Brick and Stone Fireplace Limewashing in Kent, WA

Kent Limewash Painting brushes limewash onto brick, stone and plaster fireplaces in Kent, Washington homes, taking a sooty or dated surround to a clean mineral finish. The lime softens orange brick or a busy stone pattern while leaving the joints and texture that give a fireplace character.

The sequence is soot removal, masking of mantel and hearth, then color tested against the room. Fireplace work is offered in Kent and in Des Moines, Covington, SeaTac, Auburn, Tukwila and Maple Valley.

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Living room brick fireplace limewashed in chalky warm white

Fireplace limewash options

Brick fireplaces

Unpainted brick needs only cleaning before lime. A first coat lifts the color; a second can push strong reds further back, and the joints remain clear throughout. Brushing each coat thinner or heavier controls how much of the old brick tone survives.

Stone and rock fireplaces

With river rock, stacked stone or fieldstone, a quick absorption test comes first, since smooth or sealed stone may not take lime. Porous stone draws it in, and the colors even out while every stone keeps its outline and shading.

Painted brick fireplaces

An old painted fireplace first needs its loose paint cleared. A product and primer system made for painted surfaces then allows it to be limewashed. It ends up looking closer to lime on masonry than to paint, but with less of the brick-to-brick variation that bare brick shows.

Plaster and drywall surrounds

Drywall or plaster surrounds start with the primer system the selected product specifies. After that, limewash gives them a minimal, plaster-like finish, with hand-worked edges and corners that make the whole surround look like one solid piece.

Full chimney breasts and built-ins

Extending the finish to the ceiling, or onto the flanking built-ins, turns the fireplace into the room’s feature wall. Treating the chimney breast as one surface also avoids a hard line where the brick stops and the wall above begins.

Dining room enveloped in warm mushroom limewash

Heat, soot and the firebox

Before any coat, soot and smoke stains are cleaned off, because limewash cannot hide grease or soot bleeding through. Then lime is brushed onto the room-facing parts: the surround, the chimney breast and the front edge of the hearth. Inside the firebox stays unfinished.

In use, brick right at the opening is where heat and soot concentrate, so that zone may need an occasional touch-up to keep the color even. Whatever the limewash manufacturer says about use near the opening holds for both wood-burning fireplaces and gas inserts.

Mantels, hearths and color

A wood mantel needs masking, or temporary removal, so it stays crisp against the new finish. On a raised hearth, the vertical front may be finished to match, but the top, where people sit or place things, needs a protective treatment the manufacturer approves or is better left as it is. Living rooms usually suit warm white, soft greige or pale clay, judged on boards propped up beside the floor and furniture.

Request a fireplace limewash quote

Begin with what the surround is built from and whether paint has ever gone on it. Then add the property address; a single photo showing the entire fireplace is enough to start.

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