ps its in the kitchen and Im thinking of painting cabinets white also

D'ontnice as is

Please do not paint your lovely bricks.

I wouldn't paint the brick - but - I would paint out the vents or screens to match the brick. Right now your fireplace looks like a face with two eyes and a wide open mouth. Sorry!

Maybe add a nice mantle in place of the arched brick area.

Paint will brighten up the fireplace. Paint

The brick and mortar look to be in excellent repair.
I would paint the vents to match the brick, as suggested. If I was doing it, I would need a lot of scraps of poster board and several sample jars of paint to mix to get the color "right!"

I think the fireplace needs a hearth. Is that a vent of some kind on lower wall on left side of the image? You might have to have a short height hearth, but you could make it as deep as you like.

A mantle is up to you.

That is the strangest firebox I've ever seen. I like the above idea to cover it or close it in more but the vents still need to vent I believe.

Plus vents on a chimney? I would paint those for sure. Get the wood ones and then have them painted to blend in as much as possible. https://patterncut.3dcartstores.com/Wood-Vent-Grille--Pattern-I-Design_p_22.html

I say start with a very light white washing... you can always go stronger. The white wash will help the vents blend in better. A soapstone slab (or something similar in color - blacks or greys) on the floor will give you the hearth and balance that it needs.

BTW... I like the arched opening...it adds character...

Run, don't walk to the paint store : )

If you would like to whitewash the bricks, here are progress photos of a fireplace posted by a person with the same Design Dilemma as yours.

For sure you need a mantle, and that can tie in to the cabinets very easily if the idea of painting really puts weighs you down. Otherwise, I love the whitewashed look as shown in the pictures above. The only potential problem to whitewashing would be that it would make those vents look like great big eyes!

Those vents are really something. What if there were a number of mantles...staggered, and of varying lengths & depths, with some sort of arch motif. (I like the arch work of the opening.)

I think the whitewash would look very nice, too.

What ever you chose to do...paint your vents to match the colour of the brick, then hang some kind of open metal artwork over the vents. Something that will allow air to pass freely but will also help camouflage the vents even more.
Is that a natural gas fireplace? I'm guessing that the "vents" are for makeup air?

Yes, paint the grilles to blend in with the brick. Looks like the fireplace is staring at me. Haha. Don't paint the brick! Install a wood mantle with an arched bottom to cover up the eyebrow and columns coming down to the floor on each side would look nice

In lieu of doing a mantle and a hearth you could do a "shelf" ... again, I would recommend out of a black stone.

In the photo below you can see a fireplace that I designed that is floating on the wall with an extended "shelf"... there is a hearth on the floor, but since yours is so close to the floor you wouldn't need both. I have attached your photo with a shelf drawn in for you to see what I an describing...

I like the brick and also think you should paint the vents to blend into the brick better. I also like the characteristic of the arch so I wouldn't add a mantle.