I need to see your house and the outdoor area you are taliking about . I do not love a ton of different finishes on exteriors and that includes the outdoor kitchen or fireplace .

What is the spacing between the bricks? You do not want to mortar between the bricks . I am no expert but looks pretty good to me .

How do you plan to layout furniture in the space? I avoid wide entries into a living space, it can limit furniture placement. Generally your furniture placement is limited to inside the rectangle, and every thing outside the rectangle is circulation space.

Hello all - thank you SO very much for your thoughtful comments and suggestions! You have given me a lot to think about, and I wanted to respond to a few of the questions: - erasmus - I was planning on planting a clematis to grow with the rose, but haven't really considered planting a clematis on its own. I've always had this vision in my head of growing a white semi-double climber since visiting a garden in Scotland and seeing an absolutely splendid white climber covered with very happy bees (we have two beehives on our property, so finding things they can pollinate makes me very happy as well). Granted, that rose was growing on a large wall and had plenty of space to stretch out left and right...a different situation than what we're talking about here. Another reason I wanted to grow something on the fireplace is that I wanted to provide some visual interest for our adjacent neighbors, who are lovely people and now looking out at a tall brick wall. I haven't run it by them, but perhaps I could grow the climber on their side and have it run up the back (if they're amenable, of course). Though accessing the rose for pruning purposes would become a challenge as their yard is about six feet below the foundation of our fireplace... I am planning on putting a few pots in the area and wonder if I should do that first (I also plan to fill in the space in front of the boxwood hedge to the right of the fireplace with small shrub roses) and see if that helps soften all the hardscape. Regarding structure, I would drill in eye hooks and create a wire frame around which I would tie the canes as they grew (this is the plan, at least). - oursteelers - I could relocate the Korean holly, though I am hesitant to as it has a sister holly on the opposite side of the fireplace and I'm trying to create a courtyard look with symmetrical borders. I think I'm beginning to see that climbing rose growth is not as vertical as I imagined, and that they really need to be treated like a shrub with long canes. Is that an accurate depiction? In my response to erasmus above, I mentioned a very pretty climber sprawling on a brick wall that I don't remember being very bushy up front, but perhaps that's because I was so enamored with the blooms I wasn't really looking down lol.