re: Removing soot stains from fireplace mantle

Bumping this to say that I definitely have to repaint. I tried a dry cleaning soot sponge and it did absolutely nothing. I ended up using it on the inside of my fireplace where it actually did work.

I bought some Mr Clean Magic Erasers and used a dish soap/warm water mixture. With an enormous amount of elbow grease this did lift a good portion of the soot along with the gloss off of the paint. And the erasers shredded pretty quickly. I also could not get into the small spaces between pattern whatsoever. In any case, it did not fully remove the soot and there are some spots where the stains appear to be embedded.

So I will definitely need to repaint. I have researched and determined that painting over soot is considered a no-no. So my new question becomes, what kind of prep work do I need to do on this job before applying the paint? I have already scrubbed a fair deal, enough to remove the paint gloss. I plan on maybe using some baking soda, dish soap, and warm water with a brush to go over everything again, focusing on the spots that still have the worst stains remaining. Anything else I should do prior to applying the paint?