My before and after!

Before and after

Before and after

Ignore the accessories (or lack of them). I whitewashed the brick, which made the fireplace less overpowering in a small living room.

This was back when my photography skills were poor but we put our oven inside an empty fireplace when we remodeled our kitchen. You can see more here: http://www.thebloominghydrangea.com/kitchen-remodel/

My husband, son and I did ours together! Talk about Character Builder, LOL! Here are our before and afters :)

Looks nicer in person. No matter what curtains I put up, it always seems to match the stone and the wood stove heats the ENTIRE house without a blower. We have been so warm this winter! :) Thank you Lord!!!

We are struggling with what look we want. The stone-to-the-ceiling look is very contemporary but we bought a house that sat on the market BECAUSE it was style schizophrenic. There are very, very expensive traditional elements and then Scandinavian wall treatments and colonial elements (more curvy than traditional) stairway pickets and doors! Ugh. People come in and say, "Wow" and then "oh, that is odd", I hate the trend of the modernist fireplace in settings where it is all wrong but what is trendy sells and that is the ultimate plan.

Valerie,
check out http://www.cjshearthandhome.com/ you might be able to gather some good ideas and products and go from there.
if you have any questions you can give them a call and they can answer your questions

Not exactly finished yet, am in the process of staining the mantel a java color but here it is

Nice looking fireplace..................

Thank you so much Michael Lee

Actually, this is a better after photo.

@ Valerie Gierman, It took months for my husband and I to agree on a design. If you have some computer software, i.e. Photoshop, that allows you to manipulate images, try that. I took a picture of my fire place and then with Photoshop CS6 I would crop certain areas of the fire place, add different types of stone or change the wall a different color, so on and so forth. You can download the software for free if you do not already have some! :) Also there are websites that allow you to upload your pictures to their site and they allow you to add furniture, different color walls and so on. This information may help >> http://freebies.about.com/od/homegardenfreebies/tp/freeonline-room-design.htm

Here as some Before & Afters of our client's fireplaces:

The first fireplace was a custom made, patterned marble fireplace mantel for the client's sitting room in their master ensuite.

In the second one, we decided to replace the outdated, brass fireplace instead of restoring it. Since the client was young and urban the design concept was modern and contemporary. A new lacquered mantel was designed to create a clean, graphic focus for the room.

Here's an After pic of a remodel we did a while back (no before pics available).

Transforming a small black hole in a Master Suite Den into a beautiful fireplace!

We removed the mantle and smoothed out the front of our ordinary brick fireplace and created a stone fireplace using three types of natural stone. Very pleased with the new look.

Started with red brick, surround and base, a 6" plaster wall overhang and black chain curtain. Replaced curtain with glass inset, painted brick black, removed protuding brick base and filled with leftover pergo. Then removed wall, replaced 60" projection tv with 55" led, found mantle cheap on craigslist and added recessed lighting. Still a work in progress but love having a mantle finally.

Here was our "Before", "Inspiration" and "After" picture, very happy with the end results. Of course this was done on a limited budget

Huge improvement.

I posted this before
Before and after

Just replaced the builder grade tile with slate and a granite hearth, new paint job.

When we purchased this home, the builder used 12x12 tiles and spaced them on the hearth so that they wouldn't have to cut any tile. This left grout lines up to an inch wide! The edge was just the edge of the tile, no bull nose or anything. It was horrible. On the inside of the wood of the mantle, they chose a smaller white tile that wouldn't require but a few cuts. The tiles did not go together and looked like there was no thought put into chosing colors. I replaced all of the tile using 1x1 squares on the part inside of the wood and the horizontal surface of the hearth. I used a chair rail at the top of the box and cut down larger tiles to make squares around the bottom.