I have since added a new screen. Has anyone ever whitewashed their fireplace, but left the grout in tact? My fire place has clean lines, which are nice, and I would like to highlight them. Or any other suggestions?

Nice screen! Why don't you live with it for a while and then decide. Once you whitewash, it will be hard, if not impossible, to go back. : ) rf

No. You don't notice it now, but that brick is fairly irregular--the edges are not perfectly straight (and there are chipped corners and edges). That is disguised now because of the low contrast of the dark brick and darker grout.

If you whitewash it--especially if you don't do the grout--the irregularity will stick out like a sore thumb. Even if you whitewash the grout, the shadows (because the grout is deeply recessed from the surface) will be dark and show the unevenness clearly.

Plus, a white grid of skinny rectangles isn't a very good look.

It looks as though it could stand a good cleaning, though.

OTOH, that screen is super!

I would leave the brick! It’s gorgeous. You just need to paint the inside of the fireplace matte black for it to give you that updated clean look. Make sure to check with the paint store that you get the correct type of paint. Beautiful seriously don’t white wash that!

I actually don’t like the screen.

To me, I think the mantle looks strange n so I’d do something with that. It looks like a shelf was added on top, IMO it does nothing for the fireplace. Maybe if u change that look the brick will look nicer to u. Good luck. :).

Have you considered keeping the mantel white and painting the brick black? I would paint the brick, especially since the brick surround is different than the interior. Use a masonry paint; something like Romabio (used it on my moms fireplace to help her home sell) The black and white contrast would so fit the sleek and clean vibe of your room. I think the red brick holds it back in my opinion.