Before and After: Fireplace Ventilator Restoration
Despite the fact that the pictures are outside, this week’s Before and After is brought to you from our family room, and more specifically, our fireplace. I took the pictures outside because the lighting was much better.
When we bought this house 2 years ago, we inherited this fireplace ventilator (sometimes called a circulator, or heater) along with the house. The ventilator was pretty rough looking - a mixture of rust brown and white. It looked like it may have been painted white, but we really couldn’t tell. The relatively deteriorated look of the unit surprised us, since the POs said they only built one or two fires in their 22 years in the home.
In case you’re wondering, the ventilator works by pulling in air through the vent on the right, and pumping it through the metal tubes and out the front of the heater. It works extremely well, and makes the fireplace much more energy efficient.
We toyed with the idea of getting rid of the unit because it was so ugly, but ultimately decided to restore it using a spray paint designed for high heat situations. We found Rustoleum High Heat black spray paint at Home Depot (the subject of a later review). Needless to say, we’re very happy with the results!
Before:
After:
Now it’s your turn! Link in your own Before and After posts below, and then leave a comment here. Good luck with your projects!
March 15th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Fred,
The Fireplace Ventilator looks great. Look brand new.
Lisa
March 16th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
What a change! It looks so much better.
March 16th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Wow–what an awesome job, and a real testament to the reduce/reuse/recycle philosophy.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Okay, I would have scrapped it. (In two weekends I’ve filled a 30yd dumpster with debris from my renovations!)But you did an awesome job. Just looking at the pictures, I thought you had sand blasted it. Amazing job with the spray paint. Very inspirational. -Jon