This was the fireplace in the dining room when we moved in. We had the gas disconnected straight away as it really wasn’t safe to use, but rather than having a huge hole in the wall, we left the fireplace and surround in place until we could find something to replace it with.
Luckily we didn’t have to wait too long, as one of our lovely neighbours had an original Edwardian fireplace that he no longer needed and we were able to buy of him.
We removed the ugly fireplace and surround, and fitted the original antique fireplace ourselves. To be able to use the fireplace it has to be fitted by a HETAS registered installer who will check that your chimney is okay and that everything complies with Building Regulations.
As we are just using the fireplace for decorative reasons we just screwed it to the wall ourselves. In the long run, we are planning to use it to replace the missing fireplace in the larger guest bedroom. But for now, it looks a lot better than the “thing” that was there before.
From a distance, it already looks fine, but when you get close it is a different story.
The fireplace is covered in layers of paint, which cover up some of the detail.
It’s also chipped and flaking all over. We decided to strip back everything and start from scratch.
Here are the step by step pictures of our paint stripping test area
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1. We covered the area with the Peel Away stripping paste. The more layers that need to be stripped, the thicker the paste needs to be applied.
2. Then we covered the paste with the provided paper. You have to make sure that there are no air bubbles between the paste and paper, as it won’t dissolve the paint as well.
3. In our case, it took about 24 hours for the paste to penetrate all of the paint. The longer you wait the darker the paper becomes, and you can see that it seems to be soaking up all of the gunk.
4. Then you can just remove the paper and paint-paste goo. All that is left to do, is clean the area and neutralise it with the provided liquid.
5. The Peel Away paste is amazing (we used Peel Away 1) and stripped away loads of layers of paint at once. This is what the area looked like after just one application of the paste and a bit of cleaning.
You can see, that the cast iron underneath all of the paint is quite rusty, but it’s not too difficult to remove by scrubbing with steel wool. To strip the whole fireplace took a long time. There are lots of grooves and detail which make it difficult to remove every last bit of paint.
This is what it looked like about halfway through.
What a mess! And to think, that this is meant to be improving the look of the fireplace! But, now after lots more hours of stripping and sanding, this is what it looks like.
You can see, that there is still a bit of cleaning and scrubbing to do, but it already looks a lot better. The detail and lines are much more crisp and clear. All that is left to do, is cover the fireplace with black grate paste and give it a polish.
It may have looked black before, but you can see the difference immediately. This step only takes about 15 minutes, but what a difference it makes!
The black grate polish comes in a tube that and you can just apply it straight to the fireplace. The better and easier way to apply it is to mix it with a bit of white spirit first. This thins it down ever so slightly and makes it much easier to apply an even coat.
We will have to paint around the fireplace, where I messed up the wall with the stripped goo, but it doesn’t matter too much, as the room really needs replastering anyway. As always, here are a few before and after pictures for you.
This isn’t the first fireplace that we have restored, but this restoration was much easier than the first one. This was mainly down to the PeelAway stripping paste that we used. It was much more effective than the other strippers we tried before and most of the paint was removed with just one application.
You can read more about our other Edwardian fireplace restoration in the master bedroom here.
It was a lot of work restoring the fireplace, but I think that it was worth it. The surface is much cleaner and smoother and all of the lumps and bumps and flaky paint have gone.
Emma says
Hi, I am thinking of restoring the fireplace in my bedroom and I was wondering whether you would recommend removing all the furniture (particularly a mattress) in the room before getting? Can the process get quite messy? Does it have a chemically smell and would the room require plenty of ventilation? Thanks in advance!
Christine says
It really depends on how much space you have to work, Emma. Generally, I don’t think you have to empty the room. It is a messy process but it’s very localised and you shouldn’t have too many problems if you put down dust sheets to cover the area where you’re working. Yes, the stuff smells so I definitely wouldn’t sleep in the bedroom while you’re working on the fireplace.
Hope that helps!
