Hello, We also have a really old brick looking fireplace that looked like this: It really made our room dark and look really old like an old cottage and not in a good way either. So my family and I resorted to painting it white so now it looks something like this: I love it so much more like this now. It just totally brightens up the room. Have you considered painting it white? It might look really nice. But I don't know if you can clarify this for me or not but I've heard that since we painted it now we can't really use it because it might melt the paint and such. Not like we really ever use our fireplace at all so it's not really a concern but you might want to check out the specifics of that if you wanted to paint it.

You could lime wash it to lighten it up. That's what I plan to do to a dark red brick fireplace. romabio.com

I read quite a few different DIY blogs where they used drywall compound. I used the spackling to go over a some of the grout lines where they was a little cracking when the compound dried and shrunk. On those blogs they used a white wash to seal it. I’m looking to go with a clear seal because I don’t want to add any more white. As for durability and longevity, only time will tell at this point.

Thanks for the suggestion about the winter flower. I looked at the video again, the woman from New Jersey, USA, and she said that her Geraninum Rozanne (a sterile plant), begin flowering in mid-May, and continue to flower until Mid-Novemeber, six months, but the flowers in November "are nothing like the amazing amount of blooms in the Summer months". But that seems pretty similar to her description of the flowering period that you have in the UK. New Jersey is zones 6-7 and Hungary seems similar and is in Zone 6a to Zone 8a. In your opinion, the geraniums won't outcompete or harm the tulips? Rozanne Geraniums are sterile, but other geraniums do drop their seeds and spread. If I use typical hardy geraniums, which are not sterile, will that be a big problem to prevent them from outcompeting or harming the tulips ? If it is a problem, how would I prevent the hardy geraniums, the Meadow Cranesbill, from doing that?