How can I make over this fireplace?

The bricks are beautiful, maybe an update to the mantle would do it. But if you are resigned to covering the brick you could either do an elegant boardroom look paneling or what I did (but I had really really ugly brick it honestly looked like it had been dug out of a trash pile) I painted it black. It gave it a very elegant look. However, that was the cheap fix. I'm currently in the process of designing a boardroom look w/ bookshelves on either side.

Well I don't understand you fireplace what is that protruding out of it? Is it a wood burning stove that your ventin her through a gas burning fireplace? That right there needs to be dealt with. But you asked about facelift fire bricks, well I would cover them up with drywall and incorporate into rest of walls in that room and yes mantle is too small for that area even just the opening of fireplace so decide your style and replace it with a longer one. Without seeing rest of house or room it's hard to tell if you will need to add moulding. I wouldn't paint it because you don't like bricks at this time but placing drywall will only cause a few holes that can be filled. Plus it would act as an accent wall and draw your eye to it, that's the point of an accent wall even if you pick a color you like then it makes you look over there more and you can see the outline of bricks and how will you get bricks back without a lot of work taking paint off. Also I can see that the hearth has bricks I would replace that with a stone one. Sometimes you can get good deals at places that sell quartz and marble because the slab broke and they have it there waiting for someone like you, to purchase it. That requires covering up all those bicks as well with slabs and if you take measurements they may cut it for you and tell you how to proceed with your project. It's a shame but you don't have to cover all of it you can cover it until you reach arch and that would allow you to leave hearth alone cuts down on work as well.

I white-washed our ugly dark brick fireplace. I love it now!

Our fireplace had bricks all the way up to the vaulted ceiling. We dry walled from the mantle to the ceiling and painted that the same color of our walls. We then covered the bottom half with cement drywall and tiled it with beautiful glass tiles. Our final update was a gas insert.

White wash or paint it to a lighter color.

Is that shelving on each side of the fireplace? Do you plan on keeping the wood burning stove or do you want to redo it? We had that kind of brick for our fireplace but we chose to use a fireplace insert as our wood burning stove as it wouldn't protrude out so far into the room. I could set a kettle on it however. That said a light oak mantle would lighten things or you could lightly whitewash the brick but I wouldn't go heavy on it. Recessed rope lighting in the shelves will brighten things up too. I always kept something decorative on the hearth depending on the season. Maybe you could trade in the monstrosity and get a newer streamlined model. Please post pictures of your finished project.

Frankly, I like the "old brick" I am not a fan of the protruding wood burning stove. I would keep the brick, remove the wood burner and put an insert into the wall. I realize if you are using the wood burner to heat your home you will not get the heat you are looking for with a "real fireplace." This may not be the answer you were looking for but most of the real darkness seems to stem from the stove. Good luck with your project!

I would leave the bricks on the side border and around the opening alone, German shmear the main area. The mantle I would paint an antique white.