I’m saying yes to the sledgehammer!

Yes those two materials do not play well together. To prevent any damage to the existing mantel get a professional to give you an estimate

yes, remove it. Do you know if it sits on existing floor tiles? do you have any extra tiles? If not, a stone mason may have to make a hearth for you to cover that spot. (see last picture)

Any reputable tiler can fill in the missing pieces. Hard to tell what you need until that behemoth gets removed.

those are slate ledger panels and are available everywhere. (I have them on my house). Matching them shouldn't be a problem.

BTW, if you want to bring out the richness of the color in the stone, use an enhancing sealer.

I would patch in the ledger panels if needed and get a nice, thick reclaimed piece of wood for the mantel. Something similar (not exact) to this, with a wrap around only on your left

The TV is too high on both of these, but it's enough to give you an idea.

I don't like the short mantel. if you do one, take it all the way across the face.

This looks like a piece of walnut and wraps on both sides.

since your box sits up off the floor, you may want to have the stone guy build you a hearth

my guess is that someone who didn't love that beautiful ledgerstone added the whole fauxstone surround and mantel.

I'm looking at the depth of the firebox, and the odd way it sits on the floor . I truly don't think the white stone box is original. Call in a masonry contractor. hopefully. they didn't mess up the ledgerstone behind it....

So, the truth is, I added the ledger stone around the mantle. I couldn’t figure out how to remove the mantle so I just added stone around it. Now I don’t really like the way it looks.

Notice how wonderful the pics WITHOUT A TV look? Nix the TV.

What does the rest of the room look like ? Painting the stones black ? Yes, I know the stone wall is nice ...but it does not look good as is .
So, do you need a cheap solution or do you want to buy a sledge hammer and start over...? Because this concoction does not work .

If you're looking for a modern mantel to replace that white one and match the stone, check out our line of non-combustible mantels. They're easy to install and would accentuate that stone work.