I am not sure I would put anything over your mantel....Maybe that mirror you have on the floor or a piece of artwork. Make the picture/mirror part of the fireplace grouping....maybe hang a couple of inches higher than the top of the mantel. Anything taller would look out of place. I would like to see a tallish plant on the window side of the fireplace and on the other side of the fireplace, a basket, or a low stool or even a low busy plant.

That color your friend suggested is very pretty. You could certainly try that. Since you mention your furniture is reddish this might be a better option than a rust red wall, but I can't really say. You should choose a color that really appeals to you. Is there a certain color that shows up often in your wardrobe? That might be something to consider. You should certainly start out with doing just the wall and see how that looks. If you feel happy with that don't go any further. This is your home and you have to love it. Don't worry about accessorizing. Even just a few pillows and a throw can make that color look integrated. You can always visit here again and get advice after the wall is painted. I can't wait to see the result!

Call me crazy, but if a house has a foyer that "feels more like a hotel lobby", you have other, much bigger problems -- like creating a warm and welcoming home. lindsey, I do know about cutting off the blossom end : ). As for shorter canning times, I was born a city girl and have always been nervous with recipes from family and friends with canning times considerably shorter than what district home economists, Ball Blue Book etc. recommend, which is usually 15-20 minutes for quart jars and no less than 10 minutes; my mother in law has been trying to convince me for 25 years that it's safe to chicken in a boiling water bath in a regular canner rather than a pressure canner, and I'm just not willing to risk it, esp when it comes to my husband and kids. We're also probably pickier about taste than some people -- for example, I used to process in the canner 1- and 2-quart jars of the apple cider we press every fall, but we realized we don't care for the "cooked" taste, so we freeze the cider now instead. Some people have wine fridges and we have a pickle fridge lol. And several chest freezers for cider, our own beef, chickens, turkeys, venison, fruit and vegetables! april, the chicks stay in the incubator in the house just until they're dry and then out they go. We don't always have helpful broody hens to do the setting for us so the incubator is a huge help.

OK here is your board and batten concept around the fireplace even using the existing tile so you don't have to replace it. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube to see how to accomplish this by simply adding feature boards to the face of the drywall after you pop off the mantel. Geez, I spent half the 30 minutes straightening your photo and cleaning off all the writing. Think first before you start posting bad photos for us to work from.