We have it behind our range, up to the hood, with Sicis glass tile everywhere else. I am SO relieved that I made this choice even before we started cooking so much...it was a great decision, and doesn't stand out, since we've got a stainless range and hood -- it's just one continuous line of stainless. It's easy to clean the stainless whereas I think I never would have been able to get *everything* off grout. Wish I had a pic I could upload, but it's pretty similar to gizmonike's, except we don't have those things on the sides (what are those?).

A simple approach would be to use the same finish tile but in a different direction, size, or even shape, just to break create a subtle change and not be too overpowering. It would transition fine since the thickness would be the same. If you prefer the idea of changing the material, stainless or countertop material would be our next suggestion. Here are a few examples of stainless steel risers and backsplashes we’ve done. I hope this is helpful! An example of a 20” stainless riser: An example of a 36” stainless riser: An example of a 24” (maybe higher) stainless riser:

This site is awesome. Timely conversation, as our designer recommended we move our range from a peninsula (that will become an island) to an outside wall, for better function. It is a GE Cafe dual fuel 30 inch range with the island trim, put in just over 3 years ago. After finding this thread, found an online install information, with the only recommendation to be 2 1/2 inches from the wall in the back and 3 inches clearance on the sides, and they had no recommendations for the wall behind the stove otherwise. I called GE and the service department there confirmed that this island trim oven was ok to use on a wall counter, and that to just follow code for the wall behind it. No recommendations other than the 2 1/2 inches from the back. I discussed this with our designer, who had just recommended only 24 inch counters, and the quartz backsplash, who was pretty noncommital about needing any changes. When I did say I cook sourdough bread at least twice a week, with 500 degree ovens for warmup, she said to get tile or real stone, but didn't need to change the counter depth as the tile was the fireproofing. It will be fairly easy for us to deepen the counter about 3 inches, I will just need to have a 30 inch sink rather than a 33 inch sink on the counter that will now be 3 inches less wide. But that will be just me and our countertop/cabinet group, not sure if it is worth it to convince our designer of what is common sense to me. Now we get to work on backsplashes. This range has the simmer and smaller burners in the back, with the larger speed boil burners in the front, so not sure what the fireproof wall in the back needs to be.

This thread has been very informative for me as we are just starting a kitchen reno, so thank you to all contributors. We plan to do a quartz backsplash, including behind a 30" wide residential gas cooktop (not a range or stove). Please bear with me as I continue to explain! I looked at the specs of the cooktop I was planning to order. Based on those specs and assumption the new quartz countertop depth is 25.5" (I know assumptions are risky, but since 25.5" is what we have now and considered standard, I'm going with that for this example), my calculations are: 25.5" (countertop depth) - 21.25" (cooktop depth) - 3" (min distance from rear wall) - 1.875" (min distance from counter front) = -0.625" Which means I'm 5/8" short, and this isn't taking into account the thickness of the quartz backsplash, which I believe should not be included in the 3" from rear wall guideline from the cooktop manufacturer. Sorry if I'm hurting anyone's brain with math today! Just looking for some validation my logic is correct in how I should be calculating. And also curious if my belief the distance from the rear of the cooktop to the front of the quartz backsplash (not wall) should be 3." I plan to look for a different cooktop, hopefully one that is closer to 20" deep and add the backguard just to be safe (thanks to @Elizabeth Alvarez Sell for sharing her backguard photo)!