I too have a Mendota so I know about the restrictions and it does get warm above the fireplace itself. I just laid a marble hearth but I am still uncertain as to what I am doing with the surround. I do have a somewhat tradional flammable wooden mantel with a 6' piece left to right (hope that makes sense)with two legs approximently 4' high. Whatever the exact measurements are, it falls within the acceptable guidelines. This of course, leads me to a decision as to what I want to put for the surround - as you said the area from the fireplace and mantel must be covered with a nonflammable material. I have yet to make up my mind but some of the things I have considered are 1)marble like the hearth - boring!, 2)a glass mosaic or possibly a stone mosaic i.e. onyx or soapstone that would compliment and not compete with the marble hearth. But that's just my personal preference and it may not apply to what you are trying to accomplish. The best advise I can give you is to google fireplace surround images and you will get thousand and thousands of images to consider. Good luck. Lynn fr CT

Ceramic tile would be fine. Unfortunately, I don't know of any that have that iridescent coloring to them, without going to the mother of pearl tiles which are ungodly expensive (someone posted a link to some a couple of years ago that were 473.00 a square foot). As for what you can and can't use, I don't think I'd want a tile with a soft glaze on it, such as tiles specifically for walls (PEI of 2 or less), or obviously, glass. Pretty much anything else would work. Sorry it took so long to answer-- I put in a 16 hour day yesterday. :-)

You're right. It's a mess. Not to put too fine a point on it.... :>) Look at Lyban's exanple, and at Annie's first example, to see what the proportion issue is. At the moment, your mantel is too skimpy, your tiles are too big, your side sections are too narrow, and the molding around the tiles is too small and uninteresting. So it needs some rejiggering to fix those issues. Pal is right about adding the chimney breast above. I would: ...pull off all the trim, and build the false wall above (taking care to line the sides up precisely with the sides of your lower section, not the edge of the mantel shelf). ...install a deeper and more fully trimmed mantel to reduce the dimension of the section between the firebox and the bottom of the mantel assembly. ...pull off the tiles and replace them with tiles that are a quarter the size of the ones there now (which look like floor or shower wall tiles) with a glossier finish, or whatever you like, and build the wall in around those. ...and add molding around the tiles that is the right style and heft to bring the whole thing into proportion.

I'd suggest looking at houzz.com. You'll find lots of inspirational photos there...search on built ins in living rooms.