It looks like the wood was installed after the fireplace was completed. If that is the case, It really shouldn't be hard to remove it. If you can't tell how it's fastened, find a good handyman to look at it. (We found a great handyman by going to the firehouse, many fireman work trade jobs on their days off.

If you're lucky removal won't harm the beautiful floors and crown moulding.

Or paint it white and see if that helps it blend in.

ML

Smooth out the wood with filler and paint the columns or just paint the columns. Use gel stain to darken the mantel? You can get $1 thin white and black plastic tablecloths to tape over the wood shapes then stand back and squint your eyes to see the effect. That's what I did when deciding on my countertops- read about that trick here on GW.

Do you like the crown molding at the top of the stone? I don't think you can ever smooth out that rustic wood to blend in any way. I'd remove it, and ML's suggestion about the local fire station is a good one, based on friends here using them. I'd probably look online at Craigslist or at local decorators, to see what you find there.

Do you have any images of what you'd LIKE to have there?

Thanks! Will start looking for a handyman.

The stone is ok. The tv mount is quite high. I don't know if I should put up another mantel and leave the tv where it is. Or move the tv to a different wall entirely and put up a big picture to cover the holes.

I think I could put the tv on between those two windows in some sort of built in?

I'd sand them down and paint them, take the TV mount down and, yes, put the TV between the two windows. Pretty room. Love the wall color. I'd continue it up to the ceiling, leaving the wood trim the cream color.

Call Snow White and her 7 little friends. Tell them they can have it if they'll haul it away. ;)

I had a similar barn beam over the FP--still do, but I had a 'sleeve' made to cover it. I'm sure the beam came from one of the dismantled out-buildings on our former dairy farm, so I didn't want to remove it. The sleeve is golden oak (yes, I know, out of the frying pan, into the fire, to most folks), but it matches our stair case, and besides, I like golden oak.

You could have covers built for the supports, too--then stain or paint.

It is probably just nailed into the wallboard. If I were trying to take that apart, I would take a pry bar used for molding and try to lift one of the two small blocks on either end above the mantel. A carpenter would be the best person to remove it with minimal damage. But you will probably have some drywall repair to do after it's over.

Are the lions add-ins over the wood columns? If so, maybe you can remove just those. Then I would paint the columns the wall color so they just blend in. This is an easy fix and I would live with it for a bit, unless you can determine that removing all the wood won't ruin the crown moulding, stone, floor, etc.

As far as the tv goes, yes move it to a better spot -- you're idea of between those windows seems like a very good option.

Echoing the question of whether or not you can remove the lions, they're kind of an unexpected detail. Love the idea of building some kind of cover over the rustic columns, and paint it white to match the molding -- then it won't matter if you can remove the lions or not because you are just covering them up.

But...I kind of like the rustic mantle part (the horizontal piece). If you cover the vertical supports, and paint them to tie in and give a more traditional look, I think the rustic mantle suits the fireplace pretty well. I like the suggestion to darken the mantle, I think it has a nice presence in the room.

That said, if you don't like it then definitely calling a handyman is a good place to begin.

What kind of fireplaces appeal to you?

I agree with Tibbrix and sand and paint them. The only other idea would be to cover it up by boxing in with smooth wood and painting to match your trim.

I don't know if the lions are add ons or not. I don't really like any of it. I think they were going for a rustic, hunting lodge look. I think they had taxidermy on the walls. I want it to look English country/coastal. In person it is very dark and shiny and rough. IMO it's just weird.

I can't really imagine what it would look like with it painted white or with something over it.

Here are some stone fireplaces I like.

LAKE ELMO GREEK REVIVAL FARMHOUSE · More Info

Coastal Ranch · More Info

Logan · More Info

Huestis Tucker Architects, LLC · More Info

Beechtree Bay 2 · More Info

The lions look like an add on and I suspect they could be removed.

What seems really weird to me is that the wood is not smooth, so rustic, but it looke like is has been laquered with a high sheen. One or the other!

Everything I think I might do starts wth removing the whole thing. Even to reuse the wood, I would want to take it down (starting at the top to see what it looks like with just the mantel and below), strip the wood and get it looking rustic again, then decide whether to stain or leave natural, whether to reduce the height of the side columns and lower the mantel, hang only a mantel and not use the side colums (similar to all the ones you sid you like) or call it all a good attmept at recycling, donate the parts to Habitat and start over.

Whatever you do, the TV placement does seem high. I would want to lower it whether on that wall or bwtween the windows If you watch TV during the day, consider the direction of the sun and the amount of glare from all those windows. The wall between the windows may get less (mainly from the one beside the fireplace), but you may wind up closing the blinds when watching TV during the day. If there is a view you want to preserve or need to be able to watch young ones out back, etc. you might need to find other methods of controlling the glare. If you watch mainly at night -- well, nevermind. ;)

I would find a carpenter who would take it down....looks like it was put on after the fireplace was put in. If you don't remove it, I would paint this wood like the rest of your woodwork in the house....may take a few coats but would look like it matched, and yes, I would take the TV hanger down and put up artwork. Use the TV hanger on the wall between the windows or put it on a TV console. IMHO that wood does not go with the rest of your beautiful room.

