Stone Fireplace Makeover

Our 1983 stone fireplace is getting a huge makeover for under $150! Mathew Johnson joins in (so handsome)- and we walk you through this Do It Yourself makeover. The result comes out like the popular German Schmear look and we are in love! Thank you to Romabio for the lime wash in Avorio White.
All of the supplies can be purchased at The Home Depot/ Lowes. Supplies listed in video. Mortar can be dyed, painted to become anything you might want. We chose white mortar and the white lime wash to create the cooler tones for this space.
Mortar I used: rstyle.me/cz-n...

[@ericm2235]

If you play the video backwards this is a great fireplace makeover

[@agirlandherglitter]

Best comment yet

[@Onthepontoon]

Thank you for the inspiration. I had to modify a bit because the stones on mine are a faux lava rock and have very deep texture. I used the mortar to fill in the grout and a 1:3 white paint to water for a whitewash but it came out so great. Felt like I had to add a positive comment to counter the folks that are so offended you would make your home look how you like it ;)

[@khe52]

This video was so helpful and makes me think my husband and I can achieve the same effect. Thank you!

[@jessieG4]

Thank you! I have the most awful fireplace! I’m heading to home depot tomorrow! We just had a contractor steal $100k so we can’t afford any professionals!! Thank you! I have been so down over what I can do to try and improve our home after the loss. 👍

[@corneliawright8292]

This was the fireplace makeover I liked the most. What I liked is the natural shadows of the stone can still be seen but crevices are more stark white making a nice contrast and brightening the room. You guys did an excellent job. I would be interested in seeing more of your projects. I am subscribed now. Thank you.

[@justatitle]

To each their own. I love the transformation. It really lightens/brightens up the space. It seems men lean more to the rustic side of things. I have a full wall and a fireplace wall with this type of stone, and all the while it is a natural look it’s just too rustic for me. My husband could live in a tent with bob wire as a door and he’d just say looks good. So any opinion I’d get from him goes in one ear out the next.

[@nealfischer623]

Cool vid, but I liked the original more lol! Didn't really give me the log cabin vibe, but good tutorial

[@agirlandherglitter]

We love it and it works with the rest of the house for us. It’s a good thing we aren’t all the same

[@marciamariabressanelli7853]

Very much like our house in France. 👏👏👏👏

[@Irish-Triplet]

Looks very nice! Thanks for sharing this!

[@jaywilliams415]

Somewhere a stone mason is crying! Lol BTW a grout bag would've made that SOOO much faster!

[@geraldthethird8082]

I love it it looks like a home from the Bible days mixed with German home

[@jenniferbaker3678]

Great video. Just subscribed. Going to be doing my fireplace here soon♥️

[@rjstewart4103]

The stones and old mortar should be wet when applying the new. Looks good at first but will eventually separate.

[@ElderberryThee3rd]

I was hoping the thumbnail was the before picture 😂

[@brandymccurdy2032]

This looks great! I have similar stone but the previous owners painted it white. I wonder if I can still figure something out. I like this so much better

[@thebigbear79]

Am I the only one here that feels like it was way better before…. Like what is this 🤦‍♂️??!

[@janellewallis4343]

Question… the lime wash looks very efficient at lightening things up, could I consider just using lime wash and skip the mortar part? My current grout or whatever it’s called is dark and ugly on my fireplace.

[@michaelodwyer5305]

I am thinking of doing the same to my granite house in Ireland to brighten up my living room as it only has one window and the white should give more light to the room. I yet have to remove all the old plaster I have already done it up stairs and the granite looks good. Just one problem where the chimney runs up the wall as someone at some stage has put modern sand and cement mix on the wall due to the chimney going afire over the years and damaging the lime mortar between the granite. The good think is it is not a big area to fix.

[@sgg17003]

I literally want to do the opposite. The video does look good with the new job.

[@tenkate-bk3ge]

Pancake, pack it in and stuff that crevice full, and German smear. Got it

[@charliep5072]

Great video. Looks good!

[@Ricksastar]

Glad you got what you wanted…. But what were you thinking?!? Yikes!

[@triciawanke6966]

Looked better before

[@HouseOfWoe]

Waaaaaaay better before...don't try to fix things that aren't broken. Sometimes we need to appreciate & embrace what we already have despite the imperfections & urges to make crappy diy "makeover" videos. Such a shame...it was such a beautiful natural stone wall before.

[@cesarin6378]

White Portland cement type n is what any mason would use I’ve never seen thinset used for enormous joints

[@getfastfish5020]

omg that poor man

[@margerykirner5604]

I love this beautiful What is the joint compound for?

[@jinjin2172]

Hi again, which mortar did you use? I tried the link but it doesn't work for me. With thanks.

[@rebeccacampbell8020]

This looks great, but that wall is so big and I feel that you need more balance with a thicker, longer mantel.

[@t.r.fischer663]

Thanks for posting this video! I love the results on your fireplace. We just bought a house with a stone fireplace. The fireplace feels too dark and heavy for the room. I’m interested in doing something similar to this process but many of the stones on our fireplace stick out several inches further than the others. Do you think that would be a problem? I’m not sure how to address it.

[@agirlandherglitter]

I think it would work perfectly!

[@jinjin2172]

This looks amazing. How do I mix mortar without that long handled mixer?

[@strawberryme08]

Why didn’t you pipe it in seems faster. That’s a huge wall. I like the overfill on stone look. Could you lime wash first? Then add filler ?

[@user-ch5ux4gh9o]

This was so helpful! I have one question- I love the look you created when the stones were completely covered- do you think the lime wash was essential to get that look or could you use watered down grout and brush it on? Thanks so much!

