You might be able to darken with concrete stain if he used a sanded mix...diluted paint if the stain does not work. If you can slide wax paper or maybe parchment behind the bricks, you should be able to work a small artist’s angle brush in the gap...it will be tedious but should work.

I also am having pictures that dont translate well anymore. It is fuzzier and when you click to enlarge you no longer get the whole picture you saved. This used to be my favorite site and my Architect and builders would log into my account to help me but it is hobbled now. It also takes forever to load a picture and navigate. Please go back to the O G! We miss you Houzz!

Thank you all; you said: “remove the mantle” (HIwEase); “take the surround and end it from wall to wall run it up to the ceiling with different tiling” (Claire Larece); “painted the same as the wall color(…) 3 inch or so wide black metal frame around the firebox” (lefty47); “something that goes wall corner to corner” (beesneeds); “Remove the current fireplace surround, fur out the wall, and tile with large format tiles” (groveraxle). We did it, TY !! ... Now will you please help me out switching art between living room and family room? <new thread? this one is 100+ long>

I think your cabinets are gorgeous and I disagree regarding there being too much wood if you use wood floors. It depends on the color. I have a LOT of wood in my condo - cabinets - cabinets in the dining area and large wall unit. I also have a wood table in the dining area. My wood (except for the table) is quarter sawn white oak in a medium honey tone. My wood floors are in the kitchen and I think they work beautiful with the wood. I deliberately chose a natural stain oak floor in a fairly innocuous narrow width plank so the floor didn't make a "statement" as I just wanted it for a background. These aren't the greatest photos as they were just quick snapshots but the wood floor is basically a warm blonde color - i.e. natural. This is a pretty good representation of the floor color and I actually used this chair to show the cabinet maker what color stain I wanted on my cabinets - he took the chair to duplicate the stain in his workshop. My table - just to illustrate there is a LOT of wood in my open plan home. This is not taken in my home FWIW. This is a pretty good representation of my cabinets - floor is probably over-exposed so it's lighter than in real life but I think it shows that wood cabinets play well with wood floors provided there is sufficient contrast - and my floors are fairly light and contrast with the cabinets in real life as well. Last picture is a bit darker (both floors and cabinets) that in real life but I added just to show how much wood I have in a fairly small space in terms of cabinetry. The tall cabinet in the first picture is a more accurate representation of the color of my cabinets which is warmer than they appear in the second picture.