How to Paint a Tile Fireplace

This post was created in collaboration with Jolie Paint. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

I love color {and lots of it} and my general rule of thumb is if it’s beige it’s getting painted {wink}. It doesn’t apply to everything but I do love bold, vibrant colors throughout my home and I recently transformed my fireplace with a few coats of bold paint. If you’re intimidated by the thought of painting tile, let me give you a few tips and tricks and show you how to paint a tile fireplace. The right products make it really simple and you can transform the look of an entire room in just half a day with very little work. That’s a win, right?

The fireplace in my house is one of my favorite features because it’s double sided and opens into both the family room and gathering room. Because the air flows through it, it heats up the house in the winter and makes our home feel so cozy.

I don’t mind the tile on the gathering room side but I’ve always hated the tile on the family room side. It was small, a bit shiny, and way too beige for my liking. The white mantel and trim was just lost against the neutral tile and the wall faded into the background rather than adding any kind of focal point to the room.

I had thought about painting it for some time and decided to bite the bullet and go for it!

Jolie Matte Finish Paint

After using Jolie Paint on my upcycled table wall shelf, I knew that was what I wanted to use for the fireplace. The matte finish, the excellent coverage, and the ease of applying the creamy paint would be perfect for this project.

I decided to use Classic Navy because it’s not entirely neutral but it does provide a bit of calm in the midst of all the other color I have in my home and I’ve used navy a lot in my decor to neutralize the bright colors. The shade of this paint is truly what you would picture when you think of a classic navy and I absolutely love it.

Jolie Paint Color Mixing Guide

Before I dig in to the fireplace details, I want to take a quick detour and show you the color mixing guide from Jolie Paint.

This fan deck just came out and I’m so excited about it. The Jolie Paint line already has so many colors I love but the color mixing guide broadens the collection and makes it so easy to create your own color combinations. The fan deck includes formulas so you can create the perfect color for your project using the current Jolie Paint colors. It’s also a fun way to give new life to leftover paint.

Now let’s get back to the fireplace. I didn’t mix my own color for this project, just went ahead with Classic Navy straight out of the can, and it was a great choice.

How to Paint a Tile Fireplace

When you’re preparing to paint fireplace tile, you have to decide whether or not you want to paint over the grout lines. That will depend on the paint color you’re choosing, the color of the grout, and the final look you’re wanting. Because the grout lines on my fireplace were beige, I decided to paint right over them and also paint the inside area that butts up against the actual fireplace.

If you like the grout color, you can leave it showing and just carefully paint right up to it on each tile. That technique will make the project a bit more time consuming but I’ve seen it done and it looked great.

Tape off the areas around the fireplace …

… then sand the tile lightly if it’s shiny. This will help the paint adhere better to the tile.

I painted a little test patch and let it dry just so I could see how the paint was going to adhere. It adhered well but it also got better and better with each additional layer that I added. And since no one’s walking on this tile or even rubbing up against it, I wasn’t too worried.

I used a signature brush from Jolie Paint to apply the paint, loading the brush quite well, and painting in only one direction as much as possible. I smoothed out any areas that were noticeable, like corners and grout lines.

The tile obviously won’t absorb paint like wood does so watch for drips and smooth them out before they dry.

When painting over shiny tile, it’s recommended that you apply a coat and then let it dry for a couple of days before adding another coat, the same as you would with laminate or melamine. I didn’t do that with this project but only because the tile isn’t going to have to resist wear and tear … and I was impatient {wink}. If you’re painting tile on the floor, I would definitely recommend following this advice.

Once you’ve applied the first coat and it’s dried fully, add consecutive coats until you have the full coverage you desire.

I used a small paintbrush to get into corners and to cover tiny spots in the grout lines but the large brush worked perfectly for everything else and I was so impressed with the coverage I got and how smoothly the paint went on.

I think I applied three coats of paint just to give it a really solid cover but probably could have stopped at two.

I absolutely love the way the fireplace looks now. It’s a bold focal point in the room and provides a great backdrop for my brightly colored furniture. There are some projects that are so easy and add such a fantastic change to a room and this is definitely one of them for me.