Ok, here's the final product, at least on that side of the kitchen. The material is vinyl plank flooring I got for free from work.

My concerns would not be just the heat, but also the steam from hot water around the sink and boiling water at the stove. Would it cause the glue backing to release over time?

My thought process about durability was this: This stuff is made to be very very durable. It interlocks with itself improving durability. I think it's the nature of flooring to hold up well. Now as far as heat from the range, I hadn't really considered that til you mentioned it. I don't think it's a substantial amount of heat (temperature) on the backsplash, nothing it can't handle anyways. You have motivated me to fire up my torch when I get home. I'll take one of my scrap pieces and give it a bit of a torture test.

Looks like a great idea! Will that hold up OK near the range?

Looks good Loren. Never saw one quite like it with vinyl plank flooring. Nice workmanship.

@Loren Thomas Good look. Much better with the outlet covers. Bonus point for price :) +1

You are right, the metal trim would work well with the stainless steel. Some of our rental property backsplashes have the metal trim. I just don't see it used on the street of dreams. :-) Like I said, I am no design expert. Heck, we still have oak cabinets and formica countertops with oak trim in our home kitchen! The original ivory color Magic Chef appliances from when the house was built in 1986 too! I'm impressed with your craftsmanship, is your backspash stone or some other material that looks like stone?

Post the finished project, I would like to see the finished product. The material is good and the workmanship is excellent. I'm down here in south florida and use a lot of porcelain tile. Natural stone is very popular here. Thank you for the posting.

@Marcia Maynard This is my personal residence. We are basically house hacking after living here for 7 years. We're in Lake Stevens, so I'm not overly concerned with looking too high end. However, I really thought the metal trim would tie in the stainless steel of our sink, faucet, and future appliances. This is the input I'm looking for, thanks to you both. I'll post another picture tomorrow of my progress.

I'm going to finish more tomorrow. Once more is done I think it'll turn out pretty good. I fought with myself about where to put the edge, I don't think the backsplash should be off the cabinets, to me the backsplash is for the countertops and should flow with them well.