Old house. This is a renovated basket fireplace place. Ripped drywall out exposing brick and to not have a fire hazard when burning wood. Behind the drywall It’s thin brick stuck on top of cinderblocks with what appears to be some type of tar. Few issues here. Bulkhead. How do I work around that? I was going to replace the brick that came off, grout it make it looks somewhat real and paint it white. Wanted to add a mantle and do shiplap above mantle. Problem is, upper part of fireplace would stick out further than bottom with the brick regardless If I go over the drywall or remove the drywall. Can I hide that using mantle as transition piece? Do I frame straight down from the bulkhead or would it look alright to frame a few inches under the bulk head and rip the frame to fit around bulkhead and continue up to the ceiling? Would it look weird to have the brick part of the fireplace recessed and trimmed in going up to the mantle making the top above the mantle sticking out more? Should I just take the drywall out all the way to the ceiling and fake it till I make it with the thin brick? Removing the brick all together isn’t really an option because eod what was used to stick it onto that cinder block. I want to keep the fireplace as a functional wood burning fireplace. I thought about and would have just went left the drywall and went over it floor to ceiling with shiplap and got a steel frame for the pit but would be a fire hazard. Help I don’t know what to do at this point!