Would you consider painting your cabinetry/shelving a different color? They look dark, fairly heavy and they do a lot to date your room. Am also not a fan of the wall color at least as it appears in the photo. Perhaps a mantle that spans length between the cabinetry might work well. I'm working if a thin brick veneer would work as a surround especially is you leave the cabinetry the color it is now. Might also suggest adding brick to the hearth maybe up to the bottom of the firebox. Good luck!

Can those shelves be removed? They are squooshing your fireplace. Can you take a wider angle picture?

A full-width, somewhat thicker, dark wood mantel (bookcase-to-bookcase) directly over the fireplace trim (paint to match) would allow a larger TV at a slightly lower height. You could panel over the recessed area and use it to store valuables. The tile surround is not bad at all, unless you don’t like the pale gray color. The current area rug is too small for that spot: it should be as wide as the space between the bookcases, or even a bit wider.

Thank you everyone. We just had the walls painted; they are beige. Kitchen cabinets were same stain as bookshelves and we had them painted white and I may have shelves painted later on. I never thought about the area rug but that’s a good point. Bookshelves are built in. All your suggestions are great.

Do you mean a floating TV panel? Are you able to put cable box, etc. behind it?

You can see here, in these images of our designs, the mantle we have matches the wood around the fireplace area. If you are looking at doing a mantle and are not painting the shelves we would recommend doing the same type of wood as the shelves.

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