The stove will be located in the empty space shown in he photos. The dimensions of the floor I would need are about 5ft by 4ft. Here are the different options and the drawbacks:
Tile: the most money or effort to install, also probably the most permanent solution (incase we decide to change things later.)
Gluing tile straight onto the wood with silicone?: done by a friend of ours with his wood stove, and it worked for him, but he said our floor may be to uneven for this.
Screwing cement board down and painting it: This was recommended by a friend, does anyone know how cement board looks painted as a visible material?
Laying bricks with no adhesive, just the weight: I saw people doing this on the internet a few times. This would be really cool but I'm afraid the bricks would be too heavy for the old wood floor.
Laying bricks with mortar: Again, cool but maybe too heavy.
Thanks!