Mantle

[Colin Jackson]

Fireplace Mantle

SWMBO decided that the fireplace was not period and should be changed. Purchased a solid/pine mantle in natural finish and need to paint White.

Any suggestions on what paint I should use? Heat not a factor as sufficient distance from hearth with tiles, etc.

Some type of acrylic paint? Silk finish. Numerous detailing on mantle, so thinking of spraying. I can lay flat. Buy/Hire spray gun? What primer? What dilution of paint for spraying?

All suggestions welcome.

Colin

[Teddy K]

Be extremely cautious as to where you spray if you end up using oil based gloss type paint. I sprayed some boiler panels in my garage once and ended up coating with entire floor and lower portion of the walls with paint overspray. It took many hours with rags and solvents to clean up. I still come across reminders when I find a box with the silhouette of something that was standing on it at the time of the "event". As regards the dilution I can't remember precisely but there was a minor amount of thinners added. Best thing is to test, if it'll come out of the gun then that's good enough. Use ordinary paint, not the one-coat or thixotropic stuff. In my experience positioning isn't too important, provided you don't go mad with over-coating because it's easy to obtain a far more even coat with the spray rather than with the brush, which seems to vastly improve the run resistance.

Mum and Dad had an Adam type repro fireplace with a gas fire installed in the opening. The decorator used matt/ silk oil paint to paint that and it stood for years without any noticeable yellowing or other ill effects.

Best of luck and don't forget the breathing mask!

[Colin Jackson]

Teddy,

Thanks for info

What type of sprayer did you use?

Colin

[ClingF]

Dear Colin

It was a DIY air compressor with a very "cheapo" spraygun. The one supplied with the supplementary kit that cost £25 or so in toto

TeddyK

[Mark]

I personally wouldn't spray it. If it was a genuine old painted fire place it would look it. An old fire surround would likely show a build up of paint having been re-painted several times. Spraying it would be too perfect and it would look like a new fireplace.

mark