Lynnie, my picture is black and white, though after seeing your links I wish I had it developed in sepia. I like it much better... darn. I should have come here earlier.

This is the first time using this new app and hope it works.

Worked better than I thought. Another using a darker colour.

While I love the look of regular wood in just about everything, I LOVE your piano!! It's got a funky charm to it that no doubt adds tons of charm to your home.

Thanks MarleneM. Based on your pictures, I think I like the dark mantle and would probably do the brass black as well (maybe still the whole thing) Great job using the new app. It's very helpful.
And thank you, Hayleydaniels! I'm with you, I usually like regular wood... I took a big chance and regretted it on my first stroke of red paint but now I really like it. Funky charm... I like that!

mbpolly; There is nothing wrong with adding a couple small prints in Sepia along with your main picture in black & white. ANd when I say small, I mean the two of them to fit the area of your main picture with a space between them.

I just want to add that I do not care at all for the black mantel. The white looks much nicer! If you want black, go with black in front of the opening where you put your wood. :) I like like the wall itself being slighly darker in a tan color. And, that would also make any Red Vase you have pop out.

Marlene did a great job photoshopping the fireplace. On my monitor, the black has a green cast to it.

You could try painting the mantle and the fireplace door black and then see how you like it. I was thinking the brick could highlight the piano, but the brick almost seems orange to me. So, you might want to consider just painting the mantle, brick and doors all black. That will also eliminate the "black hole" feeling sometimes fireboxes give.

I would highly recommend hanging your giraffes. Hang them just a couple of inches off the mantle so that they relate to it.

Thank you CDR, yes, I will definitely hang the picture! Also, when you say paint just the mantle (and brick and doors), do you mean just the top portion before it tapers and leave the rest white? As if it's a separate piece, almost? I'll see if I can find a photoshop to try that out. Could be interesting.

I meant the mantle shelf and the mantle legs. The entire piece that is wood.

I think your best bet would be to paint the doors, brick and entire mantle as in photo below.

The brick is not particularly interesting and this will give you a much more updated look.

[houzz=]

Right, got it! thank you. I agree. The brick just seems like one extra colour in the room that doesn't really match anything else.

I will recommend to have the red brick painted black but a very dark gray almost black. Black will give some interest with your artwork black and white. You can play in the room with the B/W contrast and could still use a third color for pillows, throw, window treatment,accessorizes for example.

Keep us posted.

If you do end up painting the brick I would go with more of a gray color rather than black. I like your surround white because it has a fresh look about it. Your interesting picture is hardly black in it's appearance. I would say more of a gray and white appearance. What are the measurements of the picture?

CDR, There are limited colours in the app, and I chose darkest grey- Behr-graphite. It looked darker on my Ipad, but agree it looks green here. There wasn't a black available.
Also, for my own information because I'm not a professional, I noticed you suggested to another to paint above the FP darker, and here you thought it would be too top heavy. Just not sure of the difference. Thanks!

Marlene, you did a great job, just getting the idea across.

I am not sure what situation you are talking about with painting above the fireplace. Can you tell me which discussion that was and maybe I can explain. Thanks.

Get new screen all black. Paint brick black. Get a picture twice as wide of one you show. Hang don't lean. On one end add 3 various height pots in accent color from room. Use those colors in picture.

Sure, It was the one with Sharonjane.

I love your picture but too small for that wall. Add a tall wood giraffe next to fireplace get a tall one. World Market , Pier One. Maybe a animal print pillows on sofa to tie together.

Paint just the top of fireplace a darker taupe. You need some contrast on wall.

@travisinteriors, it's so good to see you again. You had us worried. Hope you are okay.
@mbpolly, sorry to go off-topic. Just noticed that travisinteriors commented on your discussion. Back to business! :-)

Oh, in that case, she has a very simple fireplace. It is really just tile on the bottom. (cream with some taupe in it).

The top is drywall. But, there is also some drywall on the sides of the fireplace that act as sort of the "legs". I suggested she paint the drywall portion around the fireplace (top of tile and legs) a darker color to accent the fireplace.

2 reasons it works in Sharon's case'

1) The color I suggested was not charcoal or black. It was a mid tone.
2) The color will not be solely on the top. It will be on the sides of the tile also (the drywall "legs" I spoke of )


I hope that helps.

Here is the link in case anyone is interested. Long. Go to end to see fp.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/need-help-completeing-my-family-room-dsvw-vd~712020

Stone fireplace surrounds are always an attractive option.

Lynnie, you're right, the pic is overall more white and grey. It is sharper black/white in real life though. It's about 3.5' x 1.5'. Also, I see what you're saying about white keeping a fresher look. Luckily there are a lot of big windows on the other side of the room with lots of white trim, so I hope if I go black it'll still look fresh in the room... I'll think about that though because I like open and airy feel.
travisinteriors, thank you. I do have another option for a picture... it's twice as wide, with a few more vibrant colours but half the hight. The reason I picked the tall giraffe was because the space above the mantle is so high. I will definitely hang whatever picture I put there. I just leaned it to show the pic I planned to put. Definitely would look better higher! Do you think I need to use the height? (here is the other picture... it is 2'x3' and takes up most of the width but not a lot of the height at all)

I think the giraffe relates better to the scale above the fireplace. As we discussed, you can fill the void with floral or vases.

Thanks, CDR. I hope to make it work that way. It's the picture I had in mind for up there so I'd love for it to work. I'm looking around for a tall floral or branches or something. I'm sure I'll find something!

You don't have to have tall branches. But you can. See how below works well.

Thanks CDR, I do see the difference the side "wings"make.

Right. I hope it turns out well.....it was a tricky fireplace!

