How To Whitewash Brick

I have had a lot of people ask me how to whitewash brick, so I thought it might be wise to post my process with you all.  Hopefully it will help you gain the confidence to transform your outdated-looking brick into something you love!  It really is a simple process.  Messy but simple.  You can do this, I promise!  I'll be showing you pictures from my own home and my client's home.  

What You Will Need:

White paint (I had half of a gallon can left of white satin paint that I used)

Water

Large Angled Paint Brush

Bucket

Stir Stick

Drop cloths

Painter's tape

Old Towels

Something to cover the fireplace (newspaper, trash bag, paper grocery bags, etc.)

Step 1

Sweep the fireplace down really good.  If you have any food or drink spills or oily spots on any bricks, get some degreaser or even dish soap and clean those areas.  The paint will not stick to those oily spots.  I used a scrub brush and some basic kitchen cleaning spray and it did the trick.

Step 2

Prepare the area by taping walls, floors, ceilings, mantles, etc; whatever the paint might touch.  Lay a drop cloth to cover the floors.  The whitewash drips quite a bit, so covering the floor is very important.  It also splashes a little while you paint the bricks, so I really recommend covering your fireplace and mantle completely.  I've used newspaper and trash bags before and they both do the job.  The paint dries pretty fast and when you're on a roll you don't really want to stop and clean off the paint splatters.  It's best to take an extra 5 minutes and cover everything up.  

Step 3

Get your bucket, I used a 3 gallon bucket, and pour in some paint.  Then add water.  Use a 3:1 paint to water ratio for a lighter coat and a 2:1 ratio for a heavier coat.  I had 2 quarts of white paint leftover and added 1 quart of water and it was just enough to cover an entire brick wall.  I'll give you some visuals later of what the difference between the two ratios looks like.  Use the stir stick to mix the paint and water really well.  Leave the stir stick in the bucket so you can continue to mix while you work.  

Step 4

Use your angle brush to apply the whitewash.  Work your way from top to bottom in small sections.  Don't forget to get in-between the bricks.  Have a bunch of old towels handy, and lightly dab over the section to catch drips.  The brick will soak in the whitewash, so it really comes down to what you want it to look like.  You can always test a small section, dab, let it dry and see how you like it first.  If it comes out too light for your liking, add another coat of whitewash and just make a mental note that you shouldn't dab so much on the next sections.  It's fairly forgiving and you can always do touch-ups later.  

Note:  Speaking from experience, if you have a brick step or brick on the floor in front of your fireplace, cover it with a drop cloth while you are working on the fireplace walls.  You are bound to have drips and it soaks in pretty fast.  Unfortunately, those little drip spots don't blend in nicely when you go over them with whitewash later.

Before...

Prepped and ready for whitewash.  We had a little fun with the tape.

All done!  I used the 3:1 ratio here.

Before...

Here we are in the process... See, I didn't cover up that brick step.  Those paint drips came back to haunt me later.  Trust me, I'm still being haunted. 

 All done!  I used a 2:1 ratio here because the brick was so dark.

I hope you found this post helpful!  Thanks for reading!  

-Kirstyn