Pictures of New Hearth

Wall shields up!
I used hat channel from a drywall shop. It's 7/8" high - close enough - I really did not need the shield for clearances, I just like to be overly careful and thought it would look cool.
So 7/8" hat channel attached to the drywall with metal wall anchors, then 1/2 Durock screwed to hat channel, then used high temp silly-cone to glue on tin tiles.
I used drywall "J" channel to border the edges - it's just a metal edge that snaps onto 1/2" drywall. It fit really tight over the Durock and the tin, so I didn't even have to glue it. Used hi-temp rust-o-leum spray paint to get it flat black.

That's a fantastic build. I wonder how this would look with a little mantel shelf above, and maybe something like ~6" wide fluted trim on the sides to help define that transition from tin to sheetrock... Keep up the good work!

Thanks. I was thinking about a shelf / mantle up there.
As you can see, I still need to trim the room out. We have a collection of old bottles that we found on our property that I think will look neat sitting up there.

That's going to be an interesting chimney arrangement to hit the thimble up there.

45 out of the collar - 48" adjustable pipe, then 45 and another 45.
It is what it is.
I'll update pix when installed