I often paint interior brick that just has had better days it is the exterior brick I feel should not be painted without devaluing a home . What is you do not like about the FR I for instance hate the clock not the brick. and all the stuff on the mantel is not a good look either . Maybe try to remove the clock and that stuff first before painting the brick which is a really once done hard to go back.It would aslo be helpful to see the whole space so post some more pics here in a comment DO NOT start another post

Lots of people paint their fireplace. It sounds like your has already been painted in a bad way so I'd paint it. Here's one idea in a warm white, not a bright white...

Patricia, Agree! I am moving around the house so the stuff on the mantel is my kids summer camp projects and clock is just stashed there so the glass doesn’t break. We have an antique fireplace place insert on it’s way so it will soon be a working fireplace.

I agree Lisedv, a warm light color is nice

I need to see the whole space before advising any finish on that FP So I will wait for those pics

If your fireplace has already been painted then you are not seeing the natural finish of the brick now. So, I wouldn't hesitate to paint the fireplace.

It depends on the home. If your home has a lot of period details, a painted fireplace can feel a bit junky. If your home is sparse on details, trim, moulding, then go for the more modern aesthetic of painting the fireplace. I can already see your beautiful inlaid floors peeking up in the corner of the pic. That makes me want you to not paint, but it would be helpful to see a pic of the whole room. (I don't mind that it is messy and in moving furniture stages!)

Your fireplace has a lot of details in the brick - bands at the bottom that are indented, inverted pyramids under the mantle, and a soon to come antique insert. I personally appreciate seeing unpainted brick with that many details.

If you look at pics of painted brick fireplaces for inspiration, make sure you are comparing apples to apples and looking a painted fireplaces with as much detail as yours and in homes that look like yours.

Also, will you paint the hearth? It would be odd to paint fireplace brick but have naked brick on the hearth.

By the way - I'm so curious about the art above the fireplace. Can you show more? What is it?

In 1905, the brick may have been plastered over or covered with tile. Go ahead and paint it. Or have it tiled over by a professional. Historic reproduction tiles are available in a wide variety of styles, from plain to fancy. A quick search on etsy turns up many tiles, such as this William Morris inspired rabbit tile: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1699140342/william-morris-inspired-woodland-rabbit

And here's a "dark and dramatic" room with fireplace tile insets.

Installed Art Nouveau Fireplaces · More Info

Painted brick can be a personal prefrence. Some find it a bad thing, some embrace it. Some don't seem to really care either way.

But since it is already a brick detail setup, it's not likely you will find good tile for it. A lot of tile is for flat/smoother brick setups. Brick detailing+tile detailing can be too much. Since it's been painted, you aren't wrecking the brick, that happened decades ago. Be aware that you can't really restore it to its original form.

Since you say it will be a working fireplace... I would caution against using a light colored paint. Even a very clean wood fireplace can kick out some sooty dark stuff, and it will show on a light paint. I would also suggest if you paint it, take your time to make sure the mortar is a different color. It's more realistic than painting it all one color.

Would you please post more photos? More photos may show detail in the bricks. I can't see anything but flat reddish brick in the current photo. The hearth area looks like it's made of something different, either tile or brick.

Why are you doing an insert? You can get a log holder and a screen. Agree with painting the brick.

I painted over ours at our last house, it turned out great, made a big improvement in the look of the room. My only caveat, IF you go for white, make sure it’s a creamy white, not bright. My color was something called Tahitian Vanilla, it looked good but I was surprised re how much whiter it looked vs the paint chip. Maybe test a few samples.

I would try to see if it can be brought back to the original color. If that fails, then painting it will be fine.

Paint the fireplace but do not paint the hearth.

It's unfortunate that someone decided to use red glaze (paint) over the original brick. :(

I agree with Debbi and Norwood Architects (and others) who have commented about going ahead and painting it - since it has already been painted. I think it's a completely different question than whether you should paint a brick fireplace that hasn't already been painted.

Now, if the fireplace has special detailing + you can restore the underlying brick to its original condition, that seems like it would be the best option.

I understand that painted brick may be able to be restored by sandblasting the paint off of the brick - however, I've seen that done to some brick on the outside of a house - and it looked like a messy process. I didn't realize that you could sandblast paint off of interior brick. I have heard of using dry ice pellets, walnut shells (it was some type of nut), or soda ash. However, I think all of those are still messy - even if you try to "contain" the mess by taking containment measures.

I did have someone tell me that she used oven cleaner to remove paint from her fireplace. Her brick was highly textured - and she tried using some other type of "blasting" method first, but it didn't work well due to the texture (lines). However, the oven cleaner took off most of the paint (enough so that what was left looked intentional - and was a better look than the previous solid white paint). I think that she used a brass wire brush also. There is also something called Elaphant Snot (seriously) that may work - it removes graffiti.

If you decide to attempt to restore the original brick, you need to consider that the glaze/paint was added in the 60s = potential presence of lead. in 1978, lead paint was banned for all residential uses - however, some areas in the U.S. banned it's use prior to 1978 (e.g., the sale of lead based paint for residential uses was banned in NYC in 1960 -give or take a couple years).

I just posted an update with some answers and more photos. thank you

so much for your honest opinions and fresh insight!

Your home is wonderful! Those wood floors are amazing. I love that insert for the fireplace.

I hope you can find a resolve for the fireplace.