Anglophilia- We love the idea of the “triangle of light”. It will do so much for the space. I totally understand your rant of lack of tables/lights! You can find me reading pitifully curled up next to the only lamp in the room, with my drink out of arms reach on the coffee table. I think that these suggested ideas of where/what types of tables and lights to add in will make this a much better space to hang out in. Artemis_ma- Thank you for the insight! I appreciate it. That seems to be the general consensus of what to change in this room. I love this red brick, so I’d much rather design a room around it than to paint it! Lascatx- Great advice, thanks. And thank you for the helpful LED information, I’m sure that will make all the difference. We’ve already started the hunt for a new rug—we’re excited to see what that does for the room and where to go from there (for the coffee table, etc). Artdreamer- Thank you for the advice! We used to have a beautiful palm tree in the corner, but unfortunately it only lived a year or so. Not sure if I just don’t have good luck with plants, or if it didn’t like our cold, dark winters. We may try again! Those are great rug suggestions, and I like the idea of adding a mirror to reflect light to further brighten the room. Thanks! K Fitz- No problem! I’m sure it will be more messy and difficult than the internet makes it seem (aren’t home projects always this way?) but… 1) We plan to follow this set of directions to remove the brick: https://www.wikihow.com/Replace-a-Damaged-Brick ). 2) We will then cut the brick in half (either with a circular saw or by hand with a chisel https://www.thisoldhouse.com/more/how-to-hand-cut-brick ). 3) We will then re-insert the brick, pushing it back in until it is flush with the rest of the brick wall.

I am far from an expert on mortar and bricks but after some consternation and several sample tests we recently changed our dark grey mortar by covering it with a ‘standard white’ color of grout—Though the result is closer to a German Schmear than what you want. Ours was a stone fireplace with the original mortar deeply indented so there was space for the off white grout to adhere Between the stones. Unlike you, we were going for a lighter stone color too so we were not concerned about getting some of the grout on the stone. We did take a stiff brush and water to the stone to get most of the grout off the stone and To even out the color. I wouldn’t expect that to work too well with brick. I gave our contractor a picture of a fireplace in the “Patina” farmhouse book to copy. We tried to use ‘light’ colored ’mortar’ but it was too grey and ‘thin set’ would not stick well in our mortar crevices. We have used a lot of the BM Revere Pewter in our remodel and I can see why you are concerned about your fireplace outcome complimenting (or not) the paint color. We used “BM White Dove” on these walls but there is some light taupe similar to Revere in the ceiling coffers. I will post before and after pics so you can see what I mean.

paint it. and that scalloped trim on the bookcases, sorry, but it's very dated looking. You can easily trim that off. But I'd paint the entire thing the same white as the brick. And that mantle would also need to go. it's the wrong look for that style brick fireplace this one is pretty close to what you have. notice the mantle and fireplace screen. And, I think it would look neater if you put doors on your lower shelves. Like they have here on the left. Then you could style the shelves w/a few selected items and hide the mis-mash tried doing a photo shop. now, does this really look worse than what you currently have? you have the exact same set up as these two. These look amazing. there's no need to hand onto to those wood shelves! I know they're oak, but they're not a super crafted oak fireplace. they're just, blah. paint them and style them like shown! I photoshopped it both ways for you pretend the surround is brick. but notice the shelving. contrasting color in the back, everything else white. you could do baskets or pull out drawers on your bottom shelf. But, here are some pictures so you can see what it might look like. (and don't worry about painting that brick, it will be fine. may take a few coats (prime it first) but it will work. don't forget to paint out the gold in that insert. (or remove it) this is almost the same as yours. you could try a chalk paint or a milk paint. (or just use Romabio lime wash) paint out the mantle along w/your bookcases.

I have the same dilemma, and asking around, it seems that you need to dig out some of the existing mortar to have enough depth for a new layer to stick. My own fireplace has very deep mortar to begin with, so I'm not sure I'll need to do that, but I do plan to clean it with some kind of acid wash to get the surface ready. Your mortar looks fairly near the surface. You might first look at Rumabio lime wash products which can re-color both the stone and grout with much less investment than a re-grouting project.