I like the fireplace but the hood just looks strange. I would start by removing it. Are you going to keep your color scheme as white? A lot of design mags use white with pops of color in the furniture or other decor. What does the outside of the house look like so we can get an idea of the overall flavor of your house. Do you already have furniture you are going to use?

Since you say southern beachy, are you in the South? You can type in nautical or coastal on Houzz and a lot of ideas will pop up. You can create the look by just color such as blue or turquoise ( more caribbean) or by objects or photography or art. On the large brick wall you could hang high definition photography - large or in a collection of smaller photos. I like color photography because it is soo realistic and uplifting. I have one of my Tybee Island lighthouses in my famiy room and it is almost as good as being there.
I use a lot of coastal photography in my house. My office has a collage of photography from Key West - which I have not posted on my Etsy site or on here. I guess I should. And I wake up to St. Thomas every single day. As they say "Life is a Beach"
I hope you have found Etsy because there are a lot of great artisans on there and their search engine is great. Some of them are mothers working at home. But they have lots of items that can be used for home decor. Even rope coasters which are nautical looking.

i agree that the hood looks odd..as if they bricked up the other side of the fireplace, because why would the hood extend so far around? the idea of a larger fireplace may have been nice a long time ago, but it i think a newer more modern design would be much nicer, and certainly more energy efficient.

I would bet money that hood was put there as an afterthought because of draft problems with the fireplace. (smoke)
What you do, of course depend on your budget, and what you want the room to do for you. I.e. living room, entertainment, game room...
Definitely remove the hood. That alone may inspire you. If you like having a fireplace, install vent free gas logs.
Is the hearth going around the bricks big/tall enough to double as seating?
If you don't like a fireplace, and want to go "beachy", install a fish tank in the hole!
Point being here, get rid of the things you know has to go and have fun with it!

By simply removing the hood surround, the entire space would be transformed. Also, wonderful idea to use surround as extra seating.

Remove the hood. Add a simple, beefy fireplace manel all the way around to parallel the bench seat. Assuming it's a wood brning fireplace use a small width of the area for firewood storage. Add a few baskets uner the bench seat for starter, matches, and a fire entinguisher. Then I'd run 2 more beefy shelves to fill in the area..

Definitely remove the hood and consider toning down the white walls with a warmer, darker neutral to compliment the bench. Check out Benjamin Moore's Pashmina AF and Valley Forge Tan AC.Also try Pratt & Lambert's Shadow Beige.

Thank you for the suggestions so far. I should have given more info. We are redoing the whole house - adding a master, new roof, etc. We originally were going to get rid of the fireplace and closet behind it but now want to keep it - need closet space, thinking about putting a china cabinet off to the left in 1st pic, house won't be as open (good for us). Just finished the plans and changed our mind about it. We will have 4 young children when we move in so safety is important. We cannot have a lot of accessories right now, esp. breakable ones. The 1st pic will face the dining room, and the 2nd pic faces the living room. We would get rid of the bench seat that surrounds it. We like traditional, live by the beach, and also like Southern style (Like. But we are in FL so want to work with that. We have not attachment to the white "brick" covering it so wonder if we should cover that up with something? I'm not sure if we can make this fireplace more traditional. Most of the pics I've looked at with an off center fireplace like this have modern furnishings and decor. We do not like modern stuff.

For Carolina Photo, we are in southeast FL across from the beach. I'm not sure about the color scheme yet. I'm thinking something light b/c I don't want the house to feel dark. We will definitely get more furniture for the living room and are not sure if we will be using what we have now. Maybe put our current furniture in the family/kids play room. The outside is being redone too but it's a 1 story ranch, and we'll be adding shutters.

You definitely will need to think of the children when decorating. Cleanable surfaces as much as possible. Leather does not stain and even comes in blue. My son lives in coastal GA and they just bought some indoor wicker for one room of their house.
Nancy H.