I would stain the brick with concrete stain it keeps the texture of the brick and doesn't look so much like paint. I would go a gray tone. It looks like the paneling is in good shape & quality so I would keep it because paneling is back in style.. But you could paint it a lighter shade of the brick. I would paint out the Brass with heat resistant paint on the fire place. Another idea. I would paint out the trim on the sky lights to match the ceiling. It's a beautiful room.

If i had my own house and wasnt a 10 year old i would totally paint the bricks black

I mean white

Congratulations on your new home. Nice and light and spacious looking.

I sort of like the wood panelling, sleek mid-century stylish kind of look. But the problem with the shelves is that one feels the need to put things on them and then it starts to get more of a
cluttered-out-of-date-help-how-to-decorate-my-shelves kind of look ;-)

I don't know what style you're looking for, but what if you 'pulled the fireplace up to the ceiling'. (I'm not English, so sometimes it's difficult to describe what I mean. Sorry for that.) You could do a modern stone cladding around the entire fireplace. It will make a difference from the current 'horizontal look' and give the illusion of more height.

Painting the ceiling light trims white and also the brown wood in the window would give a fresher, cleaner look too.

Something like this I mean. Would that be something you like?

What great ideas! Yes--would like to install a larger mantel and paint the wood trim. And building the brick up would look great--thought a longer term project.

Never thought about painting the brass--will definitely do that! Not sure about room placement yet--might post a pic from a different angle to get thoughts. Thank you for your advice!

Check out a couple of these fireplaces. Going with the same idea by having a mantle the entire length of the wall with built-ins for TV and stereo

With red brick, a classic look will be to do all the trim work and brick in a creamy warm white, but paint the paneling the wall shade. If you want to keep the wood trim and shelves, you could paint the fireplace and then just the walls. Of course there are tons of taupes, grays, tans, oatmeal shades out there. For a room this size, it would be good to organize the color story before you paint. Paint comes in so many shades, where fabrics and furnishings are not so forgiving. Do you have an inspiration piece of art for the room, or can you tell us what color your main furnishings are? You've got the gray carpeting to contend with for now, so having a plan so you don't build everything off what you plan to change is essential.

What is the plan for your tv?

We have very little furniture--so it's a clean slate in terms of choosing new items. I like the idea of picking furniture first, paint second. No TV plan--definitely don't want it about the fireplace.

The wall opposite the window is a big blank space. I thought about the TV there but I don't like looking in the window if a house and seeing the glow of the Tv--seems tacky to me. I also wanted to try to not have a TV in here and but it in the basement, but then I fear this room will go unused--how sad does that sound! Just reality.

I know that painting the brick was suggested, but - and that's just a personal note - I've not yet seen a really nice result of that. It always just looks as... well... as painted brick. And I always think that it takes the 'life' out of the brick.

And yes, furniture first is a good plan :-)

I think that painted brick can be nice at times, I do think if you carefully stain just the brick but not the grout it can look as if it was not painted at all. It can be more work but will look as if the brick was really the real thing un-touched. That to me makes a big difference. Also using concrete stain leaves the texture of the brick un changed. It's easy on the budget too. Depending on what your style is for furnishings will help you decide. If your going mid century modern you might not want to change a thing. If not I would re do the brick. You could use 3 different shades of a color tone to make it look like it was not painted. Or use a semi transparent stain that would show the various tones already in the brick already but change the over all color.

Here are a couple of pictures for consideration. One is a brick frieplace that we plastered over with grey cement, waited for it to set but not cure completely and then scaped off some of the cement to expose the brick to give it a worn, old world feel. The mantle shelf is covered with zinc coated tin. The exterior of the home was done using the same process but using white sand and white cement. I can't seem to find the pictures of the exterior, but the white is simply stunning.
The other two pictures is a before and after of a painted brick fireplace. 1: you will see the results of painting the brick and 2: you will see what we did to cover it up. We used a hone black sandstone and glued it to the brick, adding a mantle and sheetrocking over the top.