For kicks, here is a pic of the entire wall. Room has 14 foot ceilings. Walls are being painted a very light gray color and furniture will be a dark pewter (being delivered today). Carpet will eventually be replaced with either wood floor or lighter carpet (just not in the budget right now).

I don't think the mantel would go with the stone, but salvage the mantel! So many cool ideas you could do with it in another room!

https://www.pinterest.com/samhammar/fireplace-repurposed-in-kids-room/?lp=true

Cute! I love the idea of a cute bookshelf!!

I like the idea of stacked stone with a wood mantel, but it's hard to say without seeing the rest of your house/decor

Also since you have such tall ceilings I would do the stone floor to ceiling like this -

Also you can totally do yourself - we did similar project ourselves and it was mostly framing work.

I like the idea of the stone rather than any tile. Please rethink the gray walls that everyone tries to make work inside and outside every home in America. :)

MSI has some good choices for stacked stone

https://www.msistone.com/backsplash-tile/stacked-stone-collection/

This was a DIY for us. Sold the mantle in a garage sale. We took down the drywall and put cement board up and then installed the stacked stone. We love the clean look. Matches our granite very well.

My husband and I were actually discussing this last night and we are seriously considering doing the floor to ceiling stone. With the tall ceilings, we think it would add some extra drama to the room and give it a "wow" factor. Around here, most houses you walk into have the builder grade fireplace with the white mantel and tile. We love the look of stone, wood and more "natural" elements, so we would take the mantel out completely and build out the fireplace area from the wall a little so it is not as flat, add the stone and get a nice wood mantel.

Our only concern is, would that be overkill or look silly with a gas fireplace?

We are going to start doing some pricing. This is going to be a winter project, so we still have some time to plan.

As far as the gray paint, that is already decided. We have already painted the rest of the house in the gray color and we love it. It has brightened our house up so much, as we get no direct sunlight during the day (southern facing). We were in desperate need of lightening up the house and the gray we picked was perfect for that. In some light, it looks almost white. We love our paint color.

This is a photo we both love and hope to work from as inspiration (but no tv above fireplace, I have art for above the mantel) and it will obviously not be in a corner:

We shopped around quite a bit for our stacked stone. Found a couple of sales but I told my husband I thought we could do better. And sure enough, found the identical stone from same manufacturer at Home Depot for half the cost of the best sale we found. The colors in the stone have beautiful shades of greys, creams and tans as you can see in the photo I posted earlier. Total cost including cement board and mastic was about $600. Our Wall is 10 feet tall by 7 feet wide and has a gas fireplace. Our son had a small wet tile saw we used so didn’t have to rent one. We watched installation videos on Youtube and that helped a lot. It took a few days to accomplish. Everyone that has seen our finished project been wowed by the look. So happy we did it. Good luck with your project, you can do this!

Thanks @dar_cary! We will definitely be shopping around. We plan on starting the project after Christmas, so we have plenty of time to pick out our options and we like a good deal! Your end result is beautiful and totally transformed the space.

I am pretty confident we will go floor to ceiling. Now that I have seen it, I am kind of in love with the idea!

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and ideas! I'm excited!

Agree that the white mantel is too traditional and decorative and should go. It doesn't blend with your reference picture and the natural, jagged stone look. You have a great room to work with and I love the tall ceilings. On that note I do think the current fireplace looks a little small in relation to the tall ceilings and the stacked windows... you could perhaps consider building it up a little taller somehow.

use the mantel in another room.... it would be a sweet faux fireplace in a small bedroom.

go easy on the 'to the ceiling' stone, or you'll just be creating a new dilemma for yourself in 8-10 years when stacked stone is referred to as 'this horrible ugly dated stacked stone'. less will be easier to get rid of and do a new refresh.

Emily - also consider bumping out fireplace so stacked stone isn't flush with the drywall - it makes it look more like actual stone versus a veneer.

You only keep the mantel if the house is colonial or Georgian, and frankly the mantle is not a very good quality so I don't think it's an issue.

Stacked stone is nearing the end of is 'Use By Date'. It's easy to install but it has a dated appearance already. A classic stone could be a good selection for you.

Check Eldorado Stone for their vast selection. Here are classic stone fireplaces that are timeless in appearance and still contemporary

Thoughts on something like this? That way we are not 100% committed all the way to the ceiling with the stone, but still add a focal point beyond the blank wall? Our colors would be different, but same idea.