Painting the Fireplace

When we first moved into this house I was very excited to have a fireplace, my first ever home with a fireplace! I had visions of her in white and not a flesh colored piece of beigeness in my living room.  (What a scary dark dungeon of a room this was!) 

So I set out to paint her white. Well soon the kitchen project was taking up all my time and I never really got back to the fireplace. This is what she looked like just recently:

And finally a few weeks ago, I got around to painting the brown brick with primer:

Next up I want to paint the sassy brassy right off this little lady. I plan to use Rustoleum High Heat Paint in black. Here are a few blogs that have some pictures and or tutorials on how to paint the brass on a fireplace.

http://themagicbrushinc.blogspot.com/2009/11/paint-brass-hardware-on-your-fireplace.html



http://oursuburbancottage.blogspot.com/2010/01/de-brassifying-fireplace-surround.html



http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/01/how-to-paint-a-brick-fireplace/

I also found a few great before and after pictures on BHG. Check out these before and after beauties out!!!

(Honey if you are reading, stop now. )

Some ideas for my fireplace in the future if we tear down the wall with the bookcases some day, I thought maybe we would build bookcases alongside the fireplace instead.
I had to promise Mr.A no more projects for a while, so maybe this will be down the road.  A girl can dream, right? 

Do you have a fireplace?  Have you painted yours or left it as natural stone or brick?  I would love to see them!