I have seen a lot of magazines where they had this problem in a room makeover, and they always paint it white--(or a variation, say to match the walls if they're eggshell, etc.) and it always looks beautiful and fresh.

The brick/stone is already painted a dark color? Then I'd concur with advice to paint it white. See if your landlord has extra paint from doing the trim or at least remembers what was used. (I'm betting it was a Kelly Moore premix white -- half the apartments in SF are probably painted Frost.)

I'd say your real problem is the wall around the fireplace. You could really dress it up with the right color paint and art. I'm thinking a warm color - like golds, browns or reds - and maybe a stained wood mantle/shelf above the fireplace.

Is that log there above the fireplace to hide the wires??? Eek. Run the wires along the floor (perhaps under a rug or to another socket) and get rid of the ugly log thing.

And one big piece of art would look better than the two picturse you have now.

You could play with colors and layouts right on your photo with something like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.

I'm not sure... but agree with the one large painting/mirror idea. Right now, it looks like a big face (two eyes, mouth) that could come alive at any moment and start signing disney tunes.

painting it the same color as the walls makes for a good disappearing act. i agree with axing the log, but please don't put wires under a carpet, it's a fire waiting to happen.

It isn't really hiding the wires anyhow, since you can see them on the right trailing off to the television.

Far better to get wires in a color that matches the wall, and then run them up high, along that molding above the fireplace, then back down along the edge of the fireplace, down to the floor and along the baseboard, using those little wire clips you can buy at Ikea for pocket change. That won't quite make them invisible, but they'll certainly be less obvious.

There's a brass overload going on around the fireplace as well, given the surround and the accessories. It'll probably look worse if you paint the brick white. I'd suggest painting the brass fireplace surround black using radiator paint, but I'm not sure if that would work on the doors. And if you paint the brick white, that might be too stark (maybe go with a dark gray instead).

The photographs above the mantle need to be replaced by one large piece of art or a mirror. I'd also go for storage that hides all of the media we see over to the left of the fireplace. The rectangular shelves and little vertical lines of all the CD and DVD boxes over there sort of mirror the bricks and mortar of the fireplace and really clutter and unbalance the space. The fireplace needs to be the focal point of that wall, not have clashing elements competing with it for attention.

Again, if you want something cheap Ikea sells shallow bookshelves that you can attach doors to. They're perfect for storing media while hiding the clutter. And you can get them in white, which might be a better option than wood tones, given how dark the wood floors appear to be, and the presence of all that wood in the kitchen.

There is so much going on in this room that you have to decide what you want to be the focal point. Given what you have I would do the following. Before doing any painting make sure that your landlord agrees to whatever you propose to do. I would personally get rid of the texture of the fireplace by having a piece of plywood cut to the size of the fireplace and faux paint it into something like marble. If you love those paintings above the fireplace, have them rematted together sides touching into one single mat and frame, paint the inside of the area above the fireplace some shade of purple or lavender to make them pop, add a tall green plant to the right side of the fireplace and perhaps get doors or add a piece of plain fabric to the the front of the shelves that hold the cd's..

Thanks so much for all of the comments and great suggestions! I hadn't thought of painting the fireplace surround but I'm definitely going to look into that - thanks Sunspot. We actually replaced the two photographs with one long piece of art this weekend and it looks much, much better. The driftwood (aka ugly log thing) was concealing lighting that is no longer necessary so it's been "axed". Well, moved to another room anyway because I'm a sentimental fool.

I like the ideas of changing the look entirely with a plywood facade or using white for a disappearing act and after thinking about it a bit more, I guess the look and feel we would like to achieve is one of organic simplicity and tranquility. Truthfully I would love to have a stone fireplace surround with a wood or steel mantle and a granite floor. Something along the lines of the Hotel Vitale lobby: http://www.hotelvitale.com/gallery/photogallery.php?navigation=hotel&id=2 (not sure if this link will work - see hotelvitale.com). I guess one move toward a bit of simplicity would be to actually close the doors to the cd cabinet once in a while but especially before taking photos. Thanks again for all of the input - you guys/gals rock!

I forgot to add that the breaking into disney tunes comment had me cracking up! I joke about our garden being like a freaking disney movie sometimes with all the activity going on out there but if our fireplace could bust out with Whistle While You Work I might prefer washing dishes to pulling weeds!