Woodburners and mantlepieces

[Indelible]

If you have a woodburner/multi-fuel stove, what sort of mantelpiece, if any, do you have?

I've just had a stove put in my sitting room, having had an inset gas fire removed to put it in. So now there's an alcove that the stove sits in, but nothing surrounding it and it looks a bit...naked. I'd like something to give the fireplace a bit more definition, but I'm unsure what would look good. It's a Victorian house but previous owners had removed the fireplaces (hence the gas fire I've just had removed).

We left ours "naked". It seemed a bit weird at first but it's fine now I'm used to it.

Ours is naked, and I want to leave it like that now - I don't even want a picture or a mirror there. However I did go to a friend's house and they have recently had an oak plank fitted above theirs, it projects slightly (not as much as a regular mantle, about 2" perhaps, and is set in so it looks like a great big beam, you see the face which is about 10" or 11" high and it gives the impression a deep beam is set into the wall. With the right piece of wood it looks good. But I'm not getting mine done!