Leave the fireplace. It fits in the room. Is that actually paneling, or did someone just frame in parts of the wall over the sheetrock? If that is what was done, I would consider removing all that trim on the walls, fill in the nail holes, sand it and prime it and paint the walls, all a solid color. All that trim and framing are way too busy. Once you get furniture in the room, it seems to me, it would look over busy and not very nice. Nice sized room. Nice fireplace and floors.

Thanks for your response. It's actual wood paneling, so can't remove it (and I actually like the two dimensional look) but your comment about it looking busy as is makes sense, especially since there will be a very colorful Persian rug on the floor. I think I'll just paint it all the same, light color. That'll definitely make it easier to paint as well. Thank you!

All the same color should work just fine. It will stop it from looking so busy and allow you to use a lot of colorful accessories.

That's a gorgeous room! Makes me consider using super white paint. In any case, using one color and not painting the fireplace is going to make things a lot easier, so I'm glad that's the consensus!

Another vote for paint out the wall trim (include door and window trim) and leave the fireplace. Youll still get some architectural interest from the door /wall/window trim, itll just be more subtle & less in your face.

Do you have a photo of the finished product? I’m trying to decide what to do with my paneling trim as well.

Add a white mantle to the fireplace to break up the brick. Or a stained one, depending on your decor. One can be attached to the brick.