If you want it painted, drywall it first please. Always think reversibility.

Great advice. Thanks Joseph!

Any idea why they built that brick structure on the right? Does it hide or enclose something (utilities?)?

The fireplace itself is symmetric and looks like it belongs on that wall, but the larger blocky structure that doesn't go to the ceiling looks like it was added for some reason.

Bruce

Yes, the upper third was used as a duct to move hot air from both the fireplace and a decommissioned oil tank. You can see the metal door just above the mantel? There's some sort of metal tube that goes through to the wall/room next door (or did, it's got a metal cover over the opening on the other side of the brick thing). I can see that inside the "tunnel" there's cinder block, not the red brick.

I think removal will be more trouble than it's worth. But the asymmetry is going to bug me if I don't figure out something cute to do with it.

It is such an interesting brick style. I would want to reclaim it for rebuilding the hidden part of the fire place. You would only need to remove a portion of the brick to rebuild the right side to match the open side. Chisel off the bricks you need from the big box and just enclose the rest with sheetrock to the ceiling.
Hopefully removing only what hides the right side would be less than 3k or a more doable DIY.
That lack of symmetry would make it worth ripping it out even if I had to chip it out by hand. The corner space you open up would where to hang a TV. Or take the brick down low enough for a TV ledge capped with a thick board with a matching board for the mantle.
This could be a cool excavation DIY.

Brick all the way up to the ceiling and use it as a design element. You could mount the TV on it if that's a good place for the TV but I think it will make an interested element if bricked all the way up to make the brick look less choppy.

Yes, I was going to suggest that you do the demolition work yourself and save a lot of the money. Then you could have a professional mason fix up the original fireplace.

I assume once the duct is removed you will have to replace flooring and seal wherever this ducted to on the wall. Correct? That sounds like a lot of work to me for something I think is interesting. Love the narrow mid century brick, so show it off somehow. Have you tried back lighting it? Would be interesting to see light over the top. Put a cozy chair in front of it and it won't look so asymmetrical.

Celebrate midcentury with a yummy Milo Baughman Roxy chair from Thayer Coggin. Super comfy! (turn it the right way of course)

Thanks for your ideas tozmo1 and I love that your cut and paste skills in houzz match mine. lol

I really like the things you threw in this picture. :-)

LOL, we do what we can with power point. ;-)

Recently did a job for a customer she wanted to resurface an existing brick fireplace with tile and mount a TV over it.

It all depends on the look you want and the how much you want to spend on it, there are many options how brick fireplaces can be resurfaced, and in your case, it's broken up into 2 sections, therefore many combinations can be used i.e trimmed out+tile/stone or tile+stone, etc I mean the sky is the limit what you can do.

Good luck

You will never find brick to match that color and style. If it makes you nuts and you hate it, then consider it a long term project and remove the brick yourself. You may be surprised by what is actually in there, so be careful. I personally would embrace the uniqueness of the room and design around it. You already got one fabulous idea. Asking for design help because you’re keeping it will get you A LOT of help here. Tozmo1 nailed it.

To me it depends on how long you are planning on staying in that house and how much that space means to you. That is a big giant thing to leave in the corner of a room when it serves no purpose any longer.

If this is your "forever" home and you use that room a lot when people come over or whatever I'd do whatever it takes to get rid of it. Oil heat is not coming back and you have the matching brick right there from the demo to repair the fireplace to look nice.

If you may sell the house or just don't need the space in the room at all then I'd probably try to design around it without painting the brick or covering it up, because that box at least matches the fireplace right now.

If it were me I would do the demolition myself and then hire a mason to do the brickwork fix, but I'm experienced at demolition and dealing with whatever surprises you'd find in there with the old oil heating system. If you go this route go slow and be careful: I don't know where the old oil tank was but a common practice when de-commissioning old oil lines was simply to crimp both ends closed and leave the line with oil in it buried(not a GOOD or necessarily legal practice mind you, but it was done).