Your fireplace has nice structure so I'd paint it and the bookcases a color that you love. The nice thing about painting the brick is that you can change it with trends. If it were mine, I would paint it a dark teal. Having said that, at a former home I had a very ugly fireplace and a carpenter made a veneer cap out of mahogany that literally slipped in place over the old one. He trimmed it nicely, and after it was stained, it looks great, but it cost a lot of money. If I had to do it over, I would now chose to paint because I don't think that I'd get back my investment.

I love the stacked log suggestion of kiyoshima. But if you want to close off the fireplace openings because you don't like the sooty look of the interior of the fire box, then consider cleaning it with soap and water and finishing with a mild acid wash. Then place a few potted plants in the openings on both sides to liven it up. You may find that you will need to rotate the potted plants from another location in your home which receives sunlight.

The correct answer is you will need hi-temp paint made for the inside of the the fireplace, anything else will create a smelly, dirty mess.

Thanks, Flo...no helping the granite at this point. I picked out the slabs about 8 months ago and when they got delivered two weeks ago the island prep sink got cut out 10" off where it was supposed to be. This was a HUGE mistake because its a huge island. Plus they couldn't find another slab of the same color anywhere. My GC asked if I would be willing to make it work if they'd give me a break on the island slab. He would have had to cut into the middle of cabinets to put the sink in the middle and I would lose a whole 30" drawer in addition to the 18" drawer I was already losing. Not ideal but I would have done it for a price break. I asked the company for 50% off the slab for us to make it work and later that day they miraculously found a slab. I have a newborn and this place is about an hour and a half away. Not the smartest decision but I didn't go look at it. I had the girl send me lots of pictures, I was more concerned about making sure the island color matched the L shaped part of the kitchen. I never actually saw all pf the slabs (I think they used 3?) when I bought the granite because they were stacked, I only saw one of them. Anyway, when it arrived with the correct sink hole cut, it just has a lot more rust colored spots than the perimeter. I don't love the rust colors but that's the nature of granite and I need to embrace it. It's in now so I will embrace the variations of color. I would never use that company again or recommend them to anyone else. The reasons I used them instead of a local place was that the price was a few thousand less and had a better sealant warranty. Turns out the original price the girl gave me didn't include a whole 48" vanity so the price difference looked more pronounced than it really was. The best part was that they sent me an email asking for a review in exchange for a $5 Starbucks gift card!! I'm pretty sure they don't want my review, I'm still considering whether I want to write one, not for the gift card! Just to help others.