[@olirougemont]

Great job, best experimental how-to I've seen. We're going to attempt to do this to our entire house, minus the lime wash. Did you have cracks in the grout?

[@agirlandherglitter]

Yes!

[@agirlandherglitter]

Nothing yet

[@kerrifinley7195]

Can you do this to the outside of a rock house

[@danw1271]

Looking to do something like this on my outside flag stone. Will it work or wash away with rain?

[@agirlandherglitter]

It's mortar so It would stay just fine outside

[@antidotetp7813]

He hates it lol

[@cptgscott]

Great video. I have a stone fireplace and want to give it a different look too. I have seen a bunch of different techniques but this is just what I was looking for. It looks like there's actually THREE different variations of white Romabio limewash: Avorio, Bianco, and Cristallo. Can I ask which white you went with?

[@Irish-Triplet]

It says in the description that they used the Avorio White.

[@cptgscott]

@@Irish-Triplet thanks! I missed that.

[@agirlandherglitter]

www.lowes.com/pd/MAPEI-UltraFlex-1-50-lb-White-Powder-Thinset-Mortar/3199731?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-flr-_-google-_-lia-_-106-_-groutmortarandsealers-_-3199731-_-0&placeholder=null&ds_rl=1286981&gclid=Cj0KCQjwi7yCBhDJARIsAMWFScNkEhHshjgCkLzA6rRnyDjwQk6Fbah0bfFU19Wf4Qk6QRk62j-LDF8aArEqEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

[@rmtellezamador]

How long did this take you to do from start to finish?

[@mmesanaa]

could we use this technique on an outside wall? thanks!

[@agirlandherglitter]

Yes!

[@lilbra011]

Great video. What mortar did you use?

[@agirlandherglitter]

www.lowes.com/pd/MAPEI-UltraFlex-1-50-lb-White-Powder-Thinset-Mortar/3199731?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-flr-_-google-_-lia-_-106-_-groutmortarandsealers-_-3199731-_-0&placeholder=null&ds_rl=1286981&gclid=Cj0KCQjwi7yCBhDJARIsAMWFScNkEhHshjgCkLzA6rRnyDjwQk6Fbah0bfFU19Wf4Qk6QRk62j-LDF8aArEqEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

[@robertstellato5172]

In my opinion, you ruined a great looking stone wall - I can se the wash technique for an outside wall on a old house remodel --

[@agirlandherglitter]

To each their own right? Just fit for us

[@AB-xq1kn]

Sorry rob. She wins the style contest.

[@sebastienjager5501]

Hey. Great look. What mortar did you use? The only mortar I see at Home Depot is thin set mortar. ?

[@olirougemont]

The product in this video in Mapei Ultraflex 1, which is a thinset meant for ceramic. I would call Mapei for advice on this use of Ultraflex 1, I believe an epoxy based thinset would be better.

[@agirlandherglitter]

www.lowes.com/pd/MAPEI-UltraFlex-1-50-lb-White-Powder-Thinset-Mortar/3199731?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-flr-_-google-_-lia-_-106-_-groutmortarandsealers-_-3199731-_-0&placeholder=null&ds_rl=1286981&gclid=Cj0KCQjwi7yCBhDJARIsAMWFScNkEhHshjgCkLzA6rRnyDjwQk6Fbah0bfFU19Wf4Qk6QRk62j-LDF8aArEqEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

[@tigerdoll609]

Can you do for exterior? My rock is in front of my home🥲

[@michaelodwyer5305]

I seen in another video that you curve the lime mortar at the bottom of each stone so that rain drips off in bad weather outside. In Ireland at one time just about all houses were white washed outside. It gave them a bit of a chocolate box effect.

[@agirlandherglitter]

Yes! Going to do that soon!

[@pastordevin766]

@@agirlandherglitter how did the exterior wall turn out? Doing this on exterior fireplace that goes above roof pitch

[@andreaball8114]

Echoing devin's question! Would love to hear how outside turned out

[@bobtaylor763]

Terrible

[@timhobbs5672]

Yeah... 😬

[@Brian-qg9qn]

Looks worse than it did before haha.

[@bethelle9099]

You really ruined it....!!!!! Sorry but this is a BIG MISS!!!

[@BrionyMinodora]

Goregous

[@maryhehr8581]

I think it was gorgeous before you put your hands on it

[@ExMnky]

How did you spend 150$ and managed to make it look uglier is beyond me!!!!!

[@post11tracy1]

Sorry. This makeover looks awful. I liked the original better but to each their own.

[@lM-zr5vu]

Yikes, it looks horrible, looked much better before.

[@janellewallis4343]

Yall are so mean. Obviously she likes it. If you don’t, move along and don’t German schmear your fireplace.

[@kenny995]

When you post stuff on the internet, people can and will share their opinions. It looks tacky and cheap

[@ariea.devalois1564]

But... WHY?

[@StarkVandalez]

LOL looks like shit

[@darrengillesdarrengilles8336]

This is one of the most deceiving videos on this subject. There is no mention of tooling grout to keep it off the stone face, there is no mention of how exactly to tool the grout to facilitate a proper smear, there is no mention of dry times required for grout before trying to tool, there is no mention of how to smear the actual stones with lime wash without leaving bristle patterns from the application brush, this video is fun to watch and makes it look like an afternoon job. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is at least a solid weeks work for someone who knows what they are doing and has the tools to do it. If the intention is to have a professional result hire a pro, this is a disaster waiting to happen for most people.

[@agirlandherglitter]

Two days. It took two days. Romabio instructions are on the box for the lime wash and the grout/mortar was dry/hard in 30 minutes. Thus working in sections. If you have any questions just ask... instead of assuming and attacking. I have had many people diy using this video with much success