Fantastic Vent Hoods

Written and produced by Amy Elbert with Lucy Fitzgerald

Vent hoods are vital with today's high-powered ranges and cooktops, pulling hot air and odors out of your kitchen. They also can play a major style role, serving as a room's stunning focal point or defining a cooking zone.

Basically a ventilation system uses a powerful fan to deliver hot air, moisture, odors, and carbon monoxide to the outdoors via a duct, making your kitchen a safer and more pleasant place to be. Most systems have removable filters that catch grease and particles that could build up in a duct system and lead to fires. A hood should be at least the same width as your cooking surface, according to the Home Ventilating Institute, and mounted 18 to 30 inches above the burners.

Now that you know practical fan basics, take a look at some custom and semicustom hood designs that are simply fantastic.

Traditional white beadboard covers the face of this vent hood, complementing the kitchen’s clean blue-and-white palette. The classic pattern blends into the ceiling above, wrapping the entire room in simple lines and crisp white.

Photograph: Francesco Lagnese
Producer: Pamela Abrahams

A custom vent hood by Babcock Metal Works looks industrial with bold rivets along the seams and a hard-working Wolf range below. The cabinets’ steely blue hue helps the stainless steel vent hood harmonize with the rest of the space, which is grounded by neutral stone tiles.

Photograph: Emily Followill
Producer: Lisa Mowry
Kitchen design: Design Galleria

Textural elements play in this stunning kitchen, designed by Tish Key for the San Francisco Decorator Showcase. The oversized marble mosaic Waterworks clock with metal hands serves as a dramatic, moving eye-catcher under the kitchen range’s existing large brick hood. Black marble countertops and dark wood floors contrasted with cabinets painted in Benjamin Moore’s “Super White.”

Interior designer: Tish Key
Photograph: Philip Harvey
Producer: Heather Lobdell

Polished stainless steel makes a modern impact in this beautiful white kitchen. The stainless steel of the custom vent hood extends down to the countertops, transforming the entire range into one cohesive area. A marble backsplash cascades down to the range, cleverly concealing a spice rack behind its panels.

“A custom-designed hood is a relatively small financial investment compared to the visual return it can provide,” says designer Mick De Giulio. “A unique hood creates an artful composition around the cooking area.”

Kitchen designer: Mick De Giulio
Photograph: Werner Straube 
Producer: Hilary Rose

In an Arizona home, a griffin motif picked up from an inset tile on the backsplash was enlarged and painted on the hood by decorative painter Karen Bennett. The mythical creature holds a golf club, reflecting a passion of the homeowners.

Photograph by Colleen Duffley
Produced by Barbara Mundall

A French La Cornue range with a coordinating hood and metal cabinets was chosen by Chicago kitchen designer Mick De Giulio for this Chicago condo kitchen. The nickel-silver countertops flanking the range will develop a beautiful patina over time.

Photograph by James Yochum
Produced by Gisela Rose

Symmetry is the story in this Chicago condo kitchen, which was shown in detail on the previous page. The French La Cornue range has a coordinating metal hood and cabinets, which inspired the room’s European style. The metal shelves flanking the hood were designed by Chicago kitchen designer Mick De Giulio.

Photograph by James Yochum
Produced by Gisela Rose

A simple mantel hood in the Atlanta home of designer Dan Carithers displays old creamware pitchers. Brown transferware plates hanging on the backsplash and in a small storage niche add cottage charm.

Photograph by James Yochum
Produced by Gisela Rose

The focal point of this Maryland kitchen is the stucco-and-copper range hood and tiled backsplash. Although the house is new, it feels like an old manor house thanks to salvaged beams, stucco finishes, and the copper vent hood, which was treated with acid for an aged look.

Photograph by Gordon Beall
Produced by Eileen Deymier

The copper on the range hood (overview of the room shown on previous slide) was treated with an acid to give it the look of an aged standing-seam roof. Designer and homeowner Mary Jo Donohoe trimmed the hood with decorative metal hardware that also has an aged finish. A ram's head mounted front-and-center is the final flourish.

Photograph by Gordon Beall
Produced by Eileen Deymier

A custom-designed black-metal hood with nickel bands hangs above a pressed-tin backsplash made with tin ceiling panels, giving this new kitchen period charm.

Photograph by Tria Giovan
Produced by Bonnie Maharam

A six-foot-long European-inspired range hood made with KraftMaid cabinetry defines the cooking wall in a Traditional Home showcase kitchen designed by Robert Young and Indianapolis certified kitchen designer Janice Pattee for the National Kitchen and Bath Show. The glass mosaic-tile backsplash is from Walker-Zanger.

