What a nice room! I would paint the brick a warm white, and also paint the bookcases surrounding it the same, to brighten the room and make it more cohesive. The gray walls are lovely, but do nothing for the gold tones of the woodwork. Brighten it up!

What is your table top made of? Just curious.

NNNOOOOOooooooooooo!!!!!!!

(throws self over brick to save it)

The bricks do have some pink in them. I would paint them. I love the look of white-painted brick. Could you show a picture of the section you whitewashed?

Before worrying about the fireplace, though, I would repaint your walls. They clash with your woodwork and granite. If you got the right wall color, the bricks might look much better.

Penny design, you made me chuckle! Ok, save the brick, but PAINT THE BOOKCASE! The golden tones of the wood just doesn't work with the cool grey walls.

Hi there!

Depending on your style preference, a painted white or grey brick fireplace would be a wonderful option. You could choose a nice bright white or match the grey paint on your walls.

The white will help to brighten up the space. The grey paint would make the fireplace blend in more and be less noticeable.

See these examples below:

Also, adding a more robust mantle will give the fireplace more of a finished and purposeful look. This can be a prefinished mantle, raw wood or natural stone.

If you are interested in a more rustic feel, the whitewashed brick could work but you will need to experiment with the different options that can help balance out the warmer tones showing through and multiple coats may be needed to get the desired look.

Are you hoping to make the fireplace a statement in the room or for it to be less noticeable? This may be an important question to consider when considering different solutions.

I hope this helps!

FWIW, I have exactly the same dilemma you do. I have honey oak built-ins on either side of a pinkish brick fireplace. The combination is hideous. I'm loathe to paint either and can't marry them in any way.

What were they thinking???

I would paint the bookcases same as wall but keep brick the same.

I like the brick. There IS grey in there. How about painting the bookcases in a shade similar
to the walls....a pretty shade. Brick is a bear to paint! The room is attractive, even without the Bassett Hound. The wood work is stained.
Painting the bookcases will make the room feel
longer.

PS.....the mirror over the mantle only reflects the fan......try it without.

I took the plunge and did a white wash on our brick fireplace and just love how it came out. The rest of the room was charcoal and dark blues, so I was worried that our brick would be too pink to blend as well.

The nice thing is, you can whitewash as many coats as you want. If the tones don’t come out right the first time, just go over it again. I like that the variation in the brick still shows through, rather than just straight up painting over it.

I am not so concerned about the whitewash, but painted gray and even painted white is going to be so second decade 2000s in another ten year (as will totally gray walls), whereas natural brick is more classic. Walls are easily changed - painted brick - not so easy.

I agree with definitely painting fireplace and shelves then the whole room flows nicely

HI -- I don't care for the style of the fireplace brick work , so painting it and the bookcase would hopefully take the cluttered look away . There is too much going on in the room . What is your style .. traditional or more contemporary ... you have both in features right now .

Paint the bookcases. Wait six weeks. If you still hate the brick do a lime wash, NOT paint.

agree with chiflipper. Why don't you try the change in steps. I would start with painting the bookcases on either side first. I think that will change the whole look. Live with that for a while and if you still think you don't like the brick you can always paint it later. It's much easier to redo paint on the bookshelves than undo paint on brick...

Here's your fireplace painted white. I was too lazy to paint the bookcases. Maybe later.

Paint the fireplace!! Grover nailed it, again

So, what colors exactly would you all suggest I paint the walls? I absolutely love grey walls. :/ What you are not seeing in these pictures is the huge kitchen that I am standing in (that is open to this living area), that has a TON of cabinets the same color as those bookcases. The little nook to the side also has a desk with cabinets/drawers the same color. I think I'd have to paint all of the cabinets and woodwork in order to paint the bookcases (without them looking completely out of place). To answer a question above... the kitchen island (and the rest of the kitchen counter, which you do not see) is granite. There is a lot of it.

Groveraxle - I love your pics above! Thanks for taking the time to do that!!! (That gold granite is just an eye sore... at least to me!)

