I would focus on the mantle & brick of the fireplace, and use a decorative (or not so decorative, depending on your taste) fireplace screen to hide the oven part.

thanks, that's a great idea! any ideas for the mantle or the brick area? the brick is actually a veneer and not nearly as nice as the real brick on the walls. i could also paint the oven insert white, tho i'm not sure if that will draw more or less attention to it. hmmm...

oh, and i've since learned from a chimney specialist that it's a HUGE project to remove the oven insert.

Actually, the insert, while not visually pleasing really helps with the efficiency of the fireplace. We wanted to get one for our place, but they are rather expensive and not something that we could afford at the moment. I would do what jenc suggested and hide it with a nice screen.

As for the brick. I believe you could pretty lay stone right over the brick, maybe even yourself if you can use a wet saw. Personally, I don't mind the brick. I would probably paint the mantle though and tie it in with the brick/white spiral staircase to the right that you mentioned.

thanks, yeah, the only catch is once i paint the mantle there's no turning back. and i'm indecisive. the floors are covered but they just redid them & they're also oak, like the mantle. so some have suggested keeping the oak its natural color cause it could look good with the floors.

It's called a wood burner. Without it, your fireplace will burn in a very inefficient manner and will suck the heat right out of your home when not lit. I'd go for a large decorative screen that would hide the burner, and talk to a professional about how to remove the brick (if it is indeed a veneer as per your comment above) and replace it with tile thats more to your taste. I would paint the mantle. If you don't like it, you can always redo it.

leave the mantle if you think you might have regrets later, but paint the brick veneer white. they have special paints that will stick to brick. with white walls, a white screen, and white accessories, you can work a minimal look, even with the fussiness of the brown mantel.

I'm generally opposed to painting over wood, but based on that picture it looks pretty blah. What is the rest of the trim in the room like? If it is all painted over, I would doing the same to the mantle, or perhaps staining it a darker color? I like the above commenter's suggestion to put stone over the fake brick, as well as the suggestion that you get a nice screen if you don't decide to remove the wood burner (it seems to make sense to keep it, but I would also personally prefer a regular open fireplace).

get a big enough screen to hide the brick behind it, then stain or paint the mantle. if you don't want to do that to the mantle, then you are stuck with oak, in which case, you could paint the wall behind it so the oak stands out more. i love mirrors over fireplaces. there are some great ones on sale at horchow and (don't laugh) jcpenney.com has some awesome deals on mirrors. also, west elm has a faux bois mirror in white that could complement the stairs and bring a modern edge. if you get a screen in black or metal or whatever finish, then get some candlesticks and accessories in the same finish and throw them up on the mantle, and keep some fresh flowers in rotation in a nice vase that reflects your personality (and they will reflect in the mirror as well) and it will be beautiful. don't paint the insert, you don't want hot paint up in your business and it will be hidden enough if you get the right screen. oh, and you can get a nice fireplace basket to put in front of it, even if you put the newspaper or magazines in it instead of logs, it will look cozy. hope those ideas help a bit.

thanks! This is all really helpful. Sounds like everyone is on board with the distraction strategy. Any suggestions about where to buy a good screen? My contractor found some special heat resistant paint spray, but I'm guessing most screens don't come in white so perhaps I should stick with the current color for camouflage purposes? I'm not so handy but am on a budget. How tough is it to cover the brick myself? Or I guess what I'm really asking is how tough would it be for me to make it look professional? Thanks for all of your help!

right now you have a cluttered mess on the mantle. clean it up hang a really fabulous mirror put a or statue in front of the fireplace or even some candles and the fireplace won't be so prominent. that could buy you time until you decide what to do

I would paint the mantle white as suggested, as well as the brick surround and go with a nice fireplace screen. Make sure you clean the brick first with a degreaser as well as lay down a very high quality primer. Oil-based primer and paint is probably your best bet.

*Disclaimer: If that insert gets hot, and transfers any heat to the surround, you may be restricted on exactly what type of paint or tile you can use. Check with local supply house first for heat-resistant options.

Also, r.e. painting the mantle being irreversible - it's fairly easy to strip nowadays - I just stripped my fireplace surround and mantle with peel-away. A dirty job but doable in a weekend.

Here's a few screens:

http://www.ironstoneimports.com/category/fireplace.threepanelscreens/?s=27&p=1

And here's some more, in fact this one is really good:

http://www.plowhearth.com/product.asp?section_id=2002&department=3050&search_type=category&search_value=1027&cm_val=&cm_pos=&cur_index=4&cm_type=&pcode=6129

This one looks like it might actually kind of obscure your "oven" thing pretty well:

http://www.gumps.com/jump.jsp?itemID=5636&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C5%2C39%2C385&iProductID=5636

Meanwhile, I think that I'd be tempted to cover the brick with wood BEFORE painting the whole thing, because I think that it would help the proportion. I think that the wooden parts on the left and right are kind of thin, proportionally, to the middle part.

Another possibility is to paint the brick BLACK, and then paint all the wood (exactly how it is) that very, very dark espresso color that's popular now, because it would give just a subtle difference between the black and the espresso colors, and it would KIND of let the brick seem to allow the inside of the fireplace to look slightly more epic, since the insides of lots of fireplaces are brick and charred black. THEN get a fireplace screen in front of the whole thing.

Here's a little mock-up I did in Micro-soft Paint, which is SUCH a sad little program, but hopefully you'll get some idea of what I'm talking about. I tried to show it with that last fireplace screen that I mentioned:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artycurtis/2173891343/

Hope this helps.