I'd be tempted to remove the wood and put a stone facing, something with some MCM tie-in. Some pop tiles could work too without limiting you.

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yeah...you have an orange accent wall right now with the fireplace.... what color did you plan on painting it? and the hearth really does look a bit unfinished rather than any particular style.

id look at a lot of midcentery + fireplace photos, here and at google image search. find what you want before you do anything else.

Is that your foyer left of the return air? May we see a view of what greets guests entering the home?

Looks like a metal spiral stairway across from the front door.

Here's the rest of the space. Again, everything brown is now white (that sounds really racist). And the walls are light grey. The entry has brick, which I suppose was a nod to passive solar when the house was built. We'll probably keep that. And we had thought that maybe doing the same style brick over the wall which would at least tie to the entry. But we don't love that idea. There's no other brick inside or out. We're perfectly fine with removing the wood.

The room behind the wall is a kitchen. We'll be closing that entry and opening up the wall soon. The new entry will be just to the right of the return and the rest will be a half wall.

Yikes I hope you didn't paint that front door white??

i would do very large format stone or tile, like this:

If you can afford custom panels (so no grout lines) good on you, by these are affordable and look good!

I thought maybe the other side of the wall was wood too. I think I'd take the wood down and see if the FP can be re-worked to get that hearth lower or even with the floor. If you can determine the type of wood floor you have, you might want to replace the brick entry with more of it. If you leave the brick then paint the FP wall. If you want to rock it, I think the brick will need to go.

It would help to see the exterior and a view when you walk in the front door.