To paint or not to paint...

I have to confess to having been suffering from a bad case of itchy paintbrush lately. I seem desperate to paint something. The first idea I had was to paint the black metal fireplace in the sitting room a nice rustic white colour to lift the room.

I would paint the surround only and leave the insert black, like in the photo below. Although I'm a little unsure as to whether it would make the room too wishy-washy - that's the thing about painting things, you can't really get an idea of how it will look until it's done!

The next thing I think I would like to attack with the brush would be the old pine dresser in the dining room. I have always felt that this room was a little "wood heavy" and think that this would be a perfect way of lighting the feel of the room.

And after see photos like the one below I get quite excited about the idea of a lovely aged creamy white painted dresser and can't help but notice that the background colour does seem to set off the china to perfection.

Maybe I could paint the backboards a slightly different shade like in this photo?

Or keep a bit of the pine showing like they have done here? Although I don't have quite as chunky a dresser top as this one in the photo so leaving it au natural may look a but silly. And then I remember that I would need to sand down the entire thing as it has all been covered with a coating of beeswax and that I would probably have to paint the dresser base in situ as we only just managed to get it in there when we bought it!

What do you prefer - black or white fireplaces? Painted or natural wood?