ready before you mix.*

Step 4: Paint the first color

Start randomly painting stones with your first color. Make sure to paint the sides deep enough back, especially on the stones that stick out the most. The joint compound won’t cover those sides as well.

Keep painting until approximately every 1 in 7 stones is painted.

Step 5: Cover finished stones with tape

Once the paint is dry (which happens pretty quickly) use a non-stick tape like painter’s tape to cover the completed stones around the edges and along the front. This will protect each stone from getting the sides painted the wrong color.

Step 6: Paint different colors, then take off tape

Choose a different color, then repeat steps 4 and 5 until all bricks have been painted in a nice random assortment.

See tips below.

Once all the stones are painted you can remove the tape. This step is SO satisfying.

Step 7: Fill in cracks and whitewash

Mark off a section about 2 ft x 2 ft and put on gloves. It’s way easier to smooth the joint compound while it’s still wet, so working in a section keeps you focused.

Simple version:

Fill cracks.

Smooth cracks with a wet old brush.

Whitewash bricks by brushing over them with joint compound and a bit of water.

Keep extra gloves handy because they like to rip.

Detailed version:

Put on a glove, grab a glob of joint compound, and shove/press/drag it along the cracks to fill them in.

After the cracks are all filled in for the 2′ x 2′ section, go over the joint compound seams with an old paint brush periodically dipped in water to get the right texture and smoothe things out. Stir up the sediment from the bottom of your cup and then take the old paint brush with a little of the wet joint compound on it and brush it over the front of the stone. It may not look very white washed yet, but let it dry a couple minutes while working on the rest of the section. It’s easier to add more whitewash than to take it away (although that’s totally doable too).

One of the biggest reasons I chose joint compound is because it’s water soluable. I knew that if I hated how it looked, I could take it off with just water.

After my first whitewash layer dried, it made the fireplace way too white. (So make sure to try out your whitewash in a sample spot and see how it dries.) When that one spot was still bugging me after a few days I was able to take a wet paintbrush and a cup of water and gently remove some of the whitewash. It took off some tiny flecks of paint, but that just added to the stone look, and I finally had the look I was going for. Yay joint compound!

Step 8: Clean up and admire your work

Clean up any debris. Joint compound is not something you want your kiddos eating. If a splater made it past your splash zone, just clean up with water. Now check out your handiwork! Your fireplace is now a gorgeous focal point.

BEFORE & AFTER

Stone Fireplace Makeover Tips:

  • Buy your paint when it goes on sale at your local craft store.
  • Make a paint sample on a piece of paper of all your colors to make sure you like how they look next to each other. And if a color is a little off, try mixing in some white. Or a lot of white.
  • Paint some of the biggest stones with your favorite color.
  • If you want to get fancy with the colors, try mixing two different colors plus white. But do yourself a favor and write it down so you can remember in case it ends up being one of your faves.
  • Specifically use DAP Wallboard Joint Compound (I got mine from Lowe’s/Home Depot). I tried the cheaper joint compound from Walmart, but I hated the texture and it dried slightly yellow instead of white.
  • The joint compound is very white. I love this, but you can always try the more traditional grout, mortar, or even plaster of paris or cement and adding appropriate dyes to get it the color you want. I just love the water soluability of joint compound that allows for quick fixes even months after the project.

Possible Future Plans:

  • Upgrade mantle to something hearty like this
  • Paint inside of fireplace black with super high heat paint
  • Retile or paint hearth tile
  • Make large DIY painting to hang above fireplace

I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about the stone fireplace makover process. Just leave a comment below!

Next: Studio McGee Inspired Brick Fireplaces

Want to see how my brick fireplace turns out? 🙂 Join my mailing list and find out. Figured I’d ask like a normal person instead of having annoying email pop-ups.