Sorry, I don't love it. :-/ I'm all for preserving and showing off historical details (even if they were originally meant to be hidden) but to me, its too busy with the different bricks and mortars.

If you want to go with the brick look, you could explore panel brick, but I'm not sure if that would look too forced.

That block was never intended to be exposed. It was probably plastered over originally without thought to insulation. DC is fairly warm, but you will get a few blisteringly cold days in winter, so insulation should be added, then the finished wall attached to furring strips. Otherwise, the kitchen will never be comfortable.

Is this really the brick that you house is made of? No insulation?

You're not alone in loving the look. https://www.bobvila.com/articles/brick-backsplash/

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1114103/glass-over-exposed-brick-splashbacks

https://www.shelterness.com/brick-kitchen-backsplashes/

It doesn't appear to be brick, it looks like hollow block. That surface is virtually impossible to clean and is always going to be shedding crumbs. I'm not fond of the look or the practicality. If you had your top fabricator tip up a full height matching backsplash, you wouldn't even have the expense of repairing the holes. Patching that mess for tile is going to be a half-day job at least.

I agree with the PPs - the charm doesn't come through in your photos, and I'm normally all in favor of original details since my house has none! Your new kitchen looks beautiful otherwise, with a subway tile backsplash you can still have a vintage look but one that's easy to maintain.

We're also just outside DC and found that the original parts of our house had no insulation. It's apparently not uncommon esp for all the houses that went up in this area in the 1950s. We opted to fix it since we are doing a lot of other work, but we know neighbors who had similar discoveries and just left it as is.

Perhaps there is a middle ground. Keep the brick or white subway tile are two of millions of choices. What if you “honor“ the brick by shopping for a brick or brick colored backsplash that will be cleaner, better installed, stronger.

Stick to the original plan and do subway tile and IMO no dark grout in this tiny spce keep it simple . Even if this was perfect brick it would never be my choice for backspalsh it absorbs grease and never really gets clean.. I ahve astone wll in my kitchen I love it but it needs agood scrub at least twice a year even with excellent venting and i have my cabinets on that wall moveable just like the range so I can get back there and clean the bonus it does not flake off all the time like that brick would

If you really love the brick put a sheet of plexi or lexan over it to protect and keep the bricks dry.

And the first time you clean the Plexiglas, you'll scratch it. But scratches will be good because they'll hide the dust behind the Plex that you can't get to.

Patricia! Is that your kitchen? I love that stone!!! Just sayin :)

I had a kitchen with Z-Brick and it was impossible to clean. I bet you could find tile to imitate a brick look.

Joseph, yes it will be impossible to clean behind but it may be the only solution if the owner wants the original brick exposed. Plexi shouldn't scratch if you clean it correctly, don't use paper towels to clean it. Glass would be a nicer solution but may be prohibitively expensive.

Thank you, Joseph. We love our old house. You are right, we aren't going to do a do-over because that would mean tearing down our 1937 house and the entire house is built like this with brick/plaster walls. This discussion helps me understand better why our house can "feel" cold on those rare days here that go below freezing. It is actually though a very comfortable house with radiant heat, original wood floors. We've been here almost 17 years and it is home. When we do put the backsplash in (most likely subway tiles now) what should the professional tiler do on the parts where we removed the plaster (seen in the picture) to help with the insulation? He knows our house and advised us on the old tile removal. We trust him. Thank you, Joseph.

@deestacy just fyi we redid our entire kitchen (including a lot of structural changes) 6 years ago and no one mentioned the insulation issues in our house. My guess is that DC contractors see this a lot! And when we realized the issue with our current reno, no one proposed ripping out our kitchen; instead they went outside in - ripped off the siding we'd done 10yrs ago, wrapped the house in insulated sheathing, and soon will replace the siding. Probably not an option for you if your house is all brick but just sharing in case it's helpful in the future. We could have left it alone (and I think many people do) but for us it was posing problems for new windows.