A crow bar is all you need. Bet it will pop off easily. The decision is what will you replace them with or how will you fix the wall behind them? They really do look like you will have a little wall board to patch and paint and that is it. The crown molding will hold its own without any of the wood. I would not be able to wait..I would have the big crow bar and be going at it!!

Hopefully, it will just pop off and everything will be fine behind it.
Would be fun to have someone make an outdoor bench out of the salvaged
wood. The floor detail is very pretty - I hope the wood surround is just sitting on it so it will look perfect when all is removed.

When you figure out the wood removal, I'd look at darkening the grout. All of the fireplaces you posted have minimal or fairly dark grout that blends with the stone.

Call a few different people and get estimates for the removal. Then you can decide if it is worth it to spend X amount of money on it. If it is too pricey, then paint it. The high gloss wood is unbearable. You have my sympathy.

I love the paint color on the window wall. It all looks so much better with their furniture removed.

Lascatx - yeah, I kept trying to think of wAys to make it work, but shiny rough hewn beams just won't go with anything I want. The backstory is this house was built by a bachelor hunter builder who then got married and his wife didn't like it. So they built a new place. But it's in a nice neighborhood close to great achools and decent commutes for both me and DH. But some things he did were off. The kitchen backsplash is rough tumbled travertine...with mirrored tile diamond inset feature over the stove. I really wanted to build but DH loved this location, so the good news is I have a fairly healthy budget and DH's blessing to change it to how I want it.

Tv is mainly used by the kids during the day. And there are windows on 3 sides of the room, so either way you're facing the windows. I watch 30 minutes of hulu at night. DH watches movies sometimes, but eventually would like to make a theater room in the basement.

Olychick - good call on the darker grout! I would not have noticed that!

Emmarene - you've touched on another issue. I don't know why, but he did some things differently in this room than the rest of the house. The wall color by itself may be ok, but they painted the trim an ugly color which looks to me like the color paint turns when someone smokes inside for many years. The rest of the house trim is very close to BM linen white, which is ok. But this trim (you can't see in photos really) is an ugly pee color. This is the family room trim color next to a bunch of strips I happened to have.

Anyway, I really think I do want to move the tv. I think I would like it in an armoire or something so I could close it off. Or is that really dated looking? It doesn't have to be a huge tv. There is 82" on that wall between the windows. Maybe that could provide some toy storage as well.

Linelle, the lions were the only part that I was ok with. I also love cats,

Is there a way to get that shininess off? I think that's what throws it off. If it were gone, it wouldn't be far off of some of your inspiration pics.

Get those wood pieces removed and the wall/trim repaired. Paint the room the way you want it to be. You have a beautiful home!

I feel like it will all pop off fairly easily. It was clearly an afterthought, as the columns don't really fit in with either the crown at the top or the banding in the floor at the bottom. I think it was a simple stone fireplace and then someone got a wild hair and went all woodsy on it. You'll probably have some touching up to do and may not be able to reuse the pieces a a mantel (all the shine!), but it should be do-able. Unless you're comfortable with DIY-ing it, get a carpenter type in who can also touch up the drywall if needed.

A lot of people have moved away from putting TVs in cabinets, but that's in part becasue flat panels mean less to hide, can mount on the wall and many folks have them much larger than most armoires can hold. The media cabinets to hold those larger TVs are assive, and exensive, but armoires can be found much less expensive -- new or resale. I might have my TV in one, but DH and the eboys insist on a bigger one and it has to stand alone so my armoire became a china cabinet.

I looked really closely at it today and whoever stained it got some stain on the stone too. I wonder how hard that will be to get off?

What about a tv cabinet like this? Supposed to hold a 51" tv which I think is the size we have.

https://m.ballarddesigns.com/products/bundle/252158?path=~casa-florentina-josephina-bonnet-top-armoire~furniture~living-room~media~

I like it -- and if you ever want to move the TV out (goes downstairs into a edia room, etc.), there are many ways to repurpose an armoire -- china cabinet, crafting station, sewing center, desk, dry bar.... In the meantime, perhaps hiding the TV so that it isn't the first thing the kids see will encourage them to think about activities other than TV. At least sometimes.

The stain may be difficult to clean, but should be able to get it off. If a shadow remains, you may be able to blend it in to make it look like natural rock variations (lose the hard edge).

You said the previous owner built the house -- you may not have contact info for them, but go through your agent and see if you can get in touch to ask some questions about the mantel. He should be able to tell you how it was built and secured in place. If the work in your house is good (other than taste on this and the kitchen BS), you might even ask him for a contractor rec or some work on the house. If you are afraid of offending him, just tell him the tv space doesn't work for your tv now that you are looking at it and you need to make some adjustents. You don't have to tell him you want to rip the whole thing out.

OK, I don' t know about your CL, but where I am, the most amazing TV armoires (antique French, rustic, etc.) can be had for very little money, sometimes even for free.