We are doing white shaker cabinet built-ins on each side of the fireplace that will be a few inches shallower than the fireplace (thinking 20" depth cabinets and the fireplace is 24" deep). They will match our kitchen cabinets which are visible from this room.
We are having trouble committing to the design for the fireplace facade, partly because we like two different looks, and partly because the soffit makes it a bit challenging. Initially we wanted to do stacked stone (Eldorado Nantucket which is on our house exterior) all the way to the ceiling with a beam style mantle, ignoring the soffit. Then we questioned if that would look weird and would it be better to just install stone up to a beam mantle and have nothing above the mantle? We also toyed with the idea of a more traditional (board & batten style) white mantle with legs and just a thin tile border around the firebox, then maybe board and batten above the mantle.
Do we ignore the soffit? Do we make a hard line where the soffit begins with stone or trim so there is 1ft of the fireplace front untouched? Do we leave the whole section above the mantle untouched? The TV is staying, not up for discussion, but it will be lowered once the fireplace is done.