Jen's Fireplace Makeover - Part 1 (Painting Brass)

I started painting my fireplace on January 1 and I was so nervous! When I put that first coat on, it didn't cover the brass very well and I thought maybe I had ruined the fireplace!  Susan encouraged me over the phone - she said 'That brass has got to go.  Anything would be better than the brass!'  So I kept on going, trusting that each coat was going to do a better job than the previous one.  I'm glad that I did.  I put the final coat on last night at 10:30 pm (for a total of 5 coats).  It turned out so much better than I even imagined that it would!  Not a drop of black paint got on the glass or the surrounding brick, which was a big fear of mine.  The hardest part was convincing the baby that I really didn't need any help.

Here is how I did it...
I went to Home Depot on 12/31 and bought 'High Heat Rust-oleum' in Black Satin color ($7).  I also bought disposable foam brushes for $.67 a piece ($5).  I already had high quality painter's tape and a drop cloth.

Using the painter's tape, I taped off the surrounding brick and the glass. This part took a long time because I wanted to be sure that I didn't get any black paint on these places.

Then I laid on the brick hearth some Trader Joe's brown paper bags (that I cut to lie flat), put down the drop cloth, set up a spot light, took a giant deep breath (I was so nervous), and I began to rub the paint on all of the brass parts.

The first coat looked like a toddler rubbed a black marker all over the fireplace.  I began to question my abilities but had no choice but to keep going...

I only waited about 4 hours before I applied the second coat.  The paint was still a little sticky from the first coat so the second coat smeared around a lot.  I decided to wait much longer for future coats.  This is the second coat.

The next morning I woke up and put on a third coat at 9am.  It was getting better but I could still see brass.

I put on the fourth coat around 3pm.  It was looking great! I was just hoping that I had covered the brick and glass well so I didn't have black paint in undesirable places.

 

 

 

At 10:30pm I applied the 5th and FINAL coat!  I took a tiny paintbrush from my kids' art set and used that to get a few brass pieces that were hard to reach with the foam brush.  A few minutes later I pulled the tape off and I was thrilled to find no black paint on the brick or the glass.

Success!  Next on my list - whitewash that brick!

Note added: if you do this to your own brass, be sure to rough it up with a brillo pad first.  I did not do that, but really should have.  I am hoping the paint stays on okay but if it doesn't, I have a plan in place to fix it.