Making a brick fireplace look like stucco

We've been working on updating our fireplace.  Let me remind you of what the fireplace looked like when we bought our house 7 years ago...

Pretty underwhelming.  So we removed the sconces, added barn wood above the mantel.  Painted the brick, mantel, hearth and fireplace screen...

Our next project was to cover over the existing Terra Cotta tiles that was the hearth.  We used brick and widened the hearth.

We also added a new fireplace screen.

Now it was time to move onto the final phase of our fireplace make-over.  We wanted to make the brick look like stucco.

I saw an episode of HOME TOWN on HGTV where Erin Napier mortared over a painted brick fireplace to make it look like stucco.  So that's what we decided to do!

Here's what the fireplace looked like after one coat.  This is while it was still wet.

I allowed days of drying time between coats.

Here it is after two coats...

This is how it looked after three coats...

While this might appear to be dry where you notice the darker grey the mortar is still wicking moisture.  I did not do a fourth coat but merely filled in area's that needed to be smoothed out.  This is not a fast project.  I allowed about a week between each application of mortar.  I used 120 pounds of mortar for this project!

After the mortar was applied I needed to trim out the fireplace with quarter round.  Notice in the photo below at the bottom of the brick, there is a void.  That's where I needed to add the quarter round.  (Notice the red arrows.)

Cutting quarter round is my nemesis!  Ugh, I hate it and usually have to make many cuts before I get it right.  But it worked out.  I filled in the areas that didn't have it and replaced the quarter round that abutted the new.

It might appear a bit messy.  That's just the painting I did after the quarter round was installed.  I needed to paint that with trim paint because the mortar would be painted with a paint especially for brick and mortar.

I used BEHR paint especially for brick and stucco.  I have to say that I've always been a Sherwin Williams girl but BEHR is impressing me!  The quality of this paint is unbelievable and it is super easy to work with, clean up and coverage is fantastic.  In regard to smell, there is very little and it is an unusual smell.  Not like your typical paint smell and doesn't seem to off gas.

I started to trim out the fireplace with a brush and then rolled the larger areas.

I ended up doing three coats, but really the coverage was so good I could have only done one.  I wanted it to have a good finish.

It is just what I imagined it would be, beautiful...

Now the new brick hearth doesn't compete with the old painted brick of the fireplace.

I used two 60 pound bags of Quikrete mortar mix which cost $4.20 each.  The BEHR paint was $22.98 for a gallon and I didn't even use a half gallon.  The quarter round was $1.88.  Not a bad project for under $35!

This project took me about a month.  My muscles ached the entire time.  I mixed the mortar in the basement and then carried the buckets upstairs.  It was quite a workout!

It was worth everything I put into it!

Here is the before....

The after...

I think it came out just as I wanted it to, lovely.

If there's something you don't like about your house, don't be afraid to change it!

I'm glad we did.