One of the first things we did when we bought our house was to paint the fireplace. Here's what it looked like when we first looked at the place. We later learned that others we knew had looked at it too but couldn't get past the fire-engine red fireplace. Thankfully, my mom, sister, and I were able to provide the proper treatment and give it a new life. After priming it we painted it the dark color, then used a "dry roller" with the medium color and then sponged/ ragged, a third lighter color and a little brown. It gave it a more dimensional look, more like real brick. See the difference between the top half and the lower half! It's starting to look like real bricks again. We later learned that the mantle was removeable. I recommend that you always check that first. It sure would have saved us a lot of time and effort. Here we are adding the final colors, ragging on a few different colors, one at a time.