Floor to ceiling curtains perhaps?

I have the same type of apartment...80% brick walls. My advice is LESS IS MORE. The texture of the brick make excess art/picture hanging come off as kind of busy.

You might think about looking for images of french country and eclectic cottages with stone walls. I know your new place has brick, but fortunately it looks like tan/beige/grey (stone color) rather than red brick. The color and pattern makes me think of some sweet funky artistic European cottage, converted and updated. I

One person's dilemma is another person's dream!

I'd say forget it's brick and decorate it exactly the way you would if it was a brownish wall. :-) It looks like the place is pretty large and open, so I'd steer more towards a few oversize items rather than too many bitsy pieces.

I would try and feature the brick by placing modular open bookshelves to frame it. If it is still too much brick, I'd hang curtains. Painting brick may lead you to regret it a few years down the line. Once you paint over stone or brick it is nearly impossible to remove. You can also place a series of large (ie. 3x7') plain stretched canvases over the walls. This can also provide for an excellent surface to hang pictures and art on giving it a a frame on frame look and also provides a great place to hide the wiring and lighting in the back of the canvases.

I've seen worse brick, so that's good! Just make the best of it. I know of a french country room in a family member's home that is gorgeous.

You need warm colors to go with the brick: ochers, muted reds, browns, dark olivey greens. Rugs are important. Homey pictures on the walls too - they make brick clips that are clip on picture hangers so you don't have to drill into the brick. Maybe a big leaning mirror with a wood frame.

Treat the brick as a color in your palate. Think of it as brick red paint and decorate accordingly.

The french country room I mentioned had brick walls, I meant to say!!

You can always hang up large plywood panels (paint and/or distress them if you so wish) and then hang your art and such from that. It will eliminate nail holes and focus your eye on your art instead of making it feel cluttered.

Wow! You see those brick walls and you know right away that it's a Chicago apt.

In my amateur design opinion I think you are in luck.

The people who are painting brick have a modern and minimalist approach to design. They are trying to whitewash the earth tones and make everything monochrome.

Your style is bohemian, French country and eclectic. I'm definitely picturing floor to ceiling curtains like previously mentioned, probably some sort of rich colored fabric. Vintage posters in antique frames. Old fireplace implements and a really cool screen for the fireplace. You could even get lucky and find a cool fireplace surround online and it will be like putting an Old World mask on your fireplace. It looks like you may even have enough room to put a rug and a couple of comfy chairs in front of the it to make a cozy little sanctuary for nights like these. And imagine something huge hanging over the fireplace

Copper goes really well with brick if you want to hang some old copper pots and pans in the kitchen.

It always makes me sad to see brick painted. I think painted brick is ugly. You have great brick! If you don't want it...I'll trade ya! I have all the drywall you want in Woodridge!

Fabric, fabric and more fabric, and of course art..

I think your "bohemian/french country/eclectic" style will work great with your new brick walls! I've seen a lot of images of French country rooms with exposed brick elements -- fireplaces, walls, etc. -- and it seems to compliment the style well. Your walls are a beautiful neutral color. I'm not a professional designer/decorator, like many of the other commenters, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt, but here goes:

Since the walls are so ... visually weighty, you might want to keep to a mostly-light-neutral-with-a-few-bold-accents color scheme. (Or not; I always think that and then, say, buy a bright red couche or paint the guest room cantaloupe orange.)

You might also try to keep the majority of your furniture & fabric textures on the soft, smooth, sleek, and shiny side (ack, too many s's ...). A carefully edited handful of more rustic (Old World/bohemian rustic, not Southwestern) touches -- distressed farmhouse table? metal-bound antique chest? handmade pitcher from that awesome trip to [wherever] filled with sunflowers? -- would then fit in but not look overwhelmingly ... cluttered.

I'm picturing camel or cream velvet or mohair upholstery, smooth polished or creamy white painted wood media/storage/display furniture, crisp white/cream cotton voile or sheer linen panel curtains, antique brass or nickel light fixtures, and then one big or a few smaller things in a vivid, saturated color you love -- a pair of emerald green lamps, or a painting with bright, fiery red and orange over the fireplace or above the table.

French country/bohemian requires softness and warmth and I have to be frank here - that particular kind of non brick color brick won't help you get to that destination. (I have crumbly 110 year old red brick, you might be able to use that kind) So, you can either embrace what you have, and go more industrial or, as several others have said, go fabric. A huge jute rug hung on the wall will dampen sound, add a warm texture, and conceal the brick. Hanging other highly textured fabrics like raw linen or cotton will work well too.

I'm not sure what to do with the blond pine/brick window area. It's pretty startling. Almost like a work of modern art. Maybe some large print text like "PINE" will discombobulate enough to create harmony?

how can old brick not be bucolic and provincial?? I've walked around the old towns in Provence and lemme tell you, Roman bridges, Roman walls, and peasant homes are all made of brick. Lots of white furnishings, provencal textiles, and copper pots are what you'll need.

I had a rental much like this one -- in Austin. Aside from coming to embrace the space heater (literally, on occasion), cream-colored drapes did a lot to calm things down, as well as enormous pieces of art (everyone's right about the "busy") -- also I scored those black CB leaning shelves on CL - let the brick show through and the black contrasted nicely. I split the difference, basically, between industrial and bohemian and organic and created something like "urban rustic" - everyone felt comfortable at that place...

This is going perhaps too far toward the French country look (I don't happen to think so!), But what if you did the entire window wall in your first picture, ceiling-to-floor, , in those ubiquitous, heavy, white lace curtains you see all over France? Maybe hold up a panel or two to appraise the effect. I think it would be either wonderful or eewww!

You are gonna be cold this weekend. Those exposed brick walls are a big mistake thermally, especially with forced air heating in rehabs. An aesthetic, something loft style and spare.

I think your largest problem is your modern looking fireplace. A large faux surround/mantal would greatly help toward your goal. I'm sure you can find an ton of ideas from those DIY shows that are so popular. (use the black tile as a innner frame for the surround)

As far as the brick goes stay with the colors within the brick and you should be fine.

Post a picture when you are finished!

coronado's right - the shiny black tiles around the fp are way wrong. the brick's great. avoid a lot of or the ilusion you're trying to cover it up.

go natural like this rustic rental:
http://www.remodelista.com/2008/12/19/shepherds-hut/

Wow. Thank you guys so much for taking the time to give me advice! I love the ideas like the lace curtains, creamy white furniture and fabric ideas. A lot of you suggested hanging pieces of canvas, plywood, fabric, etc on the walls but I don't quite understand how to do that or what you all mean exactly. Do you guys mind explaining it a little or have any links to pictures? I'm a designer neophyte and while I know what I like, I have no idea what I'm doing or where to start. Any pics would be awesome. Keep the advise coming, I really appreciate it and I promise I'll send in photos after I finish everything. Thanks again.
p.s. Stay warm!

P.P.S I forgot to say I'm Rachel, the girl who asked the question.

In my last rental apartment I hung a huge jute rug on a wall by mounting carpet strips (cheap little strips of wood with little metal pins sticking out diagonally) at the top edge of the wall - you will have to drill into the brick, but I wouldn't be shy - when you take out the screws the holes that high up will be scarcely visible.

Anything you lift onto that strip just hangs from it. I put a few extra screws through the carpet (it was jute, so nothing was damaged) to make sure it didn't slip. It was super secure after four years when I moved out and everyone visiting loved how the heavy rug warmed up a cold plaster wall. I put spot light pointing upward below the rug which lifted the ceiling up. What surprised me was how much warmer sound became with the rug up.

Good luck and happy new year!