🖼️
The project:
Old brick chimney brought back to life with a new fresh look.
- Materials:
- Scandia 400g Metallic Black High Temp Enamel
- Australian Builders 20kg Hydrated Lime
- Feast Watson 250ml Liming White Satin Stain & Varnish - 250ml
- H20 Emanel White Paint
- Disposable Latex Gloves (for lime wash application)
- Tools:
- Ozito Cordless Orbital Sander
- 3M Mask
- Trojan Wire Brush With Scraper
- Step 1:
Safety inspection and a swipe. Before starting with the project, I made sure the chimney was ready to use and did not require any major upgrade or unexpected works.
The carpet was also removed in the process…
- Step 2:
Before re coating the cassette, I cleaned it thoroughly and brushed it with a steel wire brush (unexpensive Trojan Wire Brush With Scraper).
Parts of the cassette could be dismantled (i.e. door…) so were painted outdoor. However, the cassette itself was painted indoor. Scandia Paint is really good but make sure you wear mask and everything around is properly protected with masking tape.
After 2 coats, I was very surprised with the result. The cassette looked brand new!
- Step 3:
Sanding. I started sanding the main floating mantel. The original photo show an outdated brown color that does not match with the new house interior.
The sanding process brought up a beautiful creamy color that was finished and with wash with Feast Watson 250ml Liming White Satin Stain & Varnish. I only applied 2 coats but depending on the color of your timber, you may need more. The Feast Watson 250ml Liming White Satin Stain & Varnish does not bring a lot of color to be honest.
After that, I encouraged myself to star sanding the timber frame (cedar). In this case, I didn't want to spend a lot of time with the previous varnish as the timber color was darker. Therefore, I opted for a white paint (H20 Emanel) applied with water and an old piece of cloth. There are heaps of videos in internet to do a white wash with this technique but you just basically stain the timber as you wish. You can always remove some paint before it dries if you think it is too much.
- Step 4:
Now the finish touch! Since the brick colour is a bit outdated for our house interior, we wanted to change to white or similar. Before starting a bigger project with new stone finish, we thought that we would give the Lime Wash Technique a go.
It is the cheapest part of the process as the Hydrated lime is really, really cheap. Unfortunately, Bunnings only sells 20kg bags and I only used less than 500g.
Mix Hydrated Lime and Water on a 1 to 2 ratio (there are many websites that suggest a 1 to 4 ration which is a it safer to start with). Use PPE when handling the Lime as it is very aggressive. We used disposable gloves at all times.
Once the mix was ready, we applied the "paint" with an old piece of cloth too. When you apply it, it only looks wet and it takes an hour or so for the white colour to came out. Therefore, don't apply too much thinking is not coming white! Better to do additional coats that going to hard at the beginning.
Nonetheless, lime wash technique is very safe as you have days to remove paint with water before it dries up (just in case you don't need that much white colour). We opted originally to skip some bricks but didn’t look great so instead, we went back and apply an additional amount of paint on those bricks to make them more colourful. However, other people may have a different preference.
Look at the final colour, what do you think?
