Don't need hood to vent cooking fumes. Need wall to go up to 11 feet with decorative mantle or maybe build out to frame the cabinets on either side of the stove. Right now have big empty concrete wall from top of stove at thirty six inch height up to 11 feet where roof line is then up to 16 feet at peak as it is a hip roof.

I watched an HGTV episode recently where they placed several layers of compound right over the brick; sanding and smoothing in between coats until they achieved the desired surface. They then built a surround with mulitple layers of MDF and built up a molding. Inside the surround they laid out a light colored stone... something like a flagstone. On either side they built white open shelving to house home theater equipment. Sounds a little like what you want. Now... I'm a HUGE fan of glass tile but once you do it... you're kind of married to it due to expense. The beauty of this "spackle" treatment... is you can change out the color, making it an accent wall or blend it in with the existing cabinetry giving it a real built in look. The episode was pretty cool because the chiseled out the stone to create a thick deep enough groove into which they laid tubing through which they ran the all the wires for the home theater equipment. So many ideas out there.....

I did also post at the Home Decorating forum but as it turns out it was only at the Gallery area where someone had linked to a bunch of mantle pictures. I'm not too sure if anyone will actually see the question. I'll wait and see what happens here at the Remodeling forum and if I don't get any ideas, I'll make a post at the top level Home Decorating instead of the Gallery. Jodi-

I don't think your mantel is wide enough to add decor along with the TV. See how much extra width the one below has? You could do just the long and low item underneath: But a quick Houzz and Google search show many designer homes where the TV is alone up there. I think your screen is fun. Another idea to add something to the overall look would be to cover existing mantel with a new one, easiest to do if you like the reclaimed barn wood look: How to make a slip covered mantel.