Our house has lots and lots of natural light via some big ole windows. Inspired by this light, I chose a neutral color palette when painting the main rooms.
The original color was gold. Not bad. But it didn't compliment all of our sunshine that streams in like I was wanting. 
Once we had a fresh coat on the walls, the stone of fireplace looked very very orange and maroon.
Solution: whitewashing. Very scary to begin with, you feel like you can't turn back. But after the initial panic it's so beautiful and you won't regret it!
Here is the how to:
We painted our kitchen white. (Porcelain by Sherwin Williams in eggshell) 
I had about a half a gallon left of this white. So I mixed together a ratio of 2 parts paint to 3 parts water in a solo cup and brushed it on to a few of the stones to ponder moving forward. There is no exact science to this mixture, you can't really mess it up, I promise!
After texting a few friends and getting the go ahead from Josh, I took the plunge and decided to whitewash the whole thing.
A little of the paint/water mixture goes a long way. It dries very quickly.
It can also be pretty messy since the consistency of the whitewash is so thin. So cover anything you don't want splashed or splattered.
You can't blot away at the whitewash as you go with a rag or old T shirt if you feel like it but that's not necessary at all. I only blotted on my gray toned stones to let the gray show through more. 
If a stone still looked too orange or red for my liking I would do another coat after the first coat dried. I ended up mixing up another cup of whitewash that was a little heavier on the paint and did my harder to cover stones with that.
It all moves very fast and you can do this easily in a day or less.
Before/after
We plan on getting a chunkier mantle piece and some decor, but until then this is where we are. I plan to finish the top at nap time today!
I'll add you can also use this same process to give brick the same makeover. 
