Very nice feature! You could keep the mantel, just stain it a darker shade. Trying to remove it could cause a lot of damage. There are at least 9 pages of painted brick fireplace examples on Houzz if you search photos under "painted brick fireplace"

The stacked brick joints and the floating mantel tell me this is intended to be a contemporary fireplace. Painting it is appropriate but washing it is a country or cottage or traditional look so I would avoid this in this space. What is the rest of the house like? Crisp white, manchester tan, or warm gray . . they would be great here ..

The home is a traditional ranch. This is the newly renovated kitchen. I can't get the picture to turn!

Dayum, it must be hard to cook like that!

We could give better advice if we could see more of the fireplace wall and the rest of the room.