Thanks for the feedback on this everyone. Just wanted to update in case anyone else has such a dilemma. I DID find the material I was looking for (grey with white veining) after searching inventory systems all over the country for weeks. The material is a marble, and called Blue de Savoie. I ordered a sample of from a slab and fell in love. Sadly, the slabs were only available in NYC and I was outside of their delivery range. I tried everything to get the slab or something similar sourced through local vendors and could not make it work. I ended up going with a Carrara marble instead which wasn’t exactly what I was looking for but did turn out very nicely. I think the fireplace complements the kitchen and other finishes we chose well. Please see attached for initial Savoie de blue marble I found, how our fireplace turned out and a photo of our kitchen which is located at the other end of the room that the fireplace is in. The house is still under construction hence some incomplete finishes. Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Here's one way to do it (make sure to clean the firebox really well so that it appears black. bring in a few logs. Paint brick, add wood beam mantle, build a wood skirt Or, nix the wood skirt trim, and just have all brick: You could also skim coat all of the brick to match the upper portion, smooth it all out and paint or leave natural. I wonder if someone before you skim coated that upper portion. maybe it was brick like shown here: different levels of paint coverage you could do. this one is more of a limewash You could also go for a very heavy mortar coverage over all of the brick. I'd prob do something w/the triangular top portion and remove it.

@Brittany Kruse I don't think your floor and stone facing are awful at all! I have learned though, that many people are less comfortable with pattern than I am. I have learned that pattern needs some effort to combine and also some plain surfaces to help it fit in. To show you I am comfortable with a different look, I will post a picture of my new main floor bathroom. It is still in progress though. See all the pattern in the floor and walls? Some people are uncomfortable with that much pattern and have said so.  I still vote to take the stone to the ceiling. I think that looks sort of natural, because many fireplaces do. And choosing the right mantle will be important. But if you want to go only to the height of the mantle, that's fine too. I wouldn't make the mantle too busy and certainly wouldn't try to hide the stone with objects. There's nothing wrong with it. Decorating the room around it and that fascinating floor will be fun!

I have heat n glo sl750tr-c fireplace with wall switch to turn it on. I want to install blower fan gfk-160a. I see 2 eletrical recepticles one rem and fan. However none or hot with or without fireplace on. Is that normal? Outside the recepticle box, i see two wires comingout and joined together, I thought with this setup rem and fan should have power all the time.. please advise. S