Thanks for the feedback, I am definitely going to paint. I am thinking about grayish walls.

The fireplace is nice it just needs to have a darker color on the wall to compliment, you could also put a sconce on each side of the fireplace to take away from such a vase amount of wood. hope this helped

lol I love the fireplace :) your house/beams etc look great. I agree the laminate will look much better.

I would search mid century modern on houzz for some great inspiration.

Deeonna's sconce idea is interesting, and it's also a great design for art over the mantlepiece. But I'm a bit in love with the greyish brown of your courtyard tree -- one option would be to restain the wood to that kind of colour, get the inside and outside talking to each other.

Thanks for the suggestions - still struggling a bit with leaving it as - I like the middle section it's the slanted sides that I have bigger issues with - it has a very rough texture to the wood, so it's going to take a lot of sanding to stain or paint. But I still haven't moved in yet - so maybe I just need to live with it for a bit. Thanks everyone.

Ok this idea is wild. I would sand the wood and then I would stain the planks in 3 or 4 different stains ie: brown tone, reddish tone, blue grey tone and natural on the 2 sides. You could play with this idea with samples from a big box store or try it on scrape wood. Not to heavy on color so wood grain show through. I would stay in warm tones and paint walls in warmer hue. The mantel almost disappears. It needs something to make it pop. Either needs to be larger or darker. You need a large piece of art over the fireplace. Sherwin Williams offers a color selection of paint for mid century modern.

I would recommend to start with a floor plan - is this your main living area? Are you planning on hanging TV on the wall? How will you position your furniture? Consider the space as a whole first, right now the fireplace is a huge eye-sore. Having a clear vision on how will you use this space will help you making any design decisions and mistakes. Hope that helps

That wood isn't sandable or stainable - that is rough sawn cedar popular in the 70's. I'd pull the diagonals off the wall and drywall those areas back in. Work only with the middle section. For now, since you have a budget, take the mid-tone of the warm gray you want to work with and cut it in half with water, then wash the old, porous wood with the watered down paint - something like bm gray huskie http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/grayhuskie
If you mix the paint 2/3 paint, 1/3 water - or 1/2 and 1/2, the dry porous wood will soak it up pretty evenly - use a brush and work it in. This kind of warm gray tone will shift it to look like reclaimed wood and the chunky side and mantel will predominate instead of the 70's diagonals. This area is the width of the funky hearth (i would retile this with some natural gray stone in big oblongs to minimize the grout lines). Later, as your budget recovers from entry, you can move onto phase two and decide on stone cladding.

Libradesigneye thank for the tip on painting and staining not being an option. i like the idea of the reclaimed wood look. I am going to have that tile pulled up when the pull up the carpets, so I will look into something gray for that area. Attaching a really poorly done photoshopped like view of the fireplace with sides out and some gray paint.

Jolana - thanks for the feedback. It's my main living area, (only living area) It's a smallish (1250 square foot house) I am not going to put the TV over the fireplace not sure yet about keeping it on it's sort of industrial/reclaimed wood looking stand or mounting it on another wall, I will post some pictures back when I move in so I can see a better idea of the floorplan/arrangement. I have never seen the house with furniture - so that will be enlightening - thanks for the advice.

I agree with toats... the fireplace is nice! paint your walls... put down beautiful laminate for durability, and decorate from there. I love the space!

What is the paint color on the walls?

the mock up (haven't painted yet) is Sherwin Williams Analytical Gray (haven't really decided yet) was using Sherwin Williams color visualizer to mess around with some wall colors. In the original photos at the top - I am not sure what color they are - came with the house.

HI -- Well I'm going to be the one that says , the fireplace has to change , it's time has past . It would look better with a white and cream mixed stacked ledge stone face with no hearth or mantel to bring it in to this time . Looks like this house is mid-century ,which I Love ! What is on the other side of that wall beside the fireplace ??

I would just cover the wood or replace it with gyproc and paint it some nice contrasting color, leave it like that and see if you need to spend any more money on it. A huge piece of art work would be where I would spend my money. Or you could take some inspiration from this pic.

elkpark, I think your mock up looks just about right. And thank you for doing your own rendering so I didn't have to. ;-)

I think your TV can easily go on the wall perpendicular to the fireplace with your preferred TV-viewing seating (sofa, chairs, recliners) facing it, and more seating facing the fireplace. A stellar piece of art over the mantel, and you're set.

Looks like a great house that will be fun to decorate.

Sure does, and glad I could come up with a middle ground budget suggestion for you that feels modern. With analytical gray, you would use worldly gray on your wood . . . Might I also suggest you look closely at the vinyl wood plank floors - they are more indestructible than the laminates AND lots of them look more like the high end hardwoods that have been cerused. I'm not sure we'll even stil have laminates in a few years - this is one place where vinyl at the high end really does shine. That should leave you enough $ for great rugs . . . just look, you will be surprised at how great they look - hard to tell even when you touch.

I will tell you that it is possible to sand and stain rough sawn paneling. I had an entire great room with tongue and groove rough sawn cedar paneling. I sanded down the entire room and stained it. So if you decide not to dry wall over it may take a little work but you can do it.

Finally getting close - had floors put in and fireplace tile removed. Today they took the side panels down - tomorrow they are patching the drywall and then it will get painted so not too much longer now- still have to pick out a tile for the bottom of the fireplace .

Before they paint I'd remove those track lights and install some recessed cans with a gimbal trim for directional lighting. That way you can put a piece of art above your fireplace and highlight it with unobtrusive lighting. The track lighting takes away from the streamline look you're working towards. So I'd go with one of these http://www.affordablequalitylighting.com/indoor-lighting/recessed-housings-trims/recessed-lighting-trims/12v-3-recessed-trims/12v-3-adjustable-gimbal-trim-c3712/ then continue to modernize the space. Something like this or depending on your style.

Any updates on the new look and feel lilyquincy? I'd love to see the before and after shots :)

Not done yet:) but removing paneling painting is

Still to do:

- remove track lighting
- tile hearth
- re wire cable to eliminate all cords
- rug
- art
- general decorating

Before/after

Real progress! Try turning on the track lights for new photo of fireplace?

New pic better lighting

THanks for the new photos. Are you going to remove the remaining boards or paint what's there now? I'd be inclined to remove the remaining boards and start with a clean slate.

Keeping original - there is a beam across the room in the same wood. Attaching floor plan to house as well for a better idea of the layout - room is completely open with atrium on one side dining room on back a with the bedroom off of the room as well