merimom I take it you are talking about wall color? Have you considered painting the brick itself? Why not get rid of the element you don't like, rather than trying to work around it? If you don't want to paint a color, there are methods that allow you to keep the look of brick, but refinish them to a completely different shade.

Greens will tone it down better than anything, particularly the olives and sages as they have just enough brownish in them not to tend to blue. I would, however, paint the brick if it was mine. I have done it in two houses where the brick of the fireplace matched the external brick. In both cases, I was very pleased with it and in one case, we had had the house for sale for a year and two weeks after we painted the brick, that house sold to a lady who had looked at it four times before. The painted brick did it for her. I think she would have done it if I had not had she bought the house without it, because she said at the closing that she kept wondering what the fireplace would look like if we painted it white or beige.

Thanks. Yes, I did mean the wall color. The thought of painting the brick makes my heart race (and not in a good way!). I will have to warm up to that idea a little more. I really don't care for the look of painted brick. I was just hoping the right wall color would tone down the peach a little. I love olive and sage colors so maybe I will try that first and then if I am still bothered by the fireplace, I would consider resurfacing it some how. Thanks!

Reno, what a great transformation!

I only suggest painting brick as a last resort, but you may be one of those instances. You don't have a red or grey brick that could be worked around.

Reno, what/where did you get the supplies to do that stacked mantel? If I'm not being too snoopy, was it very expensive? Thanks

Parma, the mantel was done as part of the kitchen renovation, so I'm unsure as to the cost. I'd probably estimate it cost us $1500, or somewhere around there.

Merimom, if your brick is anything like mine was (and they look similar), you'll find that working around is a beast. Orange, brown, and peach just completely distort the look of everything else around it. We kept laboring over paint colors, furniture, etc., and *everything* competed with our brick.

Because of all of the trouble that brick caused in decorating the rest of the room, painting it cream was the best decision we made.

You can tone down the brick on your FP without actually "painting" it solid. I did, and mine looks great. Go to Michael's and buy a small bottle of acrylic craft paint; either a gray or brown, whichever you think would look best. Get a disposable pan & add a little paint and lots of water. Stir it up and apply with a brush or foam applicator. This tones down the brick without anyone ever knowing you "painted" it. I have a before & after picture of mine, but don't know how to post them here.

I accidentally got spray paint grey primer on some exterior brick once and used different colors of wood stain to bring it back. It worked really well. You could darken the peach with stain if you don't want a painted look.

I'm afraid I must disagree with the suggestion that green on the walls will tone down the brick. Actually, the opposite is true...colors that are opposites on the color wheel will bring up the color in both...so green makes orange look twice as orange, and yellow makes purple much stronger.
We dealt with the same issue by painting our walls a soft neutral, and then putting a four to one mixture of water and paint in a bucket, washing it onto the brick chimney wall with a big paintbrush, and patting it down with a handful of cotton rag. This method works wonderfully to control the look, and keeps the variety among the different bricks, while tying it all into the room in a much more sophisticated way. It took one morning to do the whole thing, and gave the effect more of stone than brick.
I wanted the hearth to relate to the dark floor rather than to the wall, because it keeps the brick wall from intruding visually into the room area...so I painted the inside of the firebox and the whole brick hearth flat black. Then I brushed a second coat of semi-gloss black just over the surfaces of the hearth bricks themselves, which made the whole thing settle into the floor. The grout stayed flat and shadowy, the nooks and crannies likewise, and the effect was much more natural than the dustiness of just flat black, or the fakey plasticky-ness of all semigloss.
You could do the same thing with a deep tone of your carpet color.
I wish I had a photo to show you. It looked wonderful, if I do say so myself!

Yes -- a additional vote for the excellent suggestion from bronswynmom -- paint the whole room in a soft neutral -- then water it down and simply "wash-over" the brick! As she mentions -- it will tone down the brick BUT not cover it!

Paint the mantel in the same color as the walls (that soft neutral) but in high gloss which will make it stand out!

Then add a wonderful firescreen to the opening and fireplace-tool-set on one side.