It would help to have a bit more information. What is the style of the house? What is the size of the room? How does your lifestyle impact the space? Looking forward to helping you with some advise.

the condo is empty now, being remodeled. dark wood floors and light grey walls with white trim. i'm thinking of painting the brick hearth stark white and maybe put in a white mantel. room is 16x13ft wich vaulted ceilings. and is the living room.

I would face it with slate:

This is an attractive plaster finish on the fireplace:

Ceramic tile would be interesting:

This is gorgeous: "The material is vein cut travertine called Vintage Vein, in 3 sizes (2x9, 3x16, and 4x24) from Materials Marketing."

I think that you should do a stone mantel with a floating shelf it looks great with any room any coler. My dad is a stone worker so I could get you set up his Facebook page is Stonescapes

You will need to keep some sort of distance from your hardwood to the fireplace - building codes don't allow flammable objects within "X" distance. Keep the brick OR lay tile in front and run the hardwood up to the hearth.

A very simple/beautiful solution would be cork tiles as the surround. They can be mounted on walls with some contact cement and the cost of the tiles. White cork tiles can "look" like white marble without the expense of materials - they can be installed by you - no need for a mason! Cork wall tiles can act IN PLACE OF stone or brick work. Again - glued in place with only a small amount of effort. Can be cut with an Exact-O knife!!! No need for all the dust of masonry.

Sorry, the Cork "flooring tiles" (white or black) are $2.29/sf and the Wall tiles (the brick pattern or the stone pattern in the photos) are $4.99/sf. The adhesive comes in 1 gallon tubs and is $55/gallon = 180sf of laid surface!

Copper, bronze or stainless are an option that is often over looked.

The cork is a great idea and affordable. You could use any color I like the darker one shown. The white will of course the brighter. Home Depot had some 24"x24" Travertine on sale at a great price. This will be more labor intensive though.

PS: With any of the finishes I would build it out a bit to add dimension. You can accomplish this with a few layers of drywall or firing it out with 2x4's laying them flat and then add 1 layer of 3/4' drywall.

PS: again sorry I keep thinking of new things. If you do frame it out I would consider building a niche. It would only have to go back to your original drywall. It can be as large as you want it. Use it to mount a TV or an art piece. I see the is an outlet on that wall. You could use this to light that niche either on the top or all the way around it. These lights could be LED tape so it has a very small profile. This would make them easy to conceal. You would just need a small over hang of the drywall. Trim this with whatever material you face the fireplace.