Thanks for your comments, cloud swift and lavender lass. I appreciate it. I think I may not have clarified my question as well as I could have so I'm going to try again and I beg your patience as I try to explain what I'm struggling with. Anyone else with an opinion, PLEASE jump in. In the design I've created (based on the inspiration pic) there should be 5" of tile and 7" of wood surrounding the firebox. The tile designer felt that if we install the stacked travertine mosaic tile we should have 9" of tile around the firebox to really show off the effect of the running bond stacked tile. I think that will result in the surround being too wide, too tall, and will end up being too massive for the room. It also makes the tv way too high on the wall. DH really likes the look of the stacked mosaic tile and would like to use it. So my question is if I only have 5" of tile showing on each side of the firebox will it look okay to use a 1"x2" stacked stone? That's what I'm struggling with. I'm afraid it will look silly to have only 2-1/2 stones showing between the firebox and the wood. I think we should either go to a 1" mosaic tile or go find a remnant of marble. The island countertop is Cafe Creme granite, which I think will be too busy for the inspiration look, and the perimeter counters are Hanstone Tiffany Grey quartz, which I think will be too dark. I found a better picture of the fireplace that doesn't show the optional trim around it (thanks for asking about that wide trim Lavender - it made me really get into the manual and their website and dig for the answer about the size of the trim.) and I put together a quick sketch showing the 1x2 inch tile on one side of the fireplace and a 1x1 inch tile on the other side. I left off the slab option because that is what is showing in our inspiration pic above. What is your vote?

It isn't terrible, but does look dated. When I bought my house, the fireplace was terrible. I believe old, dated brick SHOULD be painted. You can use latex paint eggshell finish, diluted 50% with water and sponge on. It leaves the brick texture, without an awful high gloss fake look. I don't advocate whitewash because it doesn't look natural at all with most brick tones. Pick any neutral color. Don't use stark white, as that won't go with your furniture or the style of your home. You might consider BM Lancaster Whitewash. Looks really good with brick, and is a warm off-white. I used BM Classic Gray (a very light beigy gray) which was the same as my wall color and minimized the monstrosity. It doesn't take long to use a sponge brush. Very minimal effort. You can leave the arched section as is Often the brick there has soot, and without a ton of elbow grease is difficult to clean. Paint may not stick. But the rest is easy. Do vacuum first! Everyone who sees my fireplace now loves it (none of them are shy about telling the truth). I think your TV would look far better on a bigger media stand, or build shelves to match the alcove size. Semi-customized shelving and cabinets would modernize the look and look less jury-rigged. The mantle and upper wood sections might look a lot better painted to match the fireplace. I left my mantle which looks lilke yours. Once the brick was updated, the mantle actually looked way better. Good luck with your project.

Instead of sconces, I would add a floor lamp to the right of the fireplace, one to the left of the sofa by the door, and an end table with lamp to the other end of the sofa. That should give you plenty of light.

I am not sure that having the bottom and the top in two different materials is necessary... You have that magnificent height which should be emphasized....Having the base different makes the fireplace look really small and disproportional to the space...top heavy. This is such a monumental element...take the advantage of it... Sometimes a use of different material can change a sense of scale, like in this project above where we wanted to make the space to feel taller and fireplace larger. In your case creating a illusion that FP is wider, the base wider would help the scale.