Okay, I've made a few little changes since posting my original question 8 weeks ago. I actually love the room now. Finally, I have that "this is it" feeling when I walk in. I took a few weeks off and cleared my head, then knew exactly what I wanted to do. New rug! Has color of furniture, fireplace brick, the walls and a little grey as well. Has really tied everything together better. Much more squishy than original rug too! And, the room seems brighter.

I do have a couple of things left to do....

1. White floating shelves over our two chairs (photo displays of the
grandbaby and maybe smaller artwork. Hope to have that done
in next couple of weeks. Probably 3 of them 3' feet long and
hung with slight stairstep over the 10' of wall space.
2. Still want to change the white blinds to matchstick rolldown
shades. I will wait till after the first of the year to work on that
project.
3. Fireplace, for now, see how we like it with the new area rug
and the artwork. I decided to take the mantle back to white
so it blended better with the built in cabinets/shelves,trimwork
and the new floating shelves when I get those hung up. If we
do change the brick, we will do that in the spring, travertine
(subway size) will go over the existing brick and a slab on top of
the hearth.
4. Looking for new coffeetable....glass top with wrought iron legs. I
want every bit of the rug pattern to be seen. Then I can decide
what I want for accessories on the new table.
5. May change the drapes to grommet style, but for now these
work.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions on my original post about the wall color/rug/fireplace. Really enjoy this site, suggestions people receive and of course the beautiful photos.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!