Get rid of all the stuff festooning it, the nasty track lights, hang a nice picture over it and get rid of the fireplace doors that emphasize the somewhat out-of-proportion ratio of the opening to the stone. Underneath all that stuff it looks like a pretty nice stone fireplace. Shame they didn't make the firebox a bit taller, but that's hard to fix.

You could paint the rock and beef up the mantle so it looks more proportional. And I agree about taking down that fixture. I'd take off that board it's on too, but I bet it's covering up something and then you'd have more to fix. But you could put up a small directional spot in it's place - just enough to shine on artwork.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

The hearth slab does not match the stone of the surround at all. Could you replace it with something more the color of the stone? Or even similar stone tiles, if you can find the trim pieces? And, as marti8a says, beefing up the mantel so it's more in proportion would help a lot.

There are candleholders made to go in fireplaces that hold 7 or so pillar candles -- one of these would give you the look of a fire.

This really could be a lovely focal point with a little work.

Have you considered an electric insert....it will give some heat and look like a real fire...no chimney needed.. As for the mantle....take everything off. Find some pretty artwork . Removing the track lighting would be best or leave one light to shine on the art work....Decorate the rest of the mantle with larger taller things....candlesticks on one end.....small lamp on the other side (I see you have a plug-inn near) maybe a small box in the center....nothing else. If you would like, a pretty larger basket with greenery on the hearth would dress it up. Not sure you can do anything with the hearth marble slab....just try to detract away from it with other things.

Without standing in that room, I might consider covering the whole thing with 2 inch Styrofoam insulation. You could glue it on with liquid nails. Just remember liquid nails is the toughest glue you can get so use it sparingly. Then, I might consider covering the Styrofoam with wallpaper liner. You can get that at the big box store for about $10 a roll. Certainly not much more than that. At the most two rolls but I would figure the square footage of the fireplace before I went to the store to buy the wallpaper liner. Then you could paint it any color you wanted. Possibly set some book cases on the raised part in front of your new "wall". Use the mantle as a shelf. Maybe put a couple of shelves on the wall above if the space needs it.

I would take off the doors and the surround, clean them and spray paint them with heat resistant paint, clean the stone on the entire fireplace with extra attention to the area near the surround to remove the smoke/soot stains, tile the hearth with complimentary tile/stone, or remove the distracting hearth and replace with a cheap granite/marble remnant from a granite fabricator (our local yard offers any stone remnant cut to fit up to a 48 inch vanity for $250). While the surround/doors were off, I would also clean the firebox, spray paint with heat resistant paint, and shove as much insulation into the flue as possible. The mantle could be improved with minimal effort and some carpentry skills. Just doing something about the distracting hearth would do wonders!

The proportions are off but I may be in the minority liking that stone, I'm sure that was a working FP at some point. That mirrored window has got to go. At first, I was puzzled thinking how in the world did a fireplace get on a wall with a window?
Marti8a's suggestions are great, you can even continue with painted wood trim down the sides to decrease that expanse of stone.
I am attaching a link to the Lettered Cottage fireplace remake which started similarly to yours. She even has a mirrored grid over the FP like yours but it doesn't look like a window so is not so jarring.

Here is a link that might be useful: $82 Lettered cottage fireplace remake

This post was edited by scrappy25 on Mon, Nov 11, 13 at 13:01

I would use a concrete skim coat to cover the clashing hearth stone. You can get the concrete skim coat in a color to match the grout of the stone (this stuff is available at Home Depot etc). Trowel it on in a very thin layer.

You can clean the stone and maybe if you don't like the color whitewash it with very diluted paint. Painting it outright would look bad IMO (brick looks good painted but not natural stone).

Remove the mirrored window and replace that with art, then replace all the decorations with much larger chunkier items in balance with the stone. For example 2 large candle lanterns on either side of the heart and much larger candlesticks and vases etc on the mantel.

"I would use a concrete skim coat to cover the clashing hearth stone."

The stone may or may not match, but it's smooth and slick and fireplace gunk won't stick to it. Not so with a concrete coating.

I'm with scrappy25, i like that stone on the fireplace. why not paint the walls a warm color to coordinate with the stone? possibly you could paint the firebox a cream color so it wasn't so jarring? if you don't like the wood mantle, you could also prime and paint that.

That's not so bad...it's actually pretty nice.

I'll trade you for the wood stove on 'tippy' blocks that we saw last week. It was a cute home, but needs a LOT of work :)