Painting a brick fireplace - any precautions?

[Chris]

Just one more Q for you knowledgeable folk - here's my gas fireplace in its current sorry state:

Unfortunately one of the previous owners saw it fit to remove the rather nice victorian fireplace, perhaps due to damage, I don't know, and replaced it with some red brick and cement. As you can see, it's not pretty to say the least. As much as I'd like to be able to go and source an original Victorian fireplace I have neither the bank balance or expertise to do so, and so I'd like to simply paint the brick/ cement white instead.

Could I use any old masonry paint for this? Would the heat from the fire be a concern with flaking, discolouring etc, or should the paint be able to withstand this? I'll leave the slate-coloured tiles as they are, just clean them up, obviously, but anything red will be painted. :)

[Weatherlawyer]

Ideally it wants knocking out and replacing with salt glazed or some other nicely finished brick. Use very narrow mortar beds and joints and scratch out the mortar to have an inset pointing style with one of those scraper outer tools.

Alternatives are tiles or brick acid.

Brick acid will tidy it up no end but watch out, as it is very strong and can cut through to the bone without you realising it. It does a fair job on carpets and iron fireplaces too.

I don't know if it will undercut the pointing or ruin it if you overdo it. You might try, it isn't load bearing.