Unused fireplace - permanently seal? Re-do with shelves?

Hi, We have a very old house, and a fireplace that we haven’t used in decades.  It’s very likely we won’t be selling the house, so the question / potential solution are only for us, and we don’t need to think about potential future buyers. That being said, I’m not 100% clear on what needs to be or could be done, and what kind of person could do the work. We’ve seen photos of nice looking unused fireplaces that have shelves in them, for decorative items, etc.  To permanently close off the fireplace, are we looking for a chimney repair person?  Handyman?  General contractor?  Ideally we’d like one person to both close off the fireplace, and “make it nice” by removing unsightly bricks and installing some nice shelves. Has anyone had this kind of work done?  Who did you use?  Approximate cost!  Other things to think about?  Thanks for any recommendations / advice. 

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In houses of a certain era, rooms are designed with the fireplace as the literal focal point (focus, Latin for hearth or fireplace).

Unless you are literally immortal and expect to outlive the house, please don't remove or permanently disable the fireplace -- that work cannot be reversed. Some day, after you are gone, someone with period architectural sensitivity is likely to want that fireplace, "unsightly" bricks notwithstanding. There are several reversible options outlined here:

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/block-cold-air-chimney-95302.html

We got a gas fireplace insert, if you like the idea of creating cozy, warm winter nights without the pollution and clean up. It was some years ago and I can't remember the company that we hired (found on a quick Yelp search), but I wanted to offer an alternate suggestion, as we love having our fireplace usable with the push of a button. (The cat's pretty excited about it, too.)

We recently had our chimney and fireplace removed from the section above the roof down to below the floor level (we left the foundation). It wasn’t cheap, but for us it was definitely worth it. The thing sucked the heat out of our house and the masonry (especially the chimney above the roof) is just a collapse risk in an earthquake. It opened up space in our living room and makes it much more usable.

For us, the chimney demo and removal was around $5k including disposal of all of the brick and concrete. We had to patch our roof, do sheetrock (and paint), and patch the floor as well. We were doing other work at the time, so we already had a general contractor and the incremental additional cost of these items was negligible. If this is a one off project and not lumped into something else, you might budget another $3-5k for those repairs?  
 

A general contractor is the easiest but most expensive option. Alternatively you can sub it out yourself. For the demo, I would not use a handyman but would go with a demolition company (I’ve had good experiences with Impact Demolition, but they didn’t do this job for us). The patching could maybe be done by a good handy person. It depends on what’s impacted - interior, exterior, floor, roof, etc.

We had our earthquake damaged fireplace completely removed a few years ago. I can’t give you an exact price because it was combined with installing a new gas fireplace in another room that made much more sense for a fireplace. It wasn’t cheap though. The house was built in ‘61 and the fireplace was a brick behemoth. We had it removed by a contractor. It was a huge, messy, time consuming job to remove it and install framing, drywall, flooring, paint, roof, etc. 

I don’t know what you mean by “very old” but if your house is older than mine, you might keep the fireplace for aesthetic and architectural reasons another poster suggested. I grew up in a beautiful house built in the early 1900s and love the old fireplace which my dad retrofitted by installing a small wood stove. You might look into that or a gas insert. We love our gas fireplace which we use more than our heater.
Good luck with the project! 
 

We put our dog's bed in ours.  Seems as good a use as any!  

I don't understand why you want to seal the fireplace. You can store books in there without sealing it. If you want to keep the heat in the house from escaping up the chimney, you can just put a piece of cardboard up the chimney. The main problem with putting books in there is the soot. I'm not sure how you could get rid of that. Maybe with a steam cleaner. Seems easier just to put a pretty screen in front of the fireplace and call it a day.