I'm thinking about a remodel of the fireplace area in our living room. The brick covers a solid 9 feet of wall space and really darkens the room.

I know I can drywall over the brick, but I'm concerned with placing drywall over the chimney part of the brick wall. This will be a "do it yourself" project and I want to make sure I am within building codes. I plan to use a tile around the immediate fireplace opening.

Thanks for any advice.

paint the brick?

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paint the brick?

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Not a bad look.

Plus, if its a "do it yourselfer", hanging/tape and bedding/texture, might be quite the challenge to make look good.

I tiled over mine and it looks great.

You would need to attach furring strips to the brick to hold the sheetrock.

herewegoagain....

Do you have a true masonry fireplace? As in a brick chimney with no steel pipe? 99.9% of houses constructed in the last 20 years have steel flue pipe. Look in your attic for the fireplace pipe. If you have steel pipe, you can pretty much do anything to the brick you want and not have to worry about it.

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to install sheetrock within so many feet of a fireplace/open flame if you're having it inspected or care about following code(masonite is OK).

I'll find out tonight about the flue pipe, I'm pretty sure there is a pipe there. But I'm pretty new to this stuff and don't know what the regulations are.

We are also considering painting, I just wouldn't want it to be a solid color. If I can, I still want it to look like brick if I am going to paint it.

Thanks for the picture RTT.

@Taco, I would do a tile surround with the drywall covering the rest of the wall. It is a big space, not a small little brick fireplace. Drywall would not be any closer than 12 inches on the top and around the sides with none in front of the fire place.

I don't have a website to post pictures from, otherwise I'd show you and ask for other opinions.

Search the setbacks required for wood burning fireplaces. That will give you the info you need.