Personally, I would invest in a woodburning stove insert and contunue using the fireplace.

My opinion,

DAve

Hello, My last message did not post. I don't do this often...
Anyway. My husband is going to bring down our chimney and take out the fireplace to save on demolition cost. Then we are replacing the fireplace, probably with a modular masonry unit. We were told that it is not a difficult job, just hard work.
I would suggest that you take some time before making the decision to remove your fireplace. Have you investigated the affect it may have on your property value? Do you use the fireplace? Are you considering replacing it? How long do you plan to stay in this house. Your designer has made a suggestion that will improve the look of your room by removing a problem element. But designers also have the skills to 'design' around problem elements. There may be alternatives that would greatly improve the design of your room without making such a drastic change to the architecture of your house. If you ever want to sell this house, the chimney 'to nowhere', may lower the value on your house. It may be better, if you decide to remove the fireplace, to remove the chimney as well. That way a buyer would never question what happened to the original fireplace.
See if your designer can come up with less drastic suggestions, maybe consider consulting another designer, look on fireplace and design sites for similar arrangements as yours.
Good Luck. MaidMargoe

I wouldn't buy a house Florida that didn't have a fireplace.