house style advice needed

pimento

Donna, I would put your sofas facing each other either side of the fireplace so the room doesn't look quite so long and thin. I think you're right and it needs carpet though.

What colour green are you having? I like green.

dander

Personally, I like the effect of the bricks in the first picture and would leave them. I think some nicely designed alcove units would look lovely though.

But in the second picture I think they look a bit date and I'd perhaps want to do something with them. On the other had it could just be that the rest of the room is so blank and bare that it means the fireplace just hits you between the eyes a bit, so when you've redecorated it might well blend in better. I think the white walls meeting the white mantlepiece with the bricks underneath particularly makes it look odd and the mantlepiece needs to "belong" to the fireplace more.