I never thought about it very much, but our fireplace was very 1998. The green marble, the brass handles, the oak colored mantle etc. We didn’t like it, but I figured we would change it all out far in the future when we redecorated the house. You know, painting the house, new fireplace, new mantle. But that’s huge, and would be far in the future.
My wife didn’t want to wait that long, and did some research. Not only that, she took on the entire project of painting the fireplace, including the marble. I get very nervous about screwing up something big like this, and doing irreparable harm, but she jumped right it. I think it looks great.