Another idea is to paint the brick fireplace white and install a floating wooden shelf.

That’s what I was thinking too. Can you paint over German schmear?

We are planning to do a thick reclaimed wood shelf but don’t have it yet

Go to a painting outlet such as Sherwin Williams or Porter Paints and discuss your predicament. They should provide you with a wealth of information so you can make an educated decision.

That’s a good point about putting more mortar in the seams where the pattern breaks before painting. We will try that!

The grey bookshelves don't go with the warm tones of fireplace and flooring.

Perhaps painting them white would help.

Get a contractor, fur out the entire thing and drywall EXCEPT what is required for code surround, Paint the drywall the bookcase color and remaining exposed brick white. add wider mantel. The brick is just busy. and the seam is ................no.no. no

Painting alone, might be fine........if the fire was stand alone. The minute you added the bookcase? diffferent concept. Drywall it : )

https://www.pinterest.com.mx/pin/353040058288878973/

What 'sticks out' somewhat is the vertical paneling in back of the shelving. If were drywall and smooth, to me it'd look better, less rustic... maybe your house is rustic..

Perhaps it was for the best! Incorporating the bookcase color would be my priority as well as fixing the verticle line issue. Benjamin Moore has very knowledgeable staff and a range of paint options that could hopefully cover the brick.

The look below is fresh and most importantly, consistency. Note how they also added a frame, was lime-washed, but you might need a solid paint. Details in article.

https://www.thewoodgraincottage.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Our-New-Coffee-Table-by-The-Wood-Grain-Cottage-27-scaled.jpg

You may have taken doors off the bottom of the bookcase to paint, but if there aren't any, highly recommend and consider two simple shelves instead for a more finished built in look.

Before you paint the fireplace IMHO it should be smoothed out. This could be done with a masonry disc on a grinder or wire wheel but i think it would look much better when painted if it wasn’t so rough.

What Jan says … that’s exactly what I had done in my previous home. quick & easy fix.

You haven't shown much of the room, but the entire palette of floor, bookcase, and now fireplace doesn't work--each element is fine by itself but the choice of blue gray doesn't harmonize with floor nor with fireplace. You have warm floors but your bookcase/wall color is cool. You need a neutral to pull everything together--a warm ivory pulled from the fireplace brick. Otherwise, paint fireplace white, but you still have a wall paint that doesn't particularly go well with the floor.

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Unfortunately, you haven't given enough visual information about the rest of the room or your furnishings. Start thinking more holistically about your space, taking into account lighting, furniture, any art work, etc. Please add pictures from all four corners and take photos of the furniture that's going to go in there.

The problem is not the German Schmear, it is, as M V says, the VERY obvious vertical seam on the brick. That issue will not be resolved with paint or a vertical line of more grout.

Option 1) Have a brick mason remove the bricks at the seam and have new ones feathered in. He/she should have done that at installation. Do one more coat of German Schmear.

Option 2) minimize the texture differences of the brick and the grout lines by doing a coat (or possibly more) of mortar over the entire surface. You can the do a lime wash to make it appear not so new. . Check out what this blogger did to her stone wall

https://nestingwithgrace.com/our-limewashed-white-rock-fireplace-with-bleached-wood-mantle/

Your project would not be as labor intensive.

Option 3). Go Jan’s route and drywall over it and make it clean and simple.

Also, I agree with housegal200 the color palette doesn’t work as is. A warm gray or creamy white for the bookshelves perhaps? Think of the entire room, not just a gray you like for that piece. Good luck.

All of these ideas and feedback are really helpful. Really wishing I had posted this BEFORE a lot of the decisions/mistakes were made lol but hindsight is 20/20. Now just trying to worn with what we’ve got :) Here are a few more pictures. One is from our meeting with the designer and shows some of the options for the room. We have ordered the rug from the picture but nothing else. I don’t think our floor color ended up quite like what we thought and especially in this room with the blue/tons of natural light it looks a lot different than the rest of the house. I think we will eventually have to repaint the shelves/paneling and I will either recoat the fireplace, paint it all together, or convince my husband to build around it :).

I think it's too busy. if you're feeling apprehensive, you could try whitewashing it first to reduce the contrast. do touch up the mortar in the seam to see if you can get it to blend a little better. if the seam is still noticeable after whitewashing, then you can paint.

that's a lovely room-- all of those built ins!

