Normally I would not like this fireplace at all but I really love the way you have styled it. I love the pendant and the items you have placed on the mantel. I don't think I would paint the fireplace. Perhaps I might paint the tiles on the floor to better match the ones on the top, or vice versa, or even paint the tiles on the wall the same color a the surrounding walls.. Can you post other photos of the room?

I would wrap the whole upper portion above the mantel in drywall, bringing it out so it is symmetrical with the right side - building a corner that will cover the whole area with the pendant (which was a brilliant choice for styling). Then decide if you want to paint the brick that's still exposed or face it with another material (tile, stone, etc).

eta pictures:

Or even build it out with paneling:

I would not paint the brick but would have a custom thick rustic wood mantle made to fit over the cement...I would remove the tiles on the back left wall and paint to match walls...the unique slanted feature would be enhanced.

I like your funky fireplace. I agree the light looks great (but I’d have nothing under it). I also agree on trying to remove upper tiles and repair drywall as necessary. Then everything will look great. I would NOT encase it like examples above. Very top heavy looking. A good bricklayer could also add bricks all the way and make it look good. But it wouldn’t be as unique.

Don’t be intimidated by the drywall. It can be done with patience. You can always sand and reapply. And even a less than stellar job would look better than those tiles.

You could paint them wall color as a short term measure.

I really like your fireplace and it looks like it is in an older home. I would not do too much to it, especially if the house is in a historic district. I do like the way you have it styled.

You have it looking nice. Personally it would drive me mad. Looks like they ran out of bricks. I would panel the top part evenly

You did a good job and it's a wonderful fireplace. I wonder if it would be possible to find similar weathered bricks, maybe someone who does historical restoration could help, and have a bricklayer come finish the job.

Like others I actually like the fireplace and my first thought would be to remove the wall tiles. I might also consider removing the light and have the top portion of the fireplace built up with brick. Although the brick would not match this could all be painted or such.

I agree with Olychick.

Plus the white above would brighten up the area & give illusion the space is bigger.

The colors of bottom bricks are an attractive neutral tone, as is.

I like that fireplace as is! I'd not paint it but I would as someone else suggested, remove the tiles to the left and after fixing drywall (or adding it, if it doesn't exist) paint there the same color as your walls.

Enclosing that top space with wood/drywall would just look heavy.

I'd consider replacing the tile on the floor with something with a bit more personality to it -- the type on the wall would look good on the floor. (But then again, actual colors don't translate to computer screens all that well. It may be just fine.)

I like how you've decorated it to this point, it works together, natural brick and all.

I love it! It's eccentric.

The only thing I would do is remove the tiles above the mantel and make it plain wall. And get a pretty fire screen.

I wouldn't paint it but would whitewash it. I have gray walls and the fireplace is painted cream (it was painted before in a funky pattern) and it looks great against the gray walls.

I also agree with Olychick.

I may be the only one with this opinion, but the funky top of the fireplace is super weird to me...almost like it’s unfinished. Personally, I would try and find a mason to finish that side of the brick if you can match it. If you can, a white wash on the brick would look very nice provided the brick is the same from the beginning or the white wash may not look consistent. Otherwise, I would still finish that side of the fireplace and paint it a shade of white. I would also warm it up with a rustic beam of wood for the mantel. Keep the tile hearth though...it would look very Spanish once you are done.

Voila

I also don’t see “funky”. Would bother me to no end. Your wall color is pretty with the brick though. Are you sure you can’t remove the top.

Your fireplace is groovy and I wouldn't change it. Sooo nice to have something unique.

I'm always astounded by people here who want the same as everyone else. I would be so delighted to have that which is different, unique, individual....

Don't wrap it or paint it or remove ANYTHING!

LOVE the light you have...

You're so freaking lucky... :)

I like individual and unique but that angle is not aesthetically pleasing to me, so I'd want to cover it. It would make my head hurt to try to achieve visual balance every time I looked at it. I wouldn't destroy it if it's not necessary, but by building out around it, the integrity of the original build will be left intact.

It seems like if the OP was happy with it, she wouldn't have posted asking for solutions.

I love Olychick's pictures for a solution. AND she is right, if the OP liked the odd shape she would not have asked for solutions!!

What era is the house? This FP, as well as some of the ones pictured, works in some houses and not in others.

Well now. I think that mentioning very obvious things are an insult to the op.

"wrap it with drywall and paint the brick" is probably the least creative thing I've read all day. I really doubt she needs to be told that, either.

Leah...your fireplace IS fabulous. Lots of us think so :)

That is a cool fireplace. Although, the trim at the top of the chimney looks out of place to me. I would try painting it the same color as the brick so it doesn't stand out so much, and I would move the plant at the right of the fireplace elsewhere. Simple solution before doing anything else. I tried mocking up a photo to show you what I'm talking about.

Unique features are hard to come by and I would like that angle in my house!

" 'wrap it with drywall and paint the brick' is probably the least creative thing I've read all day. I really doubt she needs to be told that, either."

Wow!

She asked for help to spruce it up, and said it was oddly shaped. To me that's not the same as 'OMG I hate this'. And I don't see anything wrong with any of the responses to the OP - whether we encourage her to look at it a different way, or make recommendations to change it.

If I posted a dilemma I'd be happy to get a variety of different points of view. It's the internet, folks. The OP can take what you want and leave the rest.

