Your ideas sound great! Will you be updating (replacing/painting) the brass as well?

At some point we would like to those covers are expensive. Would it look better to paint brick white or do German schmear affect?

In that same room we have wood lined vaulted ceiling, would it look good to paint that white or no?

You would need to show the ceiling to get advice on it. The very first thing I would do would be to paint the brass. The new mantle sounds nice if it fits the home

You mentioned painting brass or did you mean brick?

Paint your brass fire screen with heat resistant black paint. You can purchase it at a hardware store. I suggest you remove it first! (And have your fireplace cleaned/swept while it is off.)

That’s a good idea, any preparation needed besides removal?

I didn’t remove my brass fire screen, I painted it in place and used a small painting sponge-on-a-stick and the heat resistant black paint, the can has directions for prepping the brass. Caution - throw away the paint sponge …do not drip the paint on anything or yourself or your clothes. Your mantle is already colonial rustic and beautifully thick and knotty - it will be a huge update if you can remove the corbels. If the heavy mantle needs support, a less obtrusive style painted in same color you paint the brick. If you don’t like the sheen and want a raw look, you can sand off the coating and if you mess it up - hey you were thinking rustic and rustic has imperfections. I lean towards paint - I am debating with myself whether German Schmeer treatment is an update, plus it may be ridiculously impossible to remove if you want to update the surround again down the road. If you want to make a real bold statement, paint the brick and wall above it a very dark color, such as charcoal, black, navy, or forest green.