What type of paint to use - cast iron fireplaces

teknostar · #1 6th Jul 2010, 02:13 PM

My fireplaces are painted black at the moment, i want to hit them with a fresh coat to liven them up a bit.

What type of paint should i use?

I was thinking a black gloss enamel

We do not currently (or intend to) use the fireplaces for fires

thanks

Vernonv · #2 6th Jul 2010, 02:21 PM

You can get special "pot belly black" paint for fire places (you can also get high temperature paints in other colours).

However if heat is not an issue, then you could use any normal epoxy enamel ("killrust" type paint).

Make it work · #3 7th Jul 2010, 11:03 PM

I was at a restoration supply place in Rozelle (Sydney) not too long ago and they had a bunch of restored cast iron fire place inserts that had some sort of graphite coating on them over the black. It really brought them to life, they looked awesome, the fancy bits really showed up well.

PlasterPro · #4 8th Jul 2010, 07:22 PM

When I did mine over 100 years of baked on coal soot and various layers of paint to remove via paint stripper and wire brush on a drill.( total nightmare but well worth the result) any whos I tried a few differant paints and found that the killrust black with like a silverygloss to it was bestin a aresol can( wish I could be more specific.