How to Cover an Existing Chimney with Brick Tile

How to Cover an Existing Chimney with Brick Tile

Hi friend!

I’m so excited to share this fun project with you! Do you remember the old yucky chimney in our kitchen? Well she’s looking a whole lot better thanks to Old Mill Brick! Today I’m going to share how to cover an existing chimney with brick tile, but there are SO many ways to incorporate it in your home!

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Recovering a Chimney

I was so excited to finally be able to see the chimney that was hidden by the old kitchen cabinetry…until I actually did see it lol! We have 3 chimneys in the farmhouse. I’ve exposed the other 2 upstairs and was SO hoping this chimney would look like them!

See the chimney I exposed in our bedroom HERE!

But alas it was not the same. It must have been a later addition because the brick is much newer and was also coated or painted at some point. So I started to consider my options here, which were pretty limited. I could have painted it or tried to do some sort of treatment like a German smear. But I wanted BRICK! I had been envisioning this gorgeous old charming chimney as a focal point in the kitchen since we moved in, and I’m pretty stubborn lol!

Brick Tile

Then I remembered this awesome product I had been considering for our mudroom flooring! Old Mill Brick makes brick tiles from reclaimed bricks! They come in thin flat tile singles, on brick web sheets, and also corner pieces. Since the area I was covering wasn’t very wide I chose singles and corner pieces.

After looking over their selection, there’s lots to chose from, I decided the Castle Gate variety would be the closest match to the other 2 existing chimneys.

Chimney Project Material List

For this project I needed:

Old Mill Brick Tiles (corner, and regular tiles)
Tile Adhesive
Notched Trowel
Tile Spacers
Mortar
Mortar Bag
Tile Cutter
Drop cloth
Something to mix mortar in and with
Gloves

Tiling Over the Chimney

Prep

I vacuumed and cleaned off any loose paint from the chimney before starting. Also be sure and put down a drop cloth or plastic covering. It gets quite messy!

Brick Tile Plan

I decided to simply use the existing brick as a template of sorts. Of course the spacing didn’t work out perfectly, but I figured it out as I went along. I used tile spacers to make sure he bricks stayed in place. The other 2 chimneys in our house have wide mortar gaps, which I like. So I turned my tile spacers on their side to create a bigger space for mortar. It was roughly a half an inch gap.

Cutting and Applying the Brick Tiles

I was pleasantly surprised how well the hand tile cutter worked, especially for the price! I would highly recommend it! You simply place your tile on the cutter, score it, then snap it!

I only coated the back of the brick tiles with the tile adhesive when I applied them as seen in the photo above. I applied the adhesive about an 1/8 inch thick and then raked it with the notched trowel. They held in place well!

Selecting Bricks

After completing the first side of the chimney and getting the hang of it I wanted to be a bit more selective when choosing bricks for the front. Each box has a beautiful variety of bricks some a darker brown, some with more whitewash, some that looked more orange etc.

Because I had extra and wanted to mimic our other 2 chimneys I chose more or the orange toned and whitewashed for the front and other side. You can see below how I laid them out and organized them into piles based on their color.

Filling in the Brick Tiles

You can see above I did the other corner of the chimney next, then filled in the middle. As I mentioned the spacing didn’t work out so that the bricks would fit in perfectly without being cut. After some thought I decided to create a pattern up the center with smaller pieces of staggered brick. I really like how it turned out!

You can also check out the YouTube video where I shared how I did the whole chimney HERE!

Adding Mortar

The next day I mixed the mortar with water in a bucket using an attachment on the screw driver. Then I filled my mortar bag about halfway full. Using the mortar bag was like icing a cake. You just squeeze it along in the gaps. I overfilled them a bit.

The mortar dries fairly quickly so every 10-15 minutes I would stop and using my finger with a glove on I pushed the mortar in so that it completely filled the gaps. You can also purchase a tool specifically for this, but my finger worked well!