Paint the stucco to match the screen, and you've got a tailored sophisticated solution. Art looks good against deep greys and black.

Put in a more robust light in the space behind.

all the lighting will be replaced. But that won't help the fireplace look any better! :P ;)

Drywall it.

I dunno, it has a jaunty Art Deco feel to me. Why genericize it? Maybe just up your game a bit to work with the modern feel...

I don't know the specs, but no flammable material is allowed within a certain distance of the firebox. I'm sure you can find the specs on the internet.

How does the current style fit with the rest of the house? If you cover it with shiplap then will it look out of place or make everything else look "old." Do you have furniture in this space now? More photos of the space would be helpful.

This is a cleaner look for laying brick - is it weird that I am kind of digging it? I would swap the screen out though for either a standing screen to break up the hearth a little or a glass enclosure for a more modern look. The hearth might exaggerate the brick pattern you are not a fan of, so you might consider replacing that with concrete or something similarly simple.

OK, so face it in shiplap painted white and then mount something on the face of the wood.

I would have brought that house for the fireplace alone. Love it.

Thanks everyone. Our current style is farmhouse, more on the rustic side, so modern wouldn't really work with our look. There is nothing else in the space right now cause we just bought the house and it's still empty. We'll be getting all new floors, lighting, paint, etc so besides the structure of the room which we can't change, we're starting at square one! I definitely want to change out the screen!

I think the scale is wonderful perhaps if you can find a large format tile marble if your budget will allow (Build Direct has reasonable marble) you could frame on the left for symmetry and tile to the ceiling it would be amazing

Hi. Why not sandblast the brick to expose the red brick and then lightly whitewash it? On the solid wall you can then do some kind of tile or mosaic. The pics are very roughly thrown together just to give you an idea of what I mean. The tile can be chosen to fit your scheme.

You can add a stone veneer from the mantle down. And add shiplap to everything above the mantle, sides and back.

Many types/styles of stone veneer can be purchase many places including Home Depot and Lowes.

(To install shiplap over brick, a wood frame is installed onto brick, then shiplap is installed to the wood frame.)

You could have a contractor add brick to even it out first if needed.

Wow you are focusing on all the wrong stuff. Joanne Gaines would add shiplap and leave the screen but place all rustic farmhouse furnishings around the fireplace. It will work just fine. Don't ruin this great feature.