Don't feel wedded to blue just because the dining room has that dark color on the walls. You have several fixed items that will determine your final color decisions: the fireplace brick, the flooring, the white trim, the direction the windows face, etc. Painting the fireplace is an option, however, it can look a bit tacky if not done well. There are many colors in that brick that could help you choose wall colors. My concern with blue/gray is that it will make any warm tones in the space look even warmer or turn orange.

I would definitely go with a gray-blue to correlate a litte better with your BEAUTIFUL dining room! Painting the cabinets white would be a great idea and the fireplace would look great white too! If it was white it would look great with the floor and keep the whole flow of the area going. Good luck!

I would definitely go with a gray-blue to correlate a litte better with your BEAUTIFUL dining room! Painting the cabinets white would be a great idea and the fireplace would look great white too! If it was white it would look great with the floor and keep the whole flow of the area going. Good luck!

Your fireplace wall is quite stunning. If you keep the brick natural, blue walls will pop the orange out of the brick. I'm gonna play with this wall a bit, and will return with some options.

Ya i threw gray/blue out there to tie into the dining room. I'm more leaning towards a very light gray since this color would be in the entryway and hallway and there's not much natural light in those areas. I didn't want to go too dark and have those areas feel darker than they already are. Groveraxle, looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

I agree with groveraxle that your fireplace is stunning. It adds a lot of warmth and charm to your home so please clean it good, and learn to appreciate it's natural beauty.

Another color that would look wonderful with the fireplace is either a grayish or olive green, and it won't bring out the orange in the brick.

One thing you need to keep in mind with light to medium gray paint is that it has a lot of lavendar so you end up with a purple room in different light. There have been numerous posts on here about how to deal with that. A good way to see just how much purple a gray has in it is to get all the gray paint swatches you're considering, fan them together like a hand of cards and look at them in very bright light such as the noon day sun. You'll be amazed at how purple they are!

If you want to stick with blue, and it's going to flow in with your dining room, be sure and go with a lighter shade of the same color so you don't have competing colors that don't work together.

If I were doing this room, I'd paint the FP white and add a chunky white mantel as in the second photo below. Love the blue of the dining room, but blue suppresses the appetite. Have you considered using it on the TV wall? Might make the room too narrow though. If you love the blue, find another place to use it. How about using it on the wainscot in the room next to the kitchen? Then pick up the blue in accessories for the kitchen.

The fireplace is beautiful, but I'd use high-heat Rustoleum spray paint to ditch the brass-gold color of the metal.

Art over the sofa needs to be lower and closer together, about a frame's width apart.

Wow, thanks for giving us an idea of what everything could look like painted! Thats really cool. The living room pictures are older, the metal on the fireplace has already been painted black. I'm still at a loss, it seems half say keep the fireplace as is and half say paint it white!

Grover and Jaycek - I truly am sorry for this short interruption! Grover, if you see this, would you pretty please return briefly to my chair dilemma to put "Chloe" in my space?

Still advise beefing up the mantel so that is looks aligned with the window sashes' horizontal lines.

If this were my wall, I'd probably keep the brick and do something like this:

Paint fireplace a couple shades darker than wall color so that it still pops without competing. This will minimize the fact that the structure is oversized for the space and create a better visual balance. White for the mantle. You could use that same dual tone in the dining room. Tie everything together and get the splash of that vibrant blue with your window treatments or seat covers in dining room.

Oh, please do not paint the fireplace. It is such a great focal point in the room. I would however like to see you find a live edge deeper and wider piece of reclaimed wood as the mantel. I would definitely keep your dining room as it is. It is beautiful and not too dark with the white wainscoting. I would like to see a silver sage color in your rooms. Get some sample cans to paint on poster boards to move to different areas of the spaces prior to painting. If you paint the fireplace you can't turn back as you could with painting walls.

After painting buy some off-white linen type drapes for either side of the fireplace.

You will fall in love again w/ the fireplace.

just out of curiosity, the fireplace surround has already been painted black but could we just get rid of it all together? I see in shows like fixer upper where there is no fireplace surround on fireplaces in the houses they do. The one we have is kind of messed up and doesn't connect with the brick very well.

We too had an old brick fireplace. No regrets painting it. Gave the room a fresh, bright look. We painted the brick Benjamin Moore Geddy Gray and used a new product on the old mantle that is a primer for any surface that prepares the surface for a wood stain. We then stained the mantle cherry to match the french doors. Walls are Benjamin Moore Plaster of Paris with super white trim and neighboring kitchen is BM French Toile. All looks great together.