Start with adding MUCH MORE shmear to the FP you have nothing to lose.

I would fix the joint issue with the new section of brick (so that you don't have that obvious seam, and then add another coat (or more) of the shmear. You want less of the actual brick to show without obliterating it entirely.

The warm ivory of the upholstery sample in the middle of your array of samples might be a good paint color for your shelves and walls if you're willing to go that route. You have some golds in a couple fabric samples to echo the floor--warmer direction. The taupe fabric samples don't have enough warm tones. If you decide to repaint--yes, a drag--then get large posterboards to try out warm ivory paint against the fireplace and against the floors. Here's Benjamin Moore's Gentle Cream in a room:

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mmmmmmmmm : ) You have a designer showing you Schumacher, who doesn't say a word about the fire......situation? Did you involve said designer in this plan for the fire ? Or just the rug/furniture issue? Did he she advise?

🤣🤣🤣 she advised the addition (but probably didn’t know who was doing it). She advised the German schmear (but probably didn’t know who was doing it) lol. I haven’t updated her yet 😬😬😬

That’s why I’m here. I gotta fix this situation 🤪

do more of the mortar wash.

This is still too dark. (Please get some decent bulbs in your light. get some LED's in the 3500-4000K range. what you have is too yellow)

not enough mortar was applied

you want something closer to this

Tutorial

https://blog.jennasuedesign.com/2016/10/mortar-wash-brick-fireplace-tutorial-cottage-flip-update/

They used this:

" She advised the German schmear (but probably didn’t know who was doing it) lol. I haven’t updated her yet 😬😬😬"

Well. Everyone sees things differently.

Just above, Beth posted a couple of stand alone fireplaces, schmeared. The pics with the accent chairs tucked near the hearth. The fire is alone. Flanked by windows in one pic, by wall and a sconce in the other. You say okay, big deal so what? But it IS a big deal. Alone.......IS very different than what you have done ( flank w/built in )

Everything exists in a context. Even schmeared to the MAX ? You have ( jmho ) married a horse to a chicken. You spent a lot on a built in, planked the back of the built in. You will add books, or display treasures, photo's .......etc. Yes?

It's still going to feel wrong, Me? I'd say oh well, let's quit while we are ahead. Put the horse with a suitable pony, instead of a chicken, at least. That's why drywall, and minimal amount of brick exposed would be better. Better Yet? Drywall, and a new solid surface, or tile area to meet code and address the raised hearth. ( best case would have been to remove it and infill with a solid surface flush.) You've quite accidentally made two focal points, and neither can dominate . They are fighting one another for attention. .............and that is exactly what is bothering you. Best case is drywall and some new solid surface. Second best drywall and paint . Third best is forget the schmear effort, and get a couple of gallons of white paint: )

You need opacity. Yup........opacity. (Apologies to the very talented/wise Beth up there !! )

Remember........just because you can find it on the internet...........? Doesn't make it great. Like below : (

Imagine instead, lovely window views right to the floor. in this pic.. That fire begs for no competition whatsoever, let alone cabinetry, books, photo's and doo dads

Design always begs one to edit ideas or you wind up with "odd couples".

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for taking the time to offer advice and help on this! Definitely learning a lot :) I like the idea of building around the fireplace. Gonna work on convincing my husband of that route. The bookshelves were original to the house-it was built in 1962 and we bought it looking exactly like it did in 1962 👀. Major blast from the past when you walked in. It’s been a fun project for sure but this one room is has been a struggle. Taking in all of this advice and will update this post when we have unmarried this horse and chicken! 🙌🏼

The German smear isn't awful but looks like it could have been applied in a better fashion. You can paint over the mortar joints of a brick wall - so, am thinking painting over a German smear would be doable. The seam may be something you can't do a whole lot about except camouflage as best you can with artwork. You could place a topiary or a piece of sculpture to cover up the lower part of the seam and oversized artwork to cover the top part. In lieu of that you might group some smaller artwork that would cover the seam in part.

Just take the brick out! Does it even cover up the window??

Can you post a pic of the fireplace before you schmeared it? Romabio makes a great masonry flat paint that works great