It sounds counter intuitive I think to faux finish the bricks. Can you sand blast them for them to return to their original state? There's something about the fireplace where the proportions seem a little off. It feels too massive and is overwhelming the space. Maybe you would consider a different kind of fireplace remodel?
Yes, I do think it's waste of money to add lights in the manner which you suggest. Well lit and comfortable can be achieved in a different way and I'm not sure that the fireplace lighting is the problem.

btw, inviting is more present in the second furniture layout with the sofa against the wall.
A fireplace wall will help break up the large expanse of fireplace a bit.
I would paint the mantle.
A larger picture in a beefed up frame would be a nice focal point.
I hope you don't mind my advice, just thinking out loud with what would help the room. Small adjustments might make quite a difference.
Also, take a chance and look online at pictures of fireplaces and what others successfully did with fireplace like yours. It might not mean an expensive makeover.

sorry, a fireplace screen will help diminish the large expanse of fireplace.

I guess I'm going to keep going.....
I think what's missing is the emptiness on the ends of the fireplace. Maybe you should consider a series of painting or prints like botanicals in a row like five of them being it seems like you're going for a more modern touch.
If you put the sofa on the wall I would add two lamps on each side and them the standing lamp across the room. I don't know about the wingbacks though. I think I'd want to keep only one. Maybe add a loveseat across, but I'm not sure about whether you have the space for it.
Just throwing out some ideas.

If this were my room, I wouldn't invest (at least not yet) in expensive lighting or a paint job on the fireplace, although I am a huge believer in accent lighting. I would re-accessorize first. From the photos, the overall impression I get is that you have boring, wimpy accessories. You want big, bold accessories and some bling, as they say, that keeps the eye dancing around the room. Some people have the accessorizing gene and most of us (myself included) don't.

Again, if this were my room to deal with, I would call in the decorator or another decorator and ask her to go shopping (with me or without me) for artwork, lamps and accessories for the room. Yes, I know we read here every day about how we should buy what we love and everything will perfectly fit together and the room will look great, but I know that's not true for me.

I'm reeeeally needing a room to rest and be comfortable in - I feel like a bird without a branch, so I'm taking the liberty of bumping myself back to page one in hopes of getting another couple of ideas. After 4 years of this I'm getting pretty desperate.

Although we have an eyeball light looking down on our FP, what I did was buy a small lamp and put it at one end. You wouldn't believe the difference it makes at night. Cozy. Especially watching TV with all the lights off except the lamp.

Your mantel is long enough to put a lamp at each end. Not big lamps, but the short desk height lamps.

Paintings are a matter of taste, I don't care for them on a mantel. You do need color up there. What, I don't know. lol.

I also agree that you need a FP screen. Ornate would be pretty, along with FP tools. Unless they're there and I don't see them.

One more thing! What about a vase of silk flowers with lots of color?

For what it's worth...

I don't think I would "beef" up the mantel. I think the mantel is already beefy enough. I think that might be part of the problem. As it is now, the emphasis is on the mantel, not the fireplace. In your last rendering, you show a small rectangular hearth. I know you said no legs...but what if you were to build out a frame around the firebox the size of the hearth? You could possibly tile over the brick within the frame to accent the firebox? Or even run columns up to the ceiling, thereby breaking up the wall space above the mantel as well. The columns in the pictrues below are a little big, but it gives you another idea.

I noticed that the space above your mantel to the ceiling is not that large. Perhaps bringing the emphasis down to the fireplace might work with an addition to your mantel something like in this picture. If you wanted, you could then face just the brick under the mantel (or not).

I think bringing the emphasis down could help; the mantle is too high for the ceiling height and it feels "off".

I had cpnsidered adding some sort of corbel to appear to support the mantle shelf, as you indicate, Mary Lu, in your second post. But I don't really have any one to bounce ideas off of, only DH, and his opinion was that it would be too busy. I had figured that whatever I added -- corbels, legs, or ?? -- would be challenging because the whole lower wall is brick. If I put some kind of surround in the middle, at hearth width, what would I do with the remaining ends of the existing mantle shelf? If I removed them, I'd have a wall with brick on the bottom and panelling on the the top. The rest of the room is panelled.

I did think about extending the breastplate farther down. That could help.

Maybe "beefing up" was a misstatement. We were going to add crown and trim enough to hide the undercab lighting fixtures. The idea doesn't seem to have any fans. Nor the faux painting of the bricks. Oh, woe.

Still thinking about this. Found another pic. What about just extending out the mantle over the firebox/hearth area? It would break up the mantle so that it did not appear so long?

Is the current mantle flush with the wall? I can't really tell.

Can you stand to lose, say 10 inches from your fireplace wall? If so, how long is your fireplace and how high is your ceiling?

What if you added another mantel shelf below the current one. Then you would have enough height between the lowest shelf and the ceiling to place a vertical painting, maybe 4ft high. I would also add some candles tothe lower shelf. Add photos to the higher shelf. Paint both shelves the color of the wall above.

For the floor add some tall vases on one side, maybe 2, 3, and 4 feet tall. If I would also maybe extend the brick on the floor only on one side, so ot would be off centered.

My idea was somewhere along the lines of Mary Lu's last photo. Floor to ceiling cabinets/shelves on the left and right, leaving room for a deep mantle shelf the same depth as the cabinets.

I think the problem is that everything feels so horizontal. By breaking up that wall into three parts, cabinet, fireplace, cabinet, everything might feel taller, more lifted.

It would also give you a more traditional area to accessorize above the mantle instead of feeling pushed to draw everything out wide.

one more and then I'm off to bed! :-)

how about some type of wainscot covering all the brick except around the firebox?

