What should be done with the chimney?

[Jessicaaa]

Bought a house from the 1800s. Major renovations were done in the '70s. The house was also moved in the '70s, damaging the chimney. The damage has been fixed.

But to our question… what should we do with it?

We've had different ideas throughout the renovation, but now we've decided to keep it and paint it white, somewhat as it is now.

Before we bought the house, a carpenter was here and made it “nice” from previous damage.

It looks terrible…

1. Can you spackle/plaster directly on it? If so, which is best; spackle or plaster?
2. Do you need to remove old paint/plaster and redo it anew?

Attaching pictures.

 

[cpalm]

Ha ha, yeah what the heck. He should probably stick to carpentry jobs 😂
But I'm having a bit of trouble reading the upper right corner of the image, is it clad with masonite and then they've scribbled that fantastic finish on top of it?
One wonders what it looks like under the masonite if that's the case?

 

[Jessicaaa]

Ha ha, yeah what the heck. He should probably stick to carpentry jobs 😂
But I'm having a bit of trouble reading the upper right corner of the picture, is it covered with masonite and then they scribbled on that fantastic surface treatment on top of it?
What does it look like under the masonite, one wonders?

We think so too! 🙈
It seems to be wallpaper that is over a part of the chimney…

 

[cpalm]

It seems to be wallpaper over a part of the chimney…

I have some nice examples here of what happens if you let a carpenter do masonry work (= repairing plastered walls with a mix of treetex, planks, and masonite) or let masons do carpentry work (= repairing timber walls with concrete). 🤔

OK, I guess what you're saying is that it's puttied/painted directly on the (damaged) plaster(?)
Will the chimney be used (fireplace)?
If you want a traditional smooth plastered surface, you'll probably have to chip/scrape that off first.
If it just needs to be a smooth surface, there are, of course, many ways to fake it.