Hi....does it fit in your locale/ does it seem too rustic you mean? Yes it's large but it fit on the wall nicely! Maybe you could alter the flat bottom 'hearth'...

Tile over the fireplace if it works structurally to support weight. Stain cabinets to match your beams. Replace mantle with another one with clean lines same stain as the cabinets.

If the rocks could come down and it is not a structural feature, then break it down and start all from scratch! Good luck.

Do you have plans for the rest of the room as well? I would suggest an interior designer for help in pulling the whole room together. I am seeing what look like fake beams and maybe a textured ceiling as well? An integrated approach will give better results in the long run and maybe even cost less than bit by bit. (personally I would be pulling up the carpet as well)

I think I have a couple problems with this room from the little I can see of it. The cabinets aren't that bad looking in themselves but look like they are out of place next to the very large , rustic fireplace. The mantle seems too small and not hefty enough to stand up to the fireplace also. I don't like that the shelves don't go to the ceiling. It makes that wall look choppy. The beams and your woodwork are also very under scale for the size of this look. Then there's the carpet. Are you planning on doing a complete redo here? If you remove the cabinets you may want to square off the fireplace and add a new mantle. Then see were you want to go from there!

that small mantel has to go. It needs something 3x that size. The stone isn't bad, but if you want, you could redo it a lot of different types stone or tile. Up to you. You could also paint that gold covering black (they have a high heat black spray paint).

Just doing those small changes could get u something like the pic (although in yours I would take the mantel all the way across.

Paint the room a lighter color and if you really don't need them, remove those bookcases. At the very least, paint them

As for the carpet we plan on keeping it for a few years. It's brand new and we have a 1 year old. . . Would like to replace down the road. The beams are cosmetic only so enlarging them is a possibility. Here is the other side of the room - don't worry about the wet bar that was a weekend project already accomplished! There is a small kitchen accessible to the living room through a small doorway. May look at doing everything together. Will be rescaling this house in 5 years so looking to update for resell

You'd get more useful advice if we could have a better-lit picture, and see all 4 walls of the room. It would also be good to know your budget, and whether any other changes are being contemplated. Ideally, you'd remove the whole thing including the cupboard. But if time and budget are tight, I'd still remove the cupboard, then paint all the stone a light neutral, either off white or light gray. Or wash over it with diluted paint, if you don't want a solid paint job. Paint the brass black. Remove the hearth or add a larger hearth right over the existing one.

Here are some examples and instructions.

http://erin-artandgardens.blogspot.ca/2013/02/painted-stone-fireplace-before-and-after.html

And here is a before and after slipcovered mantle. They also whitewashed the stone and painted the brass fireplace surround. Basically, all the things you need to do. Instructions and link below.

http://www.fwmadebycarli.com/2011/01/making-of-slip-covered-mantel.html

Well this " lodge " look fireplace looks out of place here to me. If you are planning to sell in a few years you may want to consider how this will affect that. You could have someone look at this to see about removing the stone so you could modernize it and streamline the look. At best I would reduce that extended hearth , spay the brass and redo the mantle. I would rather see no beams than those dinky ones on the ceiling!

Did someone already say you could try to place tv at left [instead of the shelves]? Maybe on the top surface of the bottom cases.... you might not then need a mantel at all. Diy tv doors?

Sort of what I meant - looks ok to me:

A few hundred:

The big rock fireplace can look cool painted white (or whitewashed). I would just paint the whole wall white, fireplace and shelves.

More votes for painting the fireplace and the shelves! Check this new blog post; there are plenty of stone fireplaces that look better painted: https://laurelberninteriors.com/2016/12/07/ugly-stone-fireplace/

Hmmm... well then they are going to have to paint the trim and woodwork and doors and oops were do we stop here because we have that kitchen attached. I guess they could paint that white too. All these pics look great but those fireplaces are surrounded by white! Let's not forget the beams ( those would look good white;)

Mind you , I'm not saying they shouldn't do it. But that's a lot of work. Could look nice though.

You didn't ask for this advice, but I'm just throwing it out there. Bang for your buck - redo the kitchen. The fireplace is a can of worms, but not a deal breaker. Elephant in the room!

Question. What did the wet bar project entail?

Thanks for all the comments- probably look at whitewashing the stone and ripping at the exiting bookcase and install some updated shelves and large mantel. As of right now we have the tv to the left of the fireplace on a stand as we do find the shelving unit useful for books and games. . . Here is our weekend project of the corner wet bar- the cabinets were previously the same tone of the buildings -

To the left - I meant the right of the fireplace and shelving unit!