We just bought a house that has a fireplace. It is a brick fireplace that takes up an entire wall. The brick covers the ENTIRE wall. I'm not particularly crazy about it. How hard is it to knock down the brick and put up a normal wall instead and just have the normal area of a fireplace be brick or stone or something else? Or do you have any other suggestions as to what we can do to make the "wall of brick" look better? A different finish or something?

Thanks,
Chelsea

If the brick is simply a veneer on an otherwise normal wall, removal is relatively easy. Removing brick from the fireplace may be more difficult, because it is jined with mortar to whatever is behind it, and may also be supporting the chimney above, but it can be done with proper precautions.

Yes you can remove the brick. its not to hard but labor intensive. Figure at least two square feet of garbage for each square foot of surface removed. You can cut the brick with a cement saw once you get near the fireplace to re-size to the "normal" size you wish.
I would look into painting the brick myself. With proper painting, and decor brick walls often look quite nice.
You can also expect a lot of work repairing the exposed walls once everything is down. You will also need to re-frame the edge of the remaining brick as once cut it will not look the same as the rest that is left.

I figures it would be a pain to take down all the brick. The wall that the brick is against was once the end of the house, but now has an addition built next to that room. So I'm assuming there's no real wall behind it.

Why kind of painting would you suggest that would look nice? thanks!

You can use any kind of paint that you would like. Most folks simply paint white.
If you paint it with a thick pad roller and then wipe it with a rag it will show some of the brick color through the surface and give a unique look. Check with the local paint stores and ask them for advice as there are many methods you can use to paint this material and get a lot of diffrent looks in the end.