To a large extent is depends on the rest of the room and the layout. I agree that it would drive me crazy and taking it out (both the brick and the mantle) would be my suggestion also. As you cannot match the floor, then possibly a large piece of furniture to cover the footprint where the bricks were. Maybe a chest of drawers or something similar that goes right to the floor. You have an electrical point there, so a dressing table is also an option. However, it would need to sit on a rug, as the floor would otherwise be visible. Depending on the rest of the room, taking out the mantle and putting the bed against that wall would cover up the floor.

A professional can do a good job of coming close to the original floor. And removing the flooring from a closet or two is a great idea.

This looks like something a grade ten student might create.

You need to show pictures of the rest of the room.

Where is your dresser? BED? Chest of drawers? Any of these might be moved to hide the brick if the mantel was gone.

Use it as a base to set plants on.

How big is it?

Have an ottoman made to cover it

Thanks for all of the input, folks! A piece of furniture won't work, because I'm remodeling my home to sell it and I want it as "nuetral" as possible. Taking wood from a closet, while a good idea, also won't work because the floors have been sanded to the tongue and groove in many places and couldn't withstand refinishing again. I don't have the ability to screen coat it, nor the money to pay a professional who would be good enough to do it.
That being said, I'm leaning toward doing some sort of tile insert once I remove the brick. Should I go for a contrasting color, focal point mosaic type look? Or should I try to make it all blend in? Again, I'm hoping to sell the home within a year or two. I'll take additional photos of the whole room and post them later.

You could pay tribute to the fireplace that was once there and simply redo the brick hearth to be flush with the floor. Or do something more interesting like glazed tile if it's compatible with your house's style (hearths in my Victorian are all colorful glazed tile, and they used both tile and brick in Craftsmans). Would save you from trying to match the old floor and stealing boards from closets.

On hearths, they either need to be flush with the floor or raised enough to sit on and not just trip over (12" - 18"). Hearths that are raised a couple inches are the worst, and without even having a fireplace to make it worthwhile makes it an extra large PITA.

And yes, agree about getting rid of the false mantelpiece. It's not fooling anyone with that electrical outlet in it. Just have the now-flush hearth and blank wall.

Great advice from Jan to place a pice of furniture in that spot. I would find a piece that fits have it built in carry the baseboard around the bottom. Built in dressers where common in many older homes. If just doing this for resale and you don’t want to spend the money to build in furniture I would suggest leaving it and let the buyer decide. We know it will sell like that as you bought it with the brick there

They no doubt had an electric fireplace there. If you live in a climate where the occasional heat from an electric fireplace is handy, you may want to consider leaving it alone and letting the next owner choose whether or not they want to keep it.

I have an really nice old mantle with leaded glass cabinets. I put slate tiles on the wall and hung the fireplace inside. It’s really handy when the kitchen is chilly in the morning.

I think you can get close to the original floor. I would rather see a patch than the brick and fireplace.

I would prefer something colorful, but that is a matter of taste. "Neutral" suggests something that blends better with the wood. Depending on your budget I would definitely take out the fake mantel, plaster and paint the wall. I would put some largish plant pots on the tile and then let the new owners figure out if they want to do anything else with it.

Is it possible the brick is just sitting on top of the wood floors? If not, I would leave it the way it is to sell. Just set a pretty pot plant on it to show the house.

I think if you talk to a flooring specialist, you might be surprised at what they can offer. But if that just doesn't work, then I'd tear out what is there, including the faux mantle and find some tiles to fill in the spot. A dark grey slate (look for brushed slate so that it doesn't have the rough edges) would probably be OK, depending on what else you've got in that room. Then a fresh coat of paint and maybe a potted fern or something could sit in that spot while you are selling.

I think anything would be an improvement over what you've got.

You could hire an artist to paint a nice rendition of a fire......or could light a real fire in it and that would solve that problem.

It’s hard to tell from the picture but it seems like it’s sitting on top of the floor. May be less complicated than you think.

If you can't remove the brick and the big problem is toe-stubbing, put plants or decor pieces on the hearth and it will be harder to walk into it or catch your toe on it because the footprint will be much more noticeable.

Removing the bricks must definitely happen. You can try to find tiles similar to the floor and in that way it could be hidden easily by a piece of furniture. Also, after removing the mantle you could have some shelves placed there. Hope it work out fine.

Here's an over view picture of the space. Because of how far the closet juts out, and how close together the windows are, the bed wouldn't fit against that "mantle wall." But I love like the oeea of placing a nice piece of furniture there, after removing the brick and replacing to with tile or something similar. in this picture, I'm standing against the corner between two other doors. One leads to the living room and the other leads to an office. Strange layout, I know!

It doesn't sound like you have the funds or mindset to remove it and repair to the extent it's unnoticeable. Given that and your plan on selling it, I would just put an electric fireplace there and let the next person decide to keep it or not. It either needs to look like its purpose or look like it was never there.

Justwantapool has a good point - just add a fireplace. Remove all the small frames and add a larger artwork piece above mantel. Maybe add a low bench under the window to the right.

I would be curious as a previous poster said if the brick is on top of the wood floor. If so, it may be damaged, but easier to put a small dresser/console there.

I would patch with a similar wood, then place a dresser there. Perfect spot for a wide, low dresser, with a piece of art hanging over it.

I would be checking to see if there is wood under there...the brick looks like it was plonked on top of the wood floor.

This seems too easy :)

You've posted this in the DIY section so I'm assuming that you want to do it yourself...so get yourself some tools and start working. Remove all of it, including the mantel.

As Jan says, get some wood from a closet. You don't need to "do" anything to the rest of the floor, you can just buy a couple of different finishes to match as closely as possible since what you're replacing is in a closet. You can even tile the inside of the closet if you can't find a decent match (but I bet you can...).

Looks like you'll also have to steal some baseboard...but that's okay.