Decorating around a fireplace

[gabbybaby]

Need help with decorating our lounge and any advice appreciated. It's a separate front room. All the rest of the downstairs (large hallway, open plan kitchen/dining room/living area) is painted Dulux Timeless. Floorboards are a light greyish/brownish colour. We have a fireplace with a dark wood surround, which I'm thinking we'll paint white when we decorate. But then if we paint the walls the same colour as the rest of downstairs, it will all be a bit blendy, with no contrast. We could paint the chimney wall a different colour, but are feature walls a bit dated now? Or should we paint the whole room a different colour from the rest of downstairs? There is also a picture rail and it will be painted white above the picture rail. The hearth is currently black granite, but could be changed depending on what we decide to do with the room in general. Desperately need advice as we need to get paint samples this week to decide ready start painting next week. TIA

I think white with Timeless walls will be fine. But if you're not convinced why not paint the fire surround something other than white? I've painted one twice in the past. The first time with a cream eggshell paint, the second with white satinwood paint. Satinwood is available in lots of colours so you could go something else instead, like a pale grey or just not pure brilliant white.

Sounds like we have a similar room to you. Not all of the downstairs is painted the exact same colour but it's all pretty similar (pale grey / white / taupe). We did Elephants Breath upto the picture rail and white above. We have built in shelving and cupboards in the alcoves either side of the chimney breast (all white) and painted the back of the alcoves in a dark grey (Downpipe from memory). We painted the fire surround in the same white as the cupboards. I think it looks lovely - couple of accents (cushions etc) with a hint of yellow too. So it "matches" the overall decor of the house but has its own identity if you like. That sounds really pretentious - I mean it's similar but not matchy matchy!

namechanged - It does sound like a similar room. We have painted our bedroom Dulux dusted moss 2 which I love (the builder is very particular about using dulux paints). If you have any similar dulux suggestions it would be appreciated. And I'd love to see pictures of your room if that's possible. My dh is even worse at visualising that I am, so if I can't show him a picture to demonstrate, he'll just say he doesn't like the idea! I've shown him loads from Houzz already, but it's different seeing a "real" lived in house than one that is set up for a photo shoot.

Does your fireplace work? Do you use it?

I would concentrate on the function of the thing before deciding on colours and so on.

If you dislike it then can it be removed? If you like it, then figure out how to paint it before you do the rest.

Form follows function and all that.

Could you maybe put up a picture?

RH alcove, the other side is exactly the same except we have the TV on top of the cupboard instead of a lamp and photos.

I've taken the back wall too - large print and cushions kind of tie it together. We have a largish bay window with stained glass so that adds interest too.

Should also have said - it's F&B in the lounge but we have Dulux Egyptian Cotton in the hall and Dulux Pebble Stone in the kitchen which are all variations of beigey greys

Thanks for the suggestions. The fireplace has a gas point and we want to reinstate it, although it won't be used as a main heat source. We have a chimney sweep coming at the weekend and the builder has pulled everything up in the room. I've taken a picture although obviously at it's worst as the builders had picked up the floor boards (laying extra insulation down). He's painting it white, but beyond that I'm stuck for what to do with the room