You would have to thin it out a LOT. But the mortar will be white so no thinning needed to fill in those areas.

It looks a lot like petrified wood — if so, I wouldn’t alter it. I think it’s very cool.

Search ’petrified wood fireplaces’ and other similar terms to see examples. They’re quite desirable to people who look for older homes.

(My iPad is glitching on me today, so there may be two posts from me here. Sorry about that!)

I agree that is cool- but- I need to bring some of the orange out of the room- it is quite over bearing- So I can do this in a few ways- (I have to keep the honey oak floors)-

Paint the built ins- but they are oak, so I will never cover the grain

Restain the oak- It is just as cheap to have them torn out and rebuilt.

Limewash/ lighten the stone.

I am open to other ideas of course-

Even with a lime wash, your stones are a lot different than the ones in the picture, and yours will never look like that. I am thinking they could be petrified wood too, and I think, I would want to find out for sure, and if they are, I would never paint them. They arent orangy anyway, so probably not contributing to the orange look you are trying to get away from. Please post pictures of the entire room, its hard to tell anything from one section of a picture.