Your counter top looks granite and is lovely so you probably don’t want to change that out. Having said that, the gray walls don’t work. I would white wash the brick but use a more cream colored wash and change the wall color. Very pretty Room overall though!

I like Grover's idea of painting the fireplace. However, the fireplace and the walls in the room need to be a warmer earthier gray. The current gray on the walls is cold and sterile, and it clashes with the ceiling. Go get yourself some warm gray swatches and hold them up to the part where the ceiling meets the walls, and also across the fireplace brick next to the bookcases. Narrow it down to 3 or 4 samples and start painting in 2x2 ft sections on the wall close to the bookcases. See it in all light, day and night. then decide which gray is best. You got this!

I have warm wood cabinets but my trim is white. I have a white and wood thing going. I did paint a very large and dark bookcase in my family room white, but the fireplace mantel and interior doors as well as my kitchen remains warm wood. My kitchen and family room are not open to each other though they are next to each other.

Warm wood and cool grays do not work great together. They don't actually clash - they are both neutral, but neither brings out the best in each other. My wall color is a cream with just enough color for the white trim to stand out. Pics of my more modest home in my "my pics" idea book.

Recently I noticed my dentist office, doctors office, local community collage and recently remodeled local Burger King all have gray walls:)

I understand that you don't like the granite, but the paint color makes it look a lot worse than it is. The paint color grover gave you complements the woodwork and the granite so it all flows together instead of clashing and competing. There may be a gray that would work, but it would need to be a much warmer gray with no blue in it. Painting the fireplace just adds to the disjointed feeling the room already has IMO. It just adds another cool tone to the mix right in the middle of the warm-toned bookcases. Painting the bookcase would help, but then I feel it will just continue to look wrong against your kitchen. You may have to give up gray walls to help this room flow.

I would paint the brick and bookcases a creamy white, not stark and not yellowish either. I had the same done in my house, I love the results. Btw, I don’t believe it’s a trend, I remember my parents ‘ home in the 60’s had the same. Difficult to give an opinion on your wall color, monitors are notoriously inaccurate in portraying colors, however, IF the gray isn’t working, go for a much warmer gray.

I just went through this dilemma myself. I hated our pink brick in this new house 1990s house we just purchased. and opted to try a limewash. I started with first lightly aging the bricks with a charcoal cement stain to try to minimize the pink undertones. Then, I only did the grout lines because i was too chicken to go for it and I was hoping it would be enough. The white grout lines only accentuated the huge number of grout lines. I liked the look for a small exterior brick accent but not for my newly remodeled House. Then I tried the limewash. It looked ok, but the pinkish undertone definitely read a purple gray which i didn’t love. While i liked the look for an exposed brick wall, i wasn’t crazy about it for our centerpiece fireplace. I think it would have been ok to just replace the brick hearth with a limestone piece, but still too rustic for my taste.

So with my husbands permission, i decided to demo the brick fireplace hearth and we will be adding a splitface silver travertine tomorrow.

While the limewash look was ok, we have spent a lot of money updating the entire main floor to eliminate the 1990s finish and i know it would always bother me and would end up changing it later. So I figured this is the best time since we are in full construction mode.

Im adding pictures so you can see the many phases that I went through in this process. Now my new dilemma is to paint the mantel white (which my tiler recommends) or a bold dark gray which I’m leaning towards. :)

We currently have the exterior pink brick to contend with this spring. I think that i will be trying the limewash again.

To clarify, we will be refacing the brick with a splitface silver travertine tile and just ordered a new limestone hearth slab.

Paint the whole end wall. Beef up the lamps. Hang art oriented to the centre line: that way slightly different sizes can be used and still appear coherent.

Paint the woodwork, but NOT the brick. I am not opposed to painted brick, just this brick. This is a very unique design (and beautiful) on the fireplace. Look at the painted picture that Grover linked for you. You lose the distinctive design. I agree with the suggestion to paint the bookcases. Using a medium light grey would tone down the pink, and brighten the walls. This fireplace is an amazing piece of art!