try to define/explain "early style".... as in primitive-folklike or rustic? or Georgian/Greek Revival/or Early American? I don't think herringbone is early,as in rustic, at all,for example. Some searches on Houzz under cooking hearth, cooking surround, cooking mantle surround, would likely yield hundreds or more inspiration photos....this type of designed element can be spendy but also worth it-I'd do more inspiration searching.

It's VERY VERY hard to clean grease out of the textured surface of even a sealed brick. Or spaghetti sauce. Or anything else that makes a mess. This is a look for someone who does not cook. Or else who lines the alcove in stainless. Or allows it to develop a "patina" of stains so as to darken and age naturally like an old chimney flue.

And even for half brick, you're talking a lot of weight, which will need a brick ledge or steel lintel for support. That has to be calculated into your foundation needs.

And it will have to be a LARGE alcove to give you enough room around the stove in order to have a safety spot for landing hot pots. You want at the very minimum 15" to both sides of the range, and 24" is better. If you choose a 48" range, that means the alcove should be around 96" in order to give you the safety and room around it that you need. That's a pretty big kitchen that can deal with something like that visually. It's totally dominating. Most smaller suburban kitchens do not have the room to do this, either in wall length or the ceiling height. Trying to do it in a small space just leaves it overpowering the space.

My house is an early American style. I guess I just like the look of a herringbone pattern--saw it pictured in a similar situation. My stove is just 36 inches wide and is a slide in type. There would be a slate backsplash 4 to 5 inches high directly above the countertop outside of the mantle surround. The verticle legs of the mantle would come down and touch the slate and the legs would only stick out a couple of inches once they touch the slate. The HALF BRICK would only be within the mantle surround. I realize that the width of the mantle above the stove will have to be wider than the stove. With better explanation, would this solve the weight problem?

I have quartzite tiles behind my stove. I sealed them with Super Seal by Miracle (not enhancer and sealer, but just sealer) that I got from Home Depot. They have rough faces with a lot of texture, so maybe wiping them is a bit more of a challenge than something like ceramice tile, but I find the sealer protects them well and things do come off easily.

One thing that I think helps keep splatters off our backsplash is that we have deeper counters on the stove run, so we pulled the rangetop out flush with the deeper counter and put a 2 1/2 to 3-inch stainless-wrapped spacer behind. A lot of the splatters land there instead of on the backsplash.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos and description of backspl & spacer