This custom range hood was a beautiful finishing touch to these cement tiles. The range hood in combination with the backsplash often acts as a focal point to the entire kitchen.
Taking great care in its design can make or break a kitchen design. Here I chose to build a box to add to the traditional aesthetic but a modern touch with the addition of a walnut shelf to compliment the rich walnut flooring.
What Size Should a Range Hood Be?
To Determine the Proper Width for Your Custom Range Hood
Width: It is recommended to have your range hood protrude 3” beyond each side of your range. This allows the ability to capture the particulates coming up from your pans that naturally spread out a bit before reaching the hood. The width should not be narrower than your actual range measurement width.
To Determine the Proper Distance from the Cooktop
Height: Typically, the common installation height or distance from the cooktop to the base of your custom range hood is 24”-36” from a gas cooktop and “ – 24” for an electric cooktop.
Considerations: Take into consideration your tile size and whether you want to have your tile cut. If you install your range hood before designing your tile placement, you may end up having to cut a row at either the top or bottom to fit. Don’t forget to consider the space the grout will take up as well as the height of your tile.
My range was a 48” wide range and the burners measured 44”. The recommended size of range hood was this 52 1/2” which was a bit shy of the recommended 6” wider. To accommodate the 4 ½” tile and bullnose, the distance from the cooktop ended up being 30” which is appropriate for a gas cooktop.
To Determine the Proper Depth of a Custom Range Hood
Depth: For a standard 30” range, the hood should be 6” to 9” less in depth. If you have ever hit your head on a range hood, you will understand the reason for this.
We chose a Vent-A-Hood Liner Insert so we could cover it with a wooden frame to give it a more traditional look.
Lighting
Before we closed up the box frame it was important to add the wiring to the planned lighting strip for the front of the hood. Since we added a 12V LED dimmable strip along the front shelf, a 12V Magnitude Dimmable Power Supply had to be installed along with a switch.
Design Considerations
When designing a custom range hood, it is all about style and proportion. Now it was important to make it beautiful and in keeping with the rest of the kitchen. We were working with simple Shaker door panel styles on the white cabinets so we wanted to stay with that look. There is walnut floors and a planned walnut island. The cover extended all the way to the ceiling.
The Design Materials
To break up that height, I chose to create a 2 step look. We also choose to extend the box another 4 ½” on each side beyond the vent liner We choose 3 repeating rectangles on the bottom shelf front and 1 large rectangles on the top face. Each topped off with a beautifully finished walnut wood board. This gave a modern clean look combined with the European pattern tile in the backsplash. This is truly the focal point to the kitchen.
Now, A trip to the lumber yard to decide what wood widths were available to accomplish the modern European look we were going for. We chose natural walnut and apainted white wood cabinet.
Attention to Details
This is an example of a detail involved in a beautifully executed design. Here the edge tile lined up with the edge of the range hood cover. A skilled tradesman in combination with a beautiful design can accomplish this level of detail. Notice that Steve didn’t just cut off the tile trim when it hit the wood trim detail of the hood but notched out the tile to fit snugly around the hood trim.