I forgot to add that the wainscot look would also give the wall vertical lines versus the current horizontal lines. You could do from under the mantle to the floor, both above and below the mantle or do the entire wall as pictured above changing out the mantle to center above the firebox (but that would be more reno/work)

Those are some wonderful ideas. I have tried placing low benches on the sides of the hearth, from time to time, and that adjusts the feel of the proportions in a manner similar to what eclectme suggests. I also have some brick hangers and large art, and have tried hanging the big art below the mantle.

Thanks for expanding my pinpoint focus. I want so badly to nail this room without a lot of expense, but I feared I was grasping at a moderate expense that still wouldn't fix it. Everyone has basically said my current strategy won't help much.

I can see how removing the hearth would make the lower portion less high and change the overall proportion, and I like that idea. It would also leave a gap in the floor, and that would create an excuse for in-the-floor uplighting which I wanted but previously rejected because we won't be here much longer and it seemed too unconventional and floor-destroying; I'm going to rethink it.

The wall is 13 feet: wide for a mantle but narrow for a room.

I'm going to shoot a photo with the bench and one with the low, large art just for grins.

Lit from below:

the idea at one point was to use my friend's 1970's paintings (I have 2)

and get low, less padded furniture and have a less traditional/cush more 1970s/sleek thing going on in there. To that end I even got a couple of chairs that are unlike anything I've ever had or considered:

The vertical proportions gave me the sense of a sunken room, even though it isn't.

If you're not going to be there much longer, why go to the expense of changing it? I happen to like really big fireplaces..I have one too. It's possible the new owners would prefert the mantel as is. I'd just spiff up the decor on the mantel, add some lamps like I mentioned for a nice ambience.

BUT....if you have to do something, I like the wainscoting that Mary lu posted. That would be beautiful and wouldn't cost all that much money.

I like the artist's idea of having the couch facing the fireplace as I feel when you sit you want to have something nice and cozy to look at. I would go with something with some curves on that wall. How about putting your friends paintings on either side of the fireplace resting on the mantel and then a rounded mirror over the fireplace? I am just thinking as I write here. The blue is a beautiful color. You did say you have 2, right?

That's a whole lotta fireplace, I think the room would benefit from some weight. Wrought-iron floor lamp. Leather club chairs. A big splashy graphic rug. Darker paint colors.

I'm not necessarily advocating any particular one of these ideas, just saying that I think that's where the balance in the room is lacking. Go darker, bolder, larger and fewer pieces of furniture and accessories.

Likely the fireplace and mantle are appropriate to the style of the house. Be careful before you change it into a style that clashes with the house. Make the furniture and accessories adapt to the style of the fireplace, not the other way around.

Of all the suggestions here, I think Mary Lu's idea for paneling the wall and covering all but the section of brick directly above the hearth is by far the most effective for your room. It would make the wall an attractive feature, correct the very horizontal effect, and add enough finish so that the only accessory you'd need would be a big mirror over the mantel.
And like the arrangement of sofa facing the fireplace and two chairs on either side of it best. I would also add two nice brass wall-mounted lamps or sconces on either side of the fireplace to light the chairs and that end of the room. Very cozy, and complete.

I agree w/ Bronwyn's mom and Mari Lu. In your first pic, it looks like the mantel is brooding over the chairs. So while I love the idea of the chairs beside the fireplace, it feels out of proportion. The wainscoting, like a picture frame on either side of the firebox, would take care of that, imo. So would built ins, but then you might have added expense.

Since you're not going to be there forever, then I would paint the mantel a darker color and put those two cool blue paintings on either side. Then I would face those equally as cool leather chairs toward the fireplace w/ a very small wood knobby knurly 70s lamp on either side of the chairs, perhaps on a table (or the opposite, big suckers). And move the couch to where it was in the first picture and maybe throw a cover over it that's plain linen. If you had something to the left and right of each chair, you could hide an uplight and that might do what you want to do w/out a lot of expense. You almost have that 70s thing going, keep going, it will come together!

One more thought. Are the bricks painted? If you're not up for stripping (I love that paint falling off the bricks look, but it might be hard to get to), then why not paint it a taupey color to pick up a color in the rug? Love the rug, btw, and then paint the mantel the same color. I think that would help it to disappear a bit. Oh, and why not paint the hearth that red in the rug. Now that's just a thought. Might make it stand out too much...

I don't know what those knurly lamps are but I have a premonition that I'm about to become obsessed. Are they made of tree branches?

Is this a knobby 70s lamp? Something like this, or a twig or willow thing really appeals to me.

Here is a link that might be useful: rustic floor lamp

I also like root lamps a lot. This one is round, but I have seen them taller, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: round root lamp

Oh, this one says Eames Era. It must be the very thing you meant. It's great, but I like the other ones just as well.

Confession: I wanted to throw a cowhide over the sofa and I did toy with chandeliers like these. Maybe I can go with this. I'm just so skittish about now, after 4 years of false starts and serial rejections of different versions of this room.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cypress - ebay

I don't know whether that lamp is a good choice overall or not, but it's really cool!

I LOVE the one on Ebay. Wonder if you could find one on CL for a whole lot less than $200! You mean like a chamois cloth cow hide? I think that would be interesting. Might have to be stitched together. I like the other ones, too, just seems that the Eames Era one goes w/ the chairs. This is something I would become obsessed about. I would look and look through every thrift store for 50 miles and never find it... So maybe Target has something cool? I took a very quick look and there's a walnut Paper shade table lamp that you could put on the floor. It does not have the cool organic feel of the others, but at $30, might be worth a shot.

Here is a link that might be useful: Walnut Paper Shade Table Lamp at Target