Hi Lori, Sorry to hear your brick is crumbling. There are a few ways you can design your fireplace with stacked stone. Since your ceilings are standard height, I'm guessing around 9', perhaps a floor to ceiling installation with no mantel will help create visual height for the space. I would select a light color of stacked ledger or you could also look as using tile. I think if you are going to select a dark floor, I would keep your paints on the lighter side to keep the space feeling open. I hope this helps. If you would like me to help you further and really brainstorm some design ideas, I have an E-Design service available. Please take a look and let me know if I can be of further help. Thanks!

Lydia Nelson-Wholesome Interior Design

Wholesome Interior Design Website

For the best style, shop for an antique mantel that fits, or look up the style of traditional mantels from the era you're trying to represent and have one made.

Make sure the design in coherent and don't be afraid to paint the wood, not necessarily the current trim color if you want it to stand out. Don't hang a TV above it as, design-wise, this is always a mistake, since they are a black rectangular shape that somewhat echoes the firebox, but are often bigger, which makes the whole production look awkward and top-heavy. Go for art, or a nice mirror.

Do you need to make the floor dark wood? They look good as-is, IMO.

Wholesome Interior Design, I was thinking stacked stone may work, definitely am going to go lighter on the walls.

We’re changing out the floors for several reasons, main one being the floors have water damage and in the downstairs alone there are five different floor types so we want to make it more unified throughout. We went darker because I’ve always preferred darker hardwoods. We picked out an engineered hardwood - monatara Tunon which also has the hand scraped look which will help with our two kids and two large dogs.

Good suggestion on the tv. Any thoughts on hanging one of those tv mirror boxes above the tv? Pottery barn has one and my husband is pretty intent on hanging the tv above the fireplace so I was thinking of something like this to cover it