Cx
Alexandra says
What a helpful article. My parents have this exact fireplace they bought in a reclamation yard 30 years ago! Was it originally installed in your neighbour’s or had he bought it somewhere?
Christine says
It’s a gorgeous fireplace, isn’t it? I’m honestly not sure where he got it. I vaguely remember him saying it had been in their bathroom but they’d removed it and it had just been in the cellar for years. It is a long time ago, though!
Cx
alexandra says
Thanks Christine!
susan drinkell says
Hello i love your blog its giving me inspiration, we have just move into a 1920s two bed semi in Lincolnshire that needs some tlc. . I have just stripped the cast iron fireplace in the bedroom using peelaway 7 and its come up really well. I now want to black the fireplace, it will be just a decorative fire so was just wondering what to use, i have some Dirtbusters black stove polish that i have used on the cast iron grate in our front room could i use this on the fireplace as well? or do you recommend anything else? I believe some pastes are graphite so give a silvery effect, any advice you can give would be really appreciated, I am also trying to find a grate to fit it as its missing along with the front grill i think having these will finish it off, do you have any suggestions on were i can source one. We have always lived in modern houses so this i new to us.
Christine says
I’m so happy to hear that we inspired you to give your fireplace a makeover! If you are happy with how the grate polish you used in your front room, it should would work great on this fireplace, too. We used a grate polish by Zip but I assume they are all similar. The easiest way to apply it was by thinning it down ever so slightly with some white spirit. We personally wanted a matt black finish, so didn’t polish it too much after applying it.
In terms of the missing grate, your best chance of finding one will be a local antique fireplace store or reclamation yard. Then tend to have loads of reclaimed fireplaces and parts and, even if they don’t have the matching grill for your fireplace, they should be able to help you source one.
Hope that helps and good luck with the rest of your fireplace!
Cx
Greg H says
Hi, this is really useful and I’d like to do the same thing to our bedroom fireplace. Did you check if there was lead in the paint before starting, and if so how?
Christine says
We stripped what felt like every surface in our house and we always checked for lead paint – safety first! We actually shared a full post on how to deal with lead paint which covers things like how to check for it and how to deal with it if you do find it. You can read about it here: https://www.littlehouseonthecorner.com/how-to-deal-with-lead-paint/.
Good luck with your fireplace, Greg!
Cx
JustinfromCardiff says
Lovely restoration job on the fireplace! – We have one in our house which we are looking to restore (they have 100 years of paint on them as well!)
Can you tell me how much Peel away and paper you used on the fireplace – just trying to find out what size pot we need to buy!
Thanks.
Christine says
Thank you Justin! You will probably need a 5kg Peel Away tub. I assume that you won’t need all of it, but I’d be surprised if the smaller pot would be enough. It will depend on how many layers of paint you have to strip as well though.
We used the Peel Away 1 which worked really well for us.
Hope that’s some help.
Cx
PS. If you should run out of the blankets (which we did) you can use cling film to cover the paste. It doesn’t work as well as the included blankets (which you can also buy more of) but it does work at a push if you’re just short by a bit.
Janis says
Christine, thank you for sharing tips on renovating the fire place. I have now striped 3 fire places from the paint and it all went well thanks to your advice.
Now I am close to polishing phase – can you pls advise how many Zip polishing tubes are required per fire place? They are very small.
Christine says
Ohh, I’m so pleased that it went well, Janis!
I would say that you’ll only need a tube per fireplace (possibly even less). Mix the polish with a little bit of white spirit – it thins it down slightly and makes it much easier to apply evenly!
Good luck with the last step!
Cx
Anne Jones says
Hi, I foolishly didn’t decide that I needed to strip the fireplace until after I’d painted my newly plastered walls. Any suggestions on how to minimise damage to the walls if I use peel away 1 as you did?
Christine says
Yep, stripping is messy. I’d suggest covering the area around the fireplace with masking tape. I’m not sure how well it’ll work, but it’s probably worth a try!
