I don't think I've ever seen one, except for my cousin's mid cent mod, where the stone fireplace is at the center, with kitchen, dining and living room arrayed around it. Since it doesn't actually touch the brick, it seems natural enough. I'm not sure how the projection of the chimney through the roof is treated... I guess in a more tradtional home, the stacked stone look would seem natural enough from the inside, where you wouldn't be looking at the brick, but from the outside it might seem a bit off. A lot would depend on the color relationship between the brick and stone, and whether the overall design called attnetion to the stone, or helped it blend in. This would be a good job for a photoshop adept.

"That should cut it nearly flush with the other brick." And make it stick out like a sore thumb. Score slightly if you must then snap it off. If you get a bad break,you can try and clean it up or get a plugging chisel and drilling hammer (small sledge) and take out the whole stone. you might get lucky and find out the stones are only a few inches into the wall and easy to remove. You can ten use the piece to fill the hole. This post was edited by brickeyee on Thu, Mar 21, 13 at 14:45

We have island trim (vent) on our Wolf AG range, and a white glass tile with white grout backsplash above/behind it. When we use our oven (pretty much always, but especially when roasting), we slide a strip of aluminum foil behind the trim/vent (between the backsplash and the vent), and bend the foil slightly forward. This helps to vent any steam and grease (from my very much need-to-be-cleaned oven!) away from the backsplash. Definitely helps to prevent, or cut down on staining. I can then toss the foil in the trash, leaving me with a clean backsplash for the most part. And, we get to see more of our tile, and not a taller trim piece (vent).

Cool stone- I like that direction. In addition to Flo's urging to get current samples, you're also going to need to be there for install. It's subtle, but there's enough color variance that, if not laid out properly, could leave you with uneven dark spots here, too light there. The wrap will make a big difference, too. Make sure the install crew lays it all out BEFORE anything is put up, so that you can confirm the look you want. Finally, make sure you have a nice overage of the exact same tile on hand. The last thing you want is to have a beautifully planned/installed rock feature that is "short" a few tiles. Only to find out that the new boxes of the tiles- even labeled the same, even a manufactured product- don't match. Been there, done that with a small backsplash. GC/tile company took care of it all, and I ended up with a different rock tile. But your fireplace is a big feature piece, so just protect yourself.