Fireplace stone - can you color?

Eric
by Eric
Hello,

A few years ago I added stone to our fireplace wall and cut pieces of the stone to fit around our cast stone mantle.

The problem - the sides of the stone are not a perfect 90 degrees, nor did I have a wet saw that could cut angles, so I was left with some small gaps where the two sides came together. I remedied it by place a natural grey grout and ran it up the sides.

However, I’m not pleased with the outcome and was wondering if there is any product on the market that will help blend the grey sides with the natural slate look of the stone?

Also, I’m concerned about the mantle color not matching or bending in with the stone.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance for your help.

  10 answers
  • Landsharkinnc Landsharkinnc on Jun 17, 2018

    you can paint the caulking --- in several shades of the 'brown' that will help disguise it -- use a sponge to dab on the colors so that it has a 'blended' look to match the stone; I'd go with a dark brown (dark as the darkest pieces of stone) mantle with a complementary 'accent' color for the surround ... a shade that is compatible with other colors in the room ..

  • Eric Eric on Jun 17, 2018

    Thank you but it’s not caulking. It’s actually a grey grout on top of the stone corners. I used grout to fill in small gaps when the two corners came together. I used grey grout because the corners natural color was also grey. Would thr above recommendation still work?

  • Janice Janice on Jun 17, 2018

    Yes, you can paint the grout. Suggest using the small bottles of craft paint so you can use several different shades of tan/brown to sponge paint onto the corners. Since you have the horizontal lines going on in the rock and your light fireplace, suggest that you enhance the horizontal lines on fireplace and mantle with some of the same paint you'll use on the grout Just a little on the indentations to break up the white. Hope this makes sense!

  • Sarge Sarge on Jun 18, 2018

    You can dig out the gray grout and mix new grout that matches the brick. There are different colors of powder made to mix with mortar. Mix small batches of a few colors and replace the old mortar in patches to match the surrounding bricks. This gives a number of colors rather than lines of another color,especially on the corners. Or you could paint the grout to match the bricks (probably the easiest). Good luck.


  • Dee Dee on Jul 02, 2018

    There is a product called Grout refresh, which comes in many colors. It is made by Mapei and Amazon has the best color selection. It is basically used to change the color of flooring grout, but I bet it would work great on the fireplace. I have used it in bathrooms and it looks as good as the day I applied it about 5 years ago.

    It is easy to use and you can apply it with an artist brush. Good Luck

  • William William on Jul 02, 2018

    Yes you can paint the grout to match the stone. Using different shades of craft paint. Let the artist in you out! As for the mantle....choose a light or medium color of the stone and paint the mantle. Will be more cohesive and appealing to the eye. It will blend in with the stone and not stand out that much but still be a focal point.

  • Karen Karen on Jul 02, 2018

    William, see my post on painting a fireplace. Yes, you can paint the grout to match. I used acrylic hobby paint and mixed clear glazing with it. The glazing dries with a satin finish and there is no need for a protective sealant coat. I would take a really good color correct photo of the existing stone and match 5 acrylics that you can mix, match and combine to match your stone. Have fun! The glazing medium should be in the acrylic paint section somewhere.....hard to find sometimes. I found all I needed at Hobby Lobby.

  • Eric Eric on Jul 02, 2018

    Thank you! I actually already used a product called “grout renew” and colored the grout an “earth” tone and it blends in much better! As for the mantle, it makes me a bit nervous to consider painting it. Can you do that with cast stone?

    • See 2 previous
    • Eric Eric on Jul 03, 2018

      Thanks for taking an interest! Here are some photos after I painted the grey grout corners with an earth color. I’m not sure about painting the mantle; having a hard time visualizing that.

  • Karen Karen on Jul 03, 2018

    I had a minute today so thought this might help. I took your picture and added color to just the hearth. I hope this convinces you to just leave the entire mantle white....LOL Place a colorful rug in front to give it contrast.

  • Eric Eric on Jul 04, 2018

    Thanks for the Visual! I’ll definetly consider it. Another thought I had was to do a “white-out” of the stone. So I could apply a thin layer of white paint of the stone and sand off in random places to create a distressed look. I think the white out would also help blend in the mantle. I’ll post photos if I decide to do it.