Although this is not my home, my husband and I whitewashed our fireplace by mixing water with flat white paint in a bucket and applied the paint using old, awarded up t shirts. We dabbed the paint on the brick working in small areas so as to avoid getting too much white paint in any one area. I can't quite remember the water to paint ratio, but the mix ended up being rather thin. You could practice by getting a couple of bricks and dabbing on the paint mixture. Our project cost $11 and took about three hours to cover a 15' x 9' fireplace. We love it!

Looks great I am thinking of doing this.