DIYers- what could I do with this fireplace. Will I need a professional?

[Aury26]

Have just bought a place with this fireplace. I would love to replace the brown surround (or paint) and knock out the middle section so that I could pop in a dimplex "woodburner" and a pretend flue.
Dont care if they are naff
Realistically is there anyway i could get this looking decent myself or should I expect to pay thousands?
Other suggestions also welcome!

So taking all that off and just having the recess for the log burner you mean?
Unscrewing the surround shouldn’t be a problem if you can see the fixing brackets. If you can’t they may be under the plaster.
The marble (effect?) backplate may be stuck on with tile adhesive so you might find it needs skimming to make the plaster smooth. You also have no way of knowing how big the recess actually is until you take that off or what it looks like. It might not be the size or the neat opening you imagine. It’s not going to be thousands though, but a plasterer who works on a day rate might not want to book in a small job ime.
That said, until you take it off you have no way of knowing. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

The wooden surround would easily paint up. You could experiment painting the marble too?

I chalk painted a similar surround and it looks fab

You could paint the surround. BIN zinsser would cover the brown surround, I’ve used it on a brown painted bannister and it covers it very well and then you could paint over it with whatever colour you like to complement the walls. I’m not too sure on the Marble, what colour are you doing the walls? The marble would be less noticeable with a white surround for example.