Lovely house ... very Prairie School and serene. Given the colors in the stone, how about two shades of grey or grey-brown taken from the stone. One on the prominent banding, one on the rest of the walls. If they are pale grey and a slightly darker grey you would enhance the horizontals subtly, and have the pillar of yellow and grey stone standing out. Using the paler color on the walls would make them move forward, using the darker color would make them look set deeper and look more shadowed.

I think if it was me, and it isn't so take it with a grain of salt..i would like to see the entire fireplace wood covered with some new wood..or another material..i was thinkin raised panels would be nice sometimes you can even use flat bulk cabinet doors to do that..measure and see what ones you can find to fit..and then use things like fluted moulding etc..in the other areas to fill in any gaps and create a fireplace surround..the panel doors would also solve the door problem..then build up a mantle with mouldings..paint it all the cream white that is used in the other rooms..and i would consider painting the beams the cream white as well....then i would paint the walls and the rest of the ceiling a matching color..if you like the yellow in the other room you might carry that through..or any other color that is at least 2 shades darker than the cream..that is on the mouldings and trim .. use a small raised panel door over the "door" in the fireplace..it reminds me of an old fashioned englenook..and it could really be done cute if you used that idea to fashion an englnook..check out some of Mary Englbrieits books on her house..she has a lovely englenook in one of them..and you could adapt your fireplace to an englenook..as it has those deep set bricks..basically just fancy up all the wood areas with raised panels..or if you can't afford them..just cover with plain flat luan painted and trim it out with lots of mouldings..or if you want, you could also just prime prime prime prime prime and paint that pine creamy white..and go from there..but you'll really have to prime so that there is no bleed through on the knots..remove the dark behind the shelves and paint it to match the trim..cream..so the shelves don't look like little lines..they will look better with backing matching..that will make them look more built in and less like they were tacked on..if you can put some fancy mouldings on them..all the better to beef them up some..but they are fine as they are..the pastels and cream are really stunning..i would go with them or some other neutral colors like coffee with cream color, or caramel, or soft yellow ..soft sage green..with the cream..you will have a beautiful..soft ..traditional home..full of light..bright..and clean looking..

Thank you, I choose all those colors and plumbing and door knobs and accessories we choose champagne gold. No regret at all.

Not really. The place is a VERY small lake cottage. Unless you have another idea?? I wanted to use that area for a coffee station and extra storage.