It's by no means the most unusual fireplace posted on this site. Remember the wobbly looking one? I think of it as the hobbit fireplace. One of the best threads ever. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/monster-of-a-fireplaceive-never-seen-anything-like-it-dsvw-vd~323878?n=996

The fireplace and the floor look like they are from different eras. The brick was probably added to make the fireplace deeper. There is brick on tile to support this theory. The hearth extension is not deep enough. Should be at least 16" for safety. The smoke stains on the front also indicate that this fireplace was not originally designed to be a wood burning fireplace. The flue is probably undersized, and may not be lined. Before you do anything, figure out what is needed to bring this fireplace up to code.

I would probably recommend a Valor Portrait series gas fireplace insert. There are a number of trim options, and it may be the only thing that will fit.

Once you decide on how to make this fireplace a little safer, decide on the aesthetic upgrades.

The mantle appears to be hand faced stone. If you don't like it, it is probably not to hard to replace. You could also cap it with hardwood. One inch boards with mitered corners. Probably a 3-4" drop/ facade would look good.

You can put tile board up to even out the slope prior to tiling if desired. The drywall option will also work if you can maintain the correct clearances, and want to paint.

If you want to keep the slope, Hardi-backer board would give you a smooth surface on the corbels. It's easy enough to cut for the front angle. You could also wrap the mantle in Hardi backer board and tile the mantle. You'll need to buy or rent a decent tile saw with the number of angled cuts and for mitering the mantle. You can often but tile is various sizes of the same pattern/color. Pick one of these so that the mantle tiles are wider, or smaller then the rest. 8" tile or larger will probably look best on a fireplace this size.

I really like the fireplace. Just my personal opinion, I find the dark wall tile distracting & would prefer just the wall.

eandhl2, maybe that is why I am not fond of this fireplace. I think the tile is messing up my perspective. Good call!

Thank you all so much for all of your thoughts! I truly appreciate these various perspectives and it's really helped me think of this a few different ways. As requested by some posters, I've attached additional photos that show the fireplace as well as my living room (which is still a bit of a WIP). The house was built in 1914 and is a part of our historical district so it definitely has a lot of character. I should also mention that this is a gas fireplace, although I'm sure it was wood burning at one point in history.

The shape of the fireplace itself doesn't actually bother me, I was more so worried because it seems like a really hard shape to work with if we were to try and tile it. Obviously if there's a solution that doesn't involve tiling it I'm game since tiling seems like a lot of work. I put the light pendant in (it's the only thing I've done there), so I'd like to keep that there if possible. It sounds like one thing everyone agrees upon is the ugly wall tiles need to go (they are actually the same tiles on our downstairs bathroom floor !!)- my guess is someone got too lazy to drywall there, or maybe they were trying to create some sort of symmetry.

I'm also not a fan at all of the top trim piece above the brick - I'm wondering if it might look better white to match the trim?

I'd be open to putting a wood mantel in and roughly whitewashing the brick, but I'm not sure if the more rustic look would match the rest of the living room.

Beautiful room, rug and floors! Will be fun to see what you decide to do with the fireplace; be sure and post back.

You can't wrap the top in drywall. Once you add the thickness of the wood framing and the drywall, it will hang out wider than the brick below (even if you used furring strips). That would look stupid.

I'd love to know the history of that fireplace. It was clearly rebuilt starting 3 courses above the mouth, and then 3 more courses above that is a different brick, and above the mantle seems to be the work of a different person laying the brick--the nature of the joints changes.

If I did anything, I'd replace the tile on the floor with slate and possibly do the same to the patch of tile above the mantle (or just remove, repair the wall, and paint).

I'm not sure that removing the tiles to the left will work...I feel like it needs something there to complete the whole picture...

And, to one of your questions, re-tiling it wouldn't be difficult. But will you like it any better with a different tile?

Is it the same tile that's on the hearth?

pennydesign, Would the pendant be enough to balance the missing wall tile? It's hard for me to envision anything else there that would look good but wall.

As for for re-tiling over the brick fireplace, originally I was thinking of a natural tile like this (if I did that it would clash with the hearth, so that would need to be something else):

I think a pendant is enough. A pendant you like & goes with your decorating. If it was in my house a lanturn style or a more rustic one would work. I wish one of the talented people could paint over the tile so you would see what it looks like.

I would remove the left side ottoman looking at the picture, leave the right one as it adds more interest.

I honestly feel like if you just remove the tile to the right of the chimney, it will just make it look like a crooked fireplace....people will look at it and scratch their heads. At least with the tile it looks more like a design choice. It might not be your design choice, but it will look like someone had a plan that they executed.

If you decide to change out the tile, look at fireclay tile. I think it would work here.

Leah, like anything having to do with...well anything...so much depends on your tolerance level. There's "I can't stand it it must go yesterday" AAAAALLLLLL the way to "I love it!!!..It's mine and will become THE focal point in my house". You're the only one who knows where you are on the scale.

Watch out that any stop-gap measures don't leave you with worse than what you started with, though :)

If you choose to get rid of the tile and just have the drywall...you need to make sure it's not a "normal" pendant. It needs to be a kick-ass pendant. So don't replace what you have with anything featured in the Restoration Hardware catalog... :-/

Update: We had a painter over and he was able to pop the tiles off the wall so we could see what's behind it. There's some flashing in the bottom right-hand corner next to the fireplace that appears to be a thin sheet of metal painted over. We originally wanted to put drywall here but this seems to complicate things. My guess is whoever put tile there did it to cover something up.

We're going to consult someone who knows more about fireplaces to see if drywall would be a hazard here or not, but my guess is we'll have to tile it again with something else.

If that's the case, I'd love to hear more tile suggestions. If we can find a tile that matches the hearth I'm thinking that will match the best.

Here is the weird thin metal part up close:

i love asymmetry, hope you dont change your dear fireplace's character too much!

It might just be a covered up hole..very strange..can the metal be removed so you can see if it is protecting something?