dark? heck no! Texas Leather wouldn't be too dark for the kitchen unless you had trouble with the cabinets... but you're allowed to play games with the available light, you know... since the hallway is darkest, you might want to go with a lighter shade there - or have it all given a base coat of the Oaks, or something like Wilmington Tan, and use a sponge-roller to go over the hallway in something 'brighter' like the Stuart Gold, or lighter, like the Concord Ivory, to make up for the lack of light. I'd want to know more about the rooms, though - the way light moves across open spaces matters more in some cases than others, where you can get a pink/god light in from the east, a blue light from the north, and a green light from the west, as the setting sun passes through trees or something.

Paint samples are on the brick, and it's down to Revere Pewter and Balboa Mist. I much preferred the more gray beige over the more brown tones. (romy718, Revere Pewter is lovely in your room!) Practigal, the fireplace is purely decorative. It originally held a gas heater, so it's not deep enough to burn wood anyway; we capped the chimney when the brick mortar started to fall apart, and we capped the gas line to that part of the house when they detected a tiny leak, so we couldn't use it even if we wanted to. It is kind of weird to pick a paint without the context of other decor. I do have a rug that's going in the room, so I'm referring to it. The furniture that's going in that room now is the leftover reject material from the rest of the house. I want to put in some cozy Craftsman style seating--maybe a Morris chair and a rocker--but that will have to wait until the bank account recovers. So I'm just going to pick the best color I can for now. I can always repaint it later. The corbels arrived (I don't know if ArchitecturalDepot.com is always that fast, but they got it to me overnight when I paid for three-day shipping) and I'm working on finding stain to match the mantel. I'll get back this next week--we spent today moving stuff out of storage, and I've got boxes to put away. But it's so cool to see the progress. Oh, and my husband's reaction was a sort of bemused resignation. This isn't the first time I've jumped head-first into a project without consulting him. Sometimes this goes very well; other times it's a disaster. He asked me today if it was too soon to tease me about the bookcases (which I purchased from Ikea and assembled before we realized I had measured wrong and they wouldn't fit in the space--and that therefore required some pretty major engineering to make work). (I told him yes, it was too soon. Way too soon.) The fireplace looks to be not only a success but also one that doesn't require any effort on his part, and as he's teaching an accelerated summer chemistry course and has almost no spare time, that's a win!

What if you painted the mantle to match the walls? I have a 70s brick fireplace, brick to ceiling by not full width of wall. I've been researching and found instructions on cleaning the brick then putting something on it to help keep it clean and add a bit of sheen. We're not going to paint the brick, but will change the wall color around it and make a new mantle. 2016 version 2017 version Still looking for the right color for the walls. It has recirculating vents with fans to distribute heat. I keep having visions of painting them in hippie colors. So far, I've restrained my self.

The texture, stack, color of the brick and the shape of a fire place is designed specifically for the style and era of a home. Painting brick and stone is like trying to turn a tutor home into a MCM and usually turns out mishmashed. To each their own , but the examples above of the painted stone and brick fireplace look cheap , flat and tacky. I've seen several posts on how to bring back the character and warmth in the snowstorm kitchens that was all the fad. I've only seen two on how to remove the paint from brick , but I'm sure there will be many more as the trend fades. Guess what, your stuck with it. You can't remove the paint.