Photograph by Michal Venera
Produced by Robert Young

Colorful MacKenzie-Childs tiles are inset into classic subway tile above the range, setting a green and soft-white color scheme for this Indianapolis kitchen by Atlanta-based designer Suzanne Kasler and Indianapolis kitchen designer Kristen Okeley. The hood is a custom design built to match the cabinetry.

Photograph by Tria Giovan
Produced by Betsy Harris

A neutral color scheme in this cozy California kitchen is accented by decorative tiles on the range backsplash and an etched pewter panel inset on the front of the vent hood. The wood frame on the hood matches the ivory cabinets, which are softened with a subtle glaze.

Photograph by Michal Venera
Produced by Sarah Alba

A chimney hood made with KraftMaid Cabinetry is showcased against a wall of two-tone ceramic tile from Country Floors. The kitchen was designed by Atlanta designer Barbara Westbrook for a Traditional Home Built for Women III Showhouse in Woodstock, Georgia.

Photograph by Bruce Buck
Produced by Robert Young

A simple and functional steel box hood is appropriate for the home of Los Angeles chefs and culinary personalities Suzanne Goin and David Lentz. A stone backsplash in warm gray tones and pale sage cabinets visually counteract the visual coolness of the stainless steel, says architect William Hefner.

Photograph by Michal Venera
Produced by Robert Young

The vent for the stove is nearly hidden above shelves behind the range. The marble-lined niche backsplash offers a place to display collectibles and keep bottles of oil and seasonings handy when cooking.

Photograph by Michael Luppino
Produced by Stacy Kunstel

A graceful arch and mantel-style cabinetry above the range create a dramatic focal point in this Connecticut kitchen designed by Louise Brooks. The architectural designer incorporated clever storage features in the hood surround, including counter-level niches on each side of the range and small cupboards above the mantel.

Photograph by Tria Giovan
Produced by Bonnie Maharam

Practical stainless steel is scalloped for a dressy waterfall effect on the vent hood in this traditional Texas kitchen. The hood was custom designed by the Met Company, a Houston, Texas, metal fabricator (metcompany.net).

Photograph by John Granen
Produced by Susan Fox

Caribbean-inspired, wide louvered panels that repeat those on the adjoining cabinets conceal the hood in this Southern California kitchen. The house is located close to the beach and the homeowners wanted it to have a casual beach style.

Photograph by Edmund Barr
Produced by Andrea Caughey

When a classical colonial home was renovated, the kitchen work area was relocated to the center of the house, adjacent to a family room. Because the kitchen is now a primary living area, the homeowners downplayed the vent hood with a furniture-like mantel treatment above the range and a casually elegant mosaic tile backsplash in subtle caramel tones.

Photograph by John Bessler
Produced by Jenny Bradley

White plaster panels on the range hood are trimmed with a wood mantel, echoing the stately 1920s Tudor-style home’s timber-and-plaster construction. The range’s tiled backsplash features sliding panels for storing spices and oils, a clever storage feature designed by Chicago kitchen designer Mick De Giulio.

Photograph by Gordon Beall
Produced by Mary Anne Thomson

A range with a mantel-style hood supported by carved brackets is this Indianapolis kitchen’s focal point. The mosaic tile backsplash features a niche for storing oils and seasonings.

Photograph by Tria Giovan
Produced by Betsy Harris

In keeping with the stucco exterior of the 18th-century French country home, the vent hood is encased in a tapered, plaster chimney, which draws the eye upward to the rugged beamed ceiling. Crisp white crown molding outlines the hood base and ties in with shelves on each side of the hood. Glazed tiles on the backsplash wall speak to the kitchen’s farmhouse simplicity.

Photograph by Andreas Von Einsiedel

A rustic adobe-style plaster hood with a scalloped edge honors the architecture of this classic New Mexican house. The whimsical trim design repeats the scallop at the base of the sink cabinets.

Photograph by James Carriere
Produced by Sarah Alba

A decorative horse’s head from an old butcher’s shop sign commands attention in this renovated Oklahoma kitchen. An old iron fireback was put to new use as the range backsplash.

Photograph by Jenifer Jordan

Hand-plastered walls and a salvaged beam lintel define the cooking niche, giving this new home a cozy, period look. The black La Cornue range references wrought iron used elsewhere in the Arizona home. The stucco and tile backsplash, the arch over the range, and the brick barrel-vaulted ceiling also echo elements throughout the home.

Photograph by Colleen Duffley
Produced by Barbara Mundall