How To Paint A Fireplace Mantel White

Are you looking for an easy and inexpensive way to makeover your living room? Painting just one thing in space can give it a fresh look. Learn how to paint a fireplace mantel white to help update your living room.

We recently added a wonderful new screened-in porch to our house off of our family room. From our living room you would look out at this new construction.

It definitely made our old oak mantel look even more dated compared to the fresh white and gray built porch.

*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Read our full privacy policy.

What is the easiest way to makeover a fireplace or space?

You may be shocked on this one, but I am going to say that paint is the easiest way to makeover your brick fireplace or mantel.

(Yea, I know you aren’t shocked, we use paint around here ALL the time).

I do love DIY painting projects. If you are pressed for time or just looking for a quick way to update your living room the paint is the way to go.

Here are the steps we used to paint our oak mantel white and fireplace cover.

Updating Our Fireplace Mantel

Now was my time to figure out some good DIY projects to help update our space so that the outdoor and indoor spaces worked together! One of the first projects we knew we had to do was to do a small DIY fireplace makeover.

The “Before” Oak Mantel

When we moved into this house, everything was OAK! I know no one wants all that orange oak in their house.

We have painted molding, doors, gel stained bathroom vanity cabinets and painted pillars in our basement to update our home.

Once our screened-in porch was complete, our fireplace mantle that was OAK stood out like a sore thumb.

How To Paint Oak Fireplace Mantel White

Step 1: Sand Mantel

Lightly sand with the grain of the wood. This is to clean up any debris and will help the primer stick. Your goal is to just scuff up the surface to help your primer adhere.

Step 2: Use A Deglosser

Using a soft cloth or paper towel, pour some of the deglosser on and rub it all over the oak wood. We use this product all the time to prep surfaces before painting.

Step 3: Apply Primer

Carefully apply the bonding primer to the clean wood. The most important part of this part of the project is that you make sure to cover everything while not allowing it to drip. It will not be super pretty, yet, but it will be covered with the primer.

You can also paint with a small foam roller for the larger flat areas. This will help you get a smoother finish.

Step 4.: Let Primer Dry

I ended up painting this mantel during my kids’ naps on three different days. You could do this DIY fireplace makeover in one day, you just have to make sure each layer of primer or paint has dried before going to the next layer.

Step 5: Use Latex Enamel Paint

Paint two coats of latex white enamel paint to create a finished DIY mantel makeover. Orignally we used Sherwin Williams ProClassic Latex Enamel in Pure White.

We now recommended Sherwin Williams Urethane Trim Enamel when painting oak.

This product was amazing to work with when we painted our oak kitchen cabinets white.

Read more>>>Pick the Right White Paint For Oak

Use spray paint to add two smooth coats of paint carefully.

This was such a simple and easy DIY fireplace cover makeover using spray paint. I can’t believe we didn’t do it sooner. 

Just peel the tape off carefully and you have a new fireplace cover for almost nothing!

Learn From Our Mistake

Don’t use paper towels to protect your glass. The spray paint did leak through. Luckily we were able to come up with a simple solution to our problem.

See how we removed the spray paint here

How-To FAQs

Follow us on Pinterest, Youtube or Facebook for more DIY inspiration!