We just bought this house that was custom built in 1978. We love all the original details, funky wall paper, cork cabinet fronts and all. However, this fireplace seems really out of place for us. We are sure that we want to do a makeover keeping the wood burning insert and eliminating the antique surround.

Our main questions are:
1) What should we do with the wall around the insert? We are thinking stone, but there are so many styles and options it's overwhelming? Any ideas on types of stone/layout?
2) Should we keep the hearth (we would replace the tile of course) or have the fire place floating?
3) Should we build the stone (if that's what we do) and cover most of the black insert.
4) Is there a classy way to include wood storage?

Here is a fireplace design that we are in love with but cannot locate the natural stone anywhere.