Before making a design decision think long and hard about how you are going to use this space and how esential the fireplace is to your enjoyment of the space. I had a fireplace in my last home in Southern California. Never used it, but had to work around it to place my furniture. My current home is in Pennsylvania. I keep the house cool to save on heating costs and use the fireplace every evening in the winter. It is on the wall opposite where my TV is so that the warmth from the fireplace is closer to where I sit. Fireplaces used to be a central part of our living rooms when the TV was in the family room and we used the living room for social gathering. (1950s coctail parties and bridge night). This is no longer the norm. Think about your seating arrangement and tv placement and what is going to make this room work before deciding where to place the fireplace. Look at houzz photos for inspiration and ideas.

You really must have adjustable/removeable shelves, not permanently affixed ones. Why? First of all, it's far easier/less expensive to paint adjustable/removable shelves that permanent ones. Second, all shelves are usually not the same distance apart, depending on the height of the books or the objects being displayed in them. My daughter bought a house with permanent shelving, and ended up not painting the stained shelve unit when she had the rest of the room (knotty pine) painted. It would have cost $1000 for a very narrow wall (about 11-12ft). Oh, how she has wished over the 20 years she's lived in that house, that these shelves were adjustable!

all white w/wood mantle. they did shiplap on the top portion white painted shelving and wall above. black shiplap all above the white portion would look amazing w/the dark floors or just try painting it black, everything else white Or, try something like this another option would be to do all white, but paint the back panel of the shelves in black or a gray or try a cool wallpaper or do them all in black

I'm having the same issue. I want to add some built-ins around the fireplace in the house we just bought, but the fireplace is almost flush to the wall, and it is stone all the way to the ceiling, like yours. I found some pictures showing it can be done and look good. I think it helps if you can somehow tie the mantel into the built-ins. I'm thinking of putting wood facing around the top half of the fireplace and matching it to the built-ins.