The giraffe looks nice in the space. The only reason I mentioned a couple small prints next to it was to add a little more width to the heigth. But I think it is perfect there and if you want to go with vases or candles on the two sides, that would certainly work. Are you considering painting the wall over the fireplace?

Here is one where the entire wall is painted dark.

The wall paint is BM Revere Pewter (yours looks like that or similar)

The fp and wall is

Benjamin Moore, Silouette, AF-655.

[houzz=]

You could also paint the brick and fire door and the upper portion dark. Then leave the mantle and legs white.

I am still not a fan of the blac (or that much of it I should say), but I thought I would post this picture. Even though the brown wall is dark, (and a lighter more tan would look nice in my opinion), I thought you would want to take note of the dark gray surround in the fireplace. Along with the white it goes nicely. As you can see, you can go with grays and browns. The gold wall hanging is rather interesting too.

Anyway, just have fun with the ideas and don't rush into a decision.

Lynnie, I believe mbpolly stated above she is now planning on painting the brick. So, if she paints the brick and brass doors, that would give her a dark foundation, which would support an upper dark area. This is an option, as I stated in my previous post.

Thanks for the picture. In this case, she could leave the mantle white, if she wants.

Actually, in her case, it would look even better, because her brick is as wide as the drywall above it.

With her art, a black or charcoal is going to look best and will go with any other colors.

Here is the paint color in "Aldine Ave" that I posted above.

It has red undertones, so looks just slightly brown. I love this color.

[houzz=]

I really like that colour (Silhouette). I usually use Sherwin Williams since my husband has a contract with them, does anyone know a similar colour to that in Sherwin Williams? I can look at the colour wheels and find one. I like it and think I'll probably go with something like that.
Lynnie, I am still considering darker on top but am leaning toward the darker bottom (though like your previous picture with the light mantle, dark inside and dark upper. Thank you for your help.

mbpolly, you can go to SW and give ask them to match the BM silhouette. I don't use SW much, but I know that Home Depot and BM have the chemical formulas for pretty much any paint, any manufacturer and they will custom mix it.

If they don't have the formula, you have a couple of more options. You can simply bring in the paint chip and have the custom mix that color for you or find a similar paint in SW.

Also, myperfectcolor.com has a paint converter. You have to sign up with a un and pw. You can convert colors from one brand to another. I have never used this, but I know they have it.

Great! Thank you so much.

My apologizes for the horrid mock up. I'm thinking if you gave the area above mantel a taller and wider presence by increasing the size and depth of the crown molding and extending it to the edges of the mantel it would work better with the lights and be more balanced. I would paint the entire fireplace area the same color.

lucidos, haha, don't apologize! It gives me a good idea of what it would look like. Thank you for your ideas.

mb, if you are not skilled in photoshop, an easy way to experiment is to simply print out a few pics of your fp on regular computer paper. Color the areas you are considering painting. If you like it on paper, you'll like it in real life.

Ha, I'm so sorry the dog woke me up in the middle of the night and that was the result of my brain on Photoshop. I'll try again in a bit I didn't mean for the crown to be that HUGE. Basically, you would stack a mantel over your mantel.

Another thought would be to load cabinets there similar to this first image open or doored.
And another.

haha, that's ok! I got the idea. It's nice. I was actually thinking that if I paint the whole thing, I might try to make the drywall look like an extension of the mantle by adding trimming or panelling or something. Thank you for the visual.

mbpolly, I am linking another Houzz interesting dilemma on a fireplace.

Long discussion, but if you don't have time, just follow the pictures. Chris wanted to spend $ on his fireplace (stacked stone, etc). I convinced him that painting it would yield almost the same result with little money. He/she? finally did it.

The only thing I had encouraged him to do that he did not, was to paint the crown molding dark as well. Nonetheless, it looks good.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/help-with-fireplace-wall-dsvw-vd~763828

Hi guys all is well. Was taking care of my mom. But things are getting back to normal. Thanks.

The color is nice "Silhouette".
Just a thought here; I am wondering how the bricks would look with a distressed faux paint project of a dark gray and white leaving little specks of the original brick. There are many options and that is why it is good to take your time on projects.

Still thinking that the picture will look lonely up there all by itself, but that is me, haha...however, another thought, if you put a Wide Frame (White) around the picture it would go with the moulding idea too and in that case it would look great.

The picture is not going to look lonely. Look at the examples of tall pics with other tall objects next to them.

I would not do that to the bricks. Keep thing simple. Before you spend $ on molding, try painting.

You

Thank you guys! I have not finished yet, but I did get started on painting. I actually had a colour similar to Silhouette (but lighter - thinking also that I could always go darker) that I had used in a different part of my house (Sherwin Williams, Mink) so I thought I'd try the mantle with it and see if I wanted to do the brick and then see about the upper portion. I ended up wanting to do it all. haha. I am still going to spray the door black when I can get the little kids out of the house for a day. I will post a picture soon and see what you think (Lynnie, you probably won't like it but I hope to put enough up there to not make the picture lonely - you were right about it needing more contrast up there though - the picture looks so much nicer against a darker colour). Pictures to come!

How nice to see that you are putting everything in action. I am sure it will be lovely and whatever you decide, just put your stamp on it as your own. I just love art and lots of it, lol, But you do what looks good to you personally. All the opinions are just options for you.

I look forward to your pictures mbpolly! :)

We had an out of date red brick fireplace and wrapped it all with Colonial gold granite, love it now.....

[houzz=]

Can't wait to see it! You won't be sorry. I love paint colors repeated in different rooms of the same house!

It would look really sharp to reframe the giraffe with a double matt, one of the matts in a color similar to mink or in a single matt of mink.

If you like nautical theme. I would place ship model on the top of mantel.