Peel away was fairly good at staying where it should, so most of it will hopefully stay on the fireplace instead of your walls!
Good luck.
Cx
Anne Jones says
Thank you, I’m not sure what paint has been used so have ordered some tester pots.
Chris says
Hi Christine,
Very good work. I’m impressed. I am about to buy a reproduction Victorian cast iron fireplace to replace an old damaged one and it will be used to burn wood and coal. They come in matt black, highlighted(polished detail with black background) or fully polished. The highlighted ones look particularly good but they do not recommend polished cast iron for solid fuel fires, as it can discolour. Is that your experience? Is it just a case of black-leading a black cast iron fireplace and leaving out the polish? Maybe you need to spray with WD40 as well to avoid rusting. My mother used to use black lead on our old kitchen range when we were children. The range was rusty and in a bad state of repair when it was finally ripped out in the 1980s. When used as an oven there is lots of moisture produced which can cause rust from the inside I guess.
Best regards,
Chris
Christine says
Thanks Chris! Our fireplace in the living room is the only one that we actually use for burning fuel and so far we’ve not had any problems with discolouration. I don’t think that leaving out the polish would make much difference. We’ve also had no problems at all with anything rusting and only use WD40 to clean the fire.
Just remember that depending on where you live, you may not be able to burn wood in an open fire because of smoke control areas.
I guess it’s not a huge amount of help, but we’ve not had any problems at all.
Cx
chris says
Thanks for your reply Christine. Very helpful. I guess the “black lead” my mother used on our old cast iron kitchen range was basically a form of polish. She seemed to apply it with a rag, but I don’t remember her buffing it up to a shine.
Chris.
Roger says
Great work and thanks for sharing.
I’ve left mine far too long and need to get rid of some rust before polishing again with Stovex Graphite Polish. I was interested that you used WD40 as a cleaner. Although I have always maintained the slate
hearth with WD40 it has never occurred to use it as a cleaner so I’ll certainly give it a go.
I don’t suppose you’ve any ideas on cleaning the marble surround? I’m going to start with distilled water and elbow grease but I think it’s going to need someone more and from what I have read there’s real potential to stuff it up.
Christine says
We use WD40 for everything. ;) The people that installed the fireplace recommended using it as a cleaner, so that’s what we’ve been doing ever since.
I’m not sure how best to clean a marble surround – I wonder if there are specialist cleaning products for marble? I know that it’s quite porous (which is why we’ve discounted it as a kitchen worktop), so I guess it’s important to use something that doesn’t penetrate it too much.
Cx
CL says
Hi there,
The fireplace looks great and the info you have shared is really useful.
Did you tile the heath after restoring the fireplace or were you able to restore the tiles that are visible in some of the pictures? I ask because we are about to embark on a similar project and are unsure whether to tile before installing the fireplace or afterwards. If you have any knowledge about that we’d be very grateful to hear it.
Thanks very much,
C&R
Jenny says
Thanks so much for your detailed advice. The most helpful site I have found! I used peelaway 1 and it was great but I have applied the neutraliser (twice now) and the grate polish is fine for a few days but then starts to bubble and flake off. I assume this is because the residual chemicals are still having an effect. Did you have any such problems? I’m not are whether to try a third time or if not what else to do. the fireplace is in my kids bedroom so not ideal to have it flaking… Any suggestions gratefully received!
Christine says
Oh no, that’s so annoying! We didn’t have any problems after applying the grate polish, Jenny. If you’d not already applied the neutraliser again, that’s what I would have suggested. The only thing I can think of, is maybe scrubbing the cast iron with some steel wool and the neutraliser so that it gets rid of every last bit of residue. If I were you (and before going through the effort of cleaning everything again) I’d maybe try to give the Peel Away company a ring and see if they’ve ever encounterd a similar problem.
Sorry we couldn’t be more help!
