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!

Tony, I'm really not concerned if they will look outdated soon, this is my downsize house that I will hopefully be living in for the next 20 + years. These tiles make me happy, and that's all that matters to me.

Also try the paint samples near the hardwood floors. It's just as important for the color to coordinate with the floors as it is the fireplace. Paint a sample of the Gentle Cream, Muslin, and the Navajo White on the edge of a large white poster board. Then you can prop it up against the fireplace brick, your white moldings, the hardwood floors, and your rug/furniture. The white space around the colors will help you better visualize what it will look like without the reflection and contrast of your current wall color. It appears that any of those colors would work.

Is there a reason you want to paint the brick? It is because you're chasing the all-white look? Or is the brick truly bad? I had a painted brick fireplace at my other house, was there when I moved in and frankly it looked cheap. I did have it repainted a different color which improved it -- but painted brick is not an attractive look IMO. If it's truly horrible gold or pink brick or something, then go for it, but if it's a perfectly service traditional red, brown, or grey brick I'd work with it. Posting a pic would help responses.