Many years ago I had a vacation home built. For the family room, I picked out a look I liked from the stone veneer catalogue. Unfortunately the builders used a lighter mortar color than the picture in the catalogue, and I’ve been stuck with a “giraffe” fireplace since then. Now I want to upgrade my family room and I’m wondering if a thin coat of a darker mortar could be applied over the creamy colored mortar. Except for the mortar, I’m perfectly satisfied with the stone veneer. But perhaps it would be more cost effective to just cover the whole thing over with drywall or some sort of tile or slate or something. If the mortar is an easy fix, I’d prefer to just change that.