It's hard to tell how it relates to the rest of the room without more pictures. What is it that you hate? Just looking at it, without the rest of the room for reference, the only thing I wouldn't like is the pinkish-peach colored stones. I think if you were able to wash those with a grey paint to match the rest of the stones, it might not be so distasteful to you.

Interesting fireplace I think, I would hate to see any one paint marble. What about an oversized funky painting above on the mantel to draw your eye upward, or just play the mantel up in general with interesting pieces. Or you may be able to blend it into the rest of the room with your décor. think plant to one side, throw pillows that have a touch of earthy coral, something along that line. It is hard however to tell how it relates to the rest of the room, so those ideas might be bad ideas.

I like it as is, possibly some scrubbing bubbles to clean the stone.

I agree that your fireplace is very nice. But, it is just standing there all alone. Have a finish carpenter come in and build around it. I would keep at least the fireplace wall white.

Not sure how marble will take paint. First, try painting the walls a light gray. That will make the fireplace blend better with the surroundings. The color of the walls fights with the FP.

Try faux painting just the pinkish stones and leave the rest unchanged (still paint the walls)

paint the walls and you might find that the fireplace is good!

Paint it white, add screen. And art or round mirror over FP.

Remove candles, add logs instead.

Paint the wall instead.

Thank you everyone for your help!
I suppose I should have explained that accessories usually adorn the fireplace and that the wall colour never, ever photographs well, but is beautiful on reality.
Regardless of the wall colour (I have lived here 15 years and have tried them all) the fireplace is still incredibly dated and I hate it.
I liked the idea of softening the peach stones and just to clarify, the black on the centre stone isn't soot, it's the veining of that piece.
At the end, I did prime and paint the fireplace and I love how it brought out the texture of the stone!
I hope you like it as much as I do... and everyone else that gas seen it!

Jane you did a great job!! Fireplace looks beautiful!

I didn't participate in this thread, and I often shy away from painting natural materials, but in my opinion this really worked. It looks very good. Lovely screen.

Agree with Rina ... I usually don't like the outcome of painting stone/brick and this one looks great!

Painting the wall a darker shade would really make it pop .. great job!

Much improved! I really like how it came out. Like everyone else, I don't usually go for painting fireplaces, but I would have made an exception for yours. I didn't like the pink either. Great job!

Wow! This looks great. You now gave me the courage to tackle our icky brick fireplace in a home we recently bought.

Marilyn, that is one huge cat! :)

Why not make a thread about your fireplace, Marilyn?

Turned out marvelous. LOVE the screen too. Congrats!

Good move!!

handymam- is this some inside joke? that is not a cat LOL ;)

OH, and fireplace is beautiful!!

On the fireplace hearth, yes, that is a huge cat. Click on the pic to enlarge!

handymam...LOL...actually she is just an average sized 19 year old cat....the angle of the photo must make her look a lot bigger than she is. Also, Betsy the dog is a pretty small Jack Russell. LOL

I would need to take a better head-on picture of the fireplace before posting a thread I think. I'm leaning toward painting it all black. :) Except for the hearth stones which the former owner picked carefully for the gold and silver veins in the stones. (mica?, fool's gold? whatever.) They are growing on me. We don't live there now.

Betsy looks big too, so it must be the angle, lol! Wow, 19 years old! That is great! Our cat is 16 years old and turning into a tiny little cat.

Oh sorry, I missed the big cat , I thought your eyes were going handymam lol all I saw was the dog. I LOVE a big kitty!