Cx
hannah taylor says
Hi Christine. Gorgeous restoration. I am about to embark on the same thing. There is a lot of debate online about grate paste/polish which gives a shiny silver finish which some people don’t like. Yours looks very black which i really like – which kind of grate paste/polish did you use? I’ve been eying up Stovax Colloidal Matt Black Stove Fireplace Coating online as an alternative which is meant to give a very matt black look but i am worried about it looking painted rather than polished.
Christine says
Thanks, Hannah! Our black fireplace is covered in Zip grate Polish. It’s so black because we didn’t polish it much after applying it. I’m sure most polished don’t differ much though.
The only thing that isn’t great is that the polish will rub off a bit if you don’t buff it. In our case, it doesn’t matter too much as we don’t use the fireplace and it’s only in our guest bedroom (now).
Alternatively, you could try something like Matt Black Fireplace Paint. It was recommended to us by our local fireplace shop and is also okay to use on fireplaces you actually use.
Hope that’s some help.
Cx
Christine Guy says
Hello Christine,
Beautiful! I as well have an old fireplace I am getting around to clean up and reinstall. I don`t have any paint, but I do have rust. You mentioned steel wool … just plain steel wool and ‘scrub’ to remove it?
I will be heading to the nearest fireplace store shortly to get some of that Zip, being in Canada, I might find something different.
I had to scout EBay to get some 6″ tiles to replace what had been broken: quite a feat when the tiles are over 100 years old.
Thank you so much for posting your work done, it has helped me immensely!
Christine
Christine says
Thank you so much for your kind comment, Christine! Yep, we just scrubbed away the rust with some steel wool – we didn’t have much though. If you have a lot of rust, there are rust remover pastes available though.
Good luck with the rest of your restoration, so glad we could offer some help!
Cx
Doyounoah says
Your fireplace looks fantastic! You have inspired me to attempt to do the same, although doubtful it would look as good as yours!
A few questions: What tub size did you buy of Peel Away 1 to use on your fireplace? 5kg or 15kg?
Thanks!x
Christine says
Thanks, but I’m sure yours will look amazing, too. It was really easy to do! I’m pretty sure that the tub size we had was the 5l one. It was easily enough to strip the fireplace and we also used it to strip the paint of the stained glass window frames in the hallway.
Good luck!
Cx
vanessa says
Hi Christine,
It’s me again…i’m finally getting around to stripping my daughters cast iron fireplace. I am about to purchase the PeelAway product you recommended but am not sure which one to get peelaway 1 0r 7. There is a tester on ebay I thought I would get…
Item no. 390654319850. did you use 1 0r 7 on your fireplace. Thank you for your time
Vanessa xx
Christine says
Hi Vanessa! We used PeelAway 1 on our fireplaces. It really depends on the kind of paint that your fireplace has been painted in though.
According to the PeelAway website, PeelAway 1 is for oil/lead paint and PeelAway7 is for most types of paint.
As we knew that we had oil based paint, it was an easy descission for us, but if you are unsure, it may be a good idea to get the little tester pots first.
I’d check the information on the PeelAway website and find out what kind of paint you have. If you are still unsure, you’ll probably need the tester kit.
Good luck!
Cx
vanessa says
Thanks Christine! Peelaway advised I used 7…I told them I had a cast iron fireplace but they said 7 would be okay? I don’t know? I guess will have get tester pot and do both…thanks for your help as always Vanessa xx
Christine says
You’re welcome Vanessa! It’s a touch decision, but I guess a tester pot is probably the way forward.
Good luck with your restoration!
Cx
Michael says
Hi, what is the name of the stripping paste used?
Thanks
Jan says
Hi Michael. We used “peel away” to strip the fireplace. There are 2 different kinds available, which one you need will depend on the type of paint you have to strip. We used peelaway , but there are small samples available if you are unsure which one you’ll need. You can check out more under http://www.peelaway.co.uk. Hope this helps!
Jan
Michael says
Thanks Jan – just took off the first sample and it has done an amazing job – time to order the big tub!
Jan says
Glad we could help, Michael. Good luck with the rest.
Jan