"Marble" Slate Fireplace--can we paint it?
We have a large marble surround fireplace. At least I thought it was marble until my son pulled out a piece, and it turns out it’s grey slate. It is black with gold and white ‘marble’ effects. The room would look much better with a black fireplace mantle. How do I go about painting it…
We have a large marble surround fireplace. At least I thought it was marble until my son pulled out a piece, and it turns out it’s grey slate. It is black with gold and white ‘marble’ effects. The room would look much better with a black fireplace mantle. How do I go about painting it black? Can I or would it be best to replace?
Do a Google image search on “antique slate fireplace” and you may get some examples, mostly fancy ones in England.
Just FYI, these slate fireplaces were faux painted with marble effects in the factory in Italy in the 1800s. This is the original finish.
I’m not sure I understand your post. If you have an old slate fireplace with the original faux painting, by all means, do not paint over it. These are rare and historic.
All our fireplaces are slate that had faux-marble painted — probably when the house was built. We liked the look but the finish was too deteriorated to save. We stripped the fireplaces and now love the appearance of the natural slate. Rock Miracle and lots of elbow grease. Or, you could just paint over in a solid color. We did this in the tenant’s apt and I used an off-black (more charcoal grey). Looks fine. But don’t get rid of the mantle. That’ll open up a whole other can of worms.
What do you mean “replace”? The entire fireplace? You can paint it, if you want to cover up the cool marble effect with plain ole’ black. Just sand it down so it’s rough enough to take the paint. Probably best to prime it first. If you’re going black, tint the primer.