May I ask a few questions please? I'm wondering if this home is new to you or if you are remodeling where you have lived a while? Would you mind discribing the color hues of your flooring? What is you favorite color? Not sure I am seeing on my pc the colors being there. Viewing on my computer, the floor and brick appear perfect together. The style of the brickwork looks modern and as tho it would be fun to design a number of different ways. Would you consider leaving the brick and the brass, painting a warm modern color you love from the variations in the brick, deciding on your furniture, rug and window treatment, love les's mirror wall sconce idea, and live with it a bit before investing. There are brass like products you could refresh the mantel for practically nothing, maybe even extending wall to wall as mirror backed display shelf. With the floor to ceiling mirror you can do really modern fun lighting too. No clues I get for your decor style. How do you look forward to enjoying this room? tv music reading relaxing entertaining etc. What are the four squares in the fireplace wall, recirculating heat vents?

mdln Your fireplace looks great. MagdalenaLee Great photoshop. Thanks so much. It is exactly what I want it to look like, except for the color. I am wanting a light gray. Hoping to put black marble on top of the hearth someday. Almost found what I needed at Habitat restore the other day, except it was 1 inch to short. Depth was perfect. I already have a black throw to put on the chair. Most the time it is off, because, the little ones love to sit in there, and it usually ends up on the floor. GreenHavenGarden Your fireplace looks really nice. Hope you enjoy it a lot. Annie, I have looked at the Dye brick site, and it is in consideration to find a stain rather than a paint. I didnt see any gray on the site, but, a friend told me that concrete stain would work the same way and it can be bought at Home Depot, so next time, I am in the city, will check that out too. nosoccermom, I did look over that link. Not seeing much with walnut stained trim. I do not want to paint this trim. I have painted every square inch of trim, in this house except the kitchen, and dining room, since they were the only ones that were still original. When we bought the house the rest of the trim was all painted white. I dislike white trim a lot, so it had to go almost immediately. I find it all a bit sad, that when we moved here, there was a 24 inch doorway to the 12x20 ft living room (small compared to all other rooms in this house), off the kitchen, but, the original owners had the stone mason put in a 7 ft long stone FAKE fireplace in the living room that matched the stone on the house. It had a very pretty well done mantle too. Attached to it, was an 8 ft long cabinet, that was also well done. There is another door on the opposite side of the living room to the back hallway, and double doors for a closet, and the front door, plus a large picture window with side windows, so there was absolutely no place for furniture, so for almost 5 yrs, all my living room furniture was just piled in there gathering dust, and the door was shut, and no way to use it. Last year, grandson in law, tore out both the fake fireplace and the cabinet, and closed up the 24 inch doorway, and put a new doorway on the dining room side that is 4 ft wide. I now have room for my couch and chairs, and my big oriental cabinets, and tv. The sad part is that they put so much thought into the fake stone fireplace, and no thought at all to the ugly brick one in the dining room. Oh and for those of you still reading this, I did spend most of the morning today out in the shop (nice cool morning) and I have the new top for the built in on the left all cut, except for 2 notches, and I do have a new mantle top all cut, and ready for sanding. I havent decided yet, just how much I want to add to the mantle, and of course, cant put it on until I decide what to do with the fireplace. Thanks all for your time, and your ideas. :-))

Wow, Equest! Big difference! Your room looks great! We are going for a more neutral palette...seems to be what the house is telling me to do (I know that sounds weird, but I FINALLY think the house is talking to me...) We have HW floors, which will be redone next week as part of the kitchen redo - whole main floor will be HW. I have off-white silk drapes, woven wood romans in the room. Also lots of framed photography (art, in addition to pics, if that makes sense). "Art" is in antique frames (we buy from a favorite artist at summer art shows) and family photos are in black frames. Black floating shelves (might be too much of a contrast)above couch. We'd like to do some built ins on either side of the FP. Need to find a local cabinetmaker who can do that, I think. The only problem is the heat on the outside wall...but that's not a miserable, impossible fix. I think I need to play w/ photoshop and try the FP in white, the mantle in a color (or wood) and see what it looks like before I pick up a paintbrush.

Fillagirl, I'll definitely try that. Great idea! Thank you. I love the look of some screens but I really like the idea of the doors with young kids around. Wonder if it's possible to do it both and still look nice. I'll keep you posted. Speaking of Better Homes and Gardens, there's a fireplace in the October issue with a bluestone hearth and then bluestone, too, over where my brick is now. Looks beautiful. Something to think about! Thanks again!