Once you have taken everything out of the room. we start from scratch. Get a fireplace screen. Get a larger mirror for above FP or a nice piece of art. A mirror that will compliment the tile

The green tile can be painted with your choice of color. Just google "Painting fireplace hearth & surround" I would suggest a few shades darker than the color of the wood that is on the mantle now for an update.

After you have a new mirror or art better sized to the mantle then look to adding some add'l objects back onto mantle. (Rule of thumb is to keep mirror or picture the same size as FP opening), but with all the tile, I think you can extend outside the opening a little, Do not clutter the space. maybe one or two things on each side varying in size. On the hearth, remove the flowers from the tall vase and on other side 2 of the tall candles. Don't put anything back on the bench.

I agree with de-cluttering, you have a lot of small items both on the mantel and hearth and they are competing with each other. Your picture is rather dark so I can't tell if you have any other green in the room, such as throw pillows, etc. Sometimes it is better to not try and hide the so called "elephant" in the room but rather work with it. If you don't want the green, go to a good hardware/home improvement store and see if there is paint you can use to paint the tiles, just be sure it can withstand the heat from the fireplace or if it is within your budget, replace the tiles. Once the tile dilemma is fixed, then you can move forward with decorating your mantel, think in sets of three and keep the items simple and a little larger than what you had. This is another place you can bring some accent color into your room. I would also keep the area to the sides of the fireplace de-cluttered so it does not distract from the fireplace which is a nice focal point of the room. Good luck, I think with just a little work it will turn out beautiful.

I agree with every suggestion so far. Let me add, if you are feeling a little ambitious, chipping out that tile and simply replacing it with a few (12?) 12"x12" Travertine tiles is a pretty straightforward project for an afternoon.

This is just a picture of the room as is. All the small decor objects will be removed and replaced with some that better fit the room. The fire place is no longer in use. Would replacing the tile or painting it look better? If I replace it what do you suggest I replace it with? This is a very old historic house. I'd like to keep as much of the original details as I can. As for the benches I would like to bring them to life instead of just hide them behind furniture. Any ideas on how to place the furniture?

I agree, too many want to just paint over, take out or replace the original details of a home. We should be able to design a room that will work with the original architecture. We would need to see photos of entire room to help with furniture placement and how to better take advantage of the home's details.

I am current not at the home at the moment. I'll go by later to get more pictures! Thank you all so much for the advice. I really appreciate it!

Sometimes, things we really like are not suited for certain areas, but can be relocated and look fine. There might be better things in the rest of the room that would look better if moved. Sometimes art or mirrors are just not good in a room and should be replaced or taken out. We all try to look at everything to save and use.

Do you have two benches....one on each side of the fireplace? Make some pretty cushions for them....will be window seats. Your TV appears to be longer than the console you have it sitting on and it is in front of the bench (I think). Is there a wall you can put your TV on? I would like to see the rest of the room....looks interesting.