My range hood will also go between two windows. I agree that a hood with cabs above could look silly there. Have you looked at the freestanding hoods out there? Some are less industrial and more pretty. I don't like the modern ones with the curved glass bottoms either. They just don't work with my style. Have you seen some of the interesting Vent-a-Hoods? Barrel shapes?

Another thought. Could you find a local craftsperson to make a hood for you? Sheet metal worker, copper, etc.

Breezy-maybe I'm just not sure what keywords to use to find what im looking for. All of my searching has only brought me back to Typical under cabinet styles, which I don't mind, except that you have to have a cabinet over it, or the infamous big stainless wall kind. I love the barrel look but they are so expensive. What is vent-a-hood? I'm going to post pics this evening when i get home so you can see the area.

Lirio-
I don't mind that it's not commercial grade or style. I just want it to be my style! I even considered the microwave over the oven, but agin, the cabinet is a requirement. In other words, cfm rating isn't all that important to me. The kitchen didn't have a vent at all before so anything would help immensely.

I'll post some pics tonight of what i like...thanks so much for the info!

Try vendingdirect dot com. Most major hood lines are shown and they have a good sort feature to find the right width, cfms, etc. It's a great place to start. VAH is a brand.

If you want to post pics, read the "New to Kitchens? Posting pics" thread that floats around on the first page. You'll need an account on a photo sharing site like photobucket.

How do you feel about a regular chimney style hood? These are not that expensive. Look at overstock.com for some great deals.

Here's mine...

What about:

I would think that would cost less than a full mantle style.

We bought a Vent-A-Hood KH40SLDSS decorative hood liner for $550 for our 42" cooktop. I don't cook so I don't have a clue what the CFMs are or whatever as that wasn't a concern for me, I just needed to stick something in there. But it was a heck of a lot cheaper than the one originally suggested to us that was commercial grade and overkill and $1350. If your range isn't big, you probably could get a vent a hood liner for less.

One other thought. Someone here recently bought a stainless hood that could be used as is and then later have a custom wood mantle built to fit around it. That would get you the look you want and be budget friendly now. Once the sting of the reno cash drain is over, you could save for the wood mantle.

Sorry, I don't remember who that was. I've read good things about ventingdirect dot com's customer service so you could call and ask them to recommend one for that purpose.

More pics for you:

For a budget reno, I wanted a freestanding cottagey hood for a spot between a window and and some open shelves. For style, this was my inspiration pic.

I bought a Faber fan from ebay and a liner from AJMadison, and my contractor built a scaled-down version for my kitchen. I am pretty happy with how it came out.

I think it was about $450 altogether. My contractor said I could have saved nearly a hundred if I had allowed him to craft the liner out of sheet metal.

We bought the 'guts' on sale (search for "vent insert" or "hood insert" to find the blower part, and "hood liner" to find the part that covers the bottom of the vent) for about $350, made a plywood hood for about $80, and I tiled it myself for about another $150:

Thanks for all the pictures everyone! Honor, yours is the look Im going for. Im now overwhelmed with all the sources! Ill let you guys know what I do in the end, but I think Im going to try to find the guts on sale, and have my cabinet guy look at what I want. I never showed him a picture, but he quoted 500 just for the mantle (maybe honor's style isnt mantle, but thats what I keep calling it). I knew the insert and liner would cost 3-400, and spending 1k on a hood was NOT in the budget! If he is still too high, I might see what the husbands carpentry skills are like:)

I found this on Amazon...might not be the best or most powerful, but it certainly hits the price mark, if I can get the husband to build a surround. What do you guys think?

Here is a link that might be useful: Broan Insert, Liner and recycling kit

catvault,

I just installed that model, and I'm very happy with it. My previous hood was undercabinet/recirculating, so having a vented hood is great! Since the Broan is a cabinet insert, you won't need a liner. It's not direct wired--needs a GFI outlet--something to keep in mind. Hope it works out for you.

Mounted on aluminum covered, plywood deck:

Should have said--if your husband has minimum carpentry skills, you won't need to buy a liner. Is your range going to be recirculating or vented? If vented, you won't need the non-ducted recirculating kit either.

What about something constructed out of plaster or something your contractor can do? This can be less expensive and painted however you want:

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

This one looks more like wood but the look could be done either way:
{{!gwi}}

The Broan you linked to has very, very low cfms. What kind of range do you have? Gas, electric, induction? What size? How many burners? You may need to spend a little more to buy one with more power so it can actually capture and exhaust cooking smells, grease and steam. Proper venting is not a sexy purchase, but a necessary one where you'll probably pay more than you wanted to.

catvault, when breezy said the unit has low cfms, I thought "yeah, but it's probably got a boost mode like our undercab Broan does." But I looked it up and it doesn't. Our Broan is 300 I think but it kicks to 430 in boost-- the Allure III undercab model Broan-NuTone QS330SS . We have electric range and this is just fine for us.

We bought ours because it had very quiet operation in normal settings. We cannot hear one another or television with Boost on, but we're rather deaf. I can listen to radio with the normal setting. DH has to turn it to the superlow setting when he tries to listen to tv or radio.

Another good thing is that the unit will turn itself to Boost if there's a need. This seems to be a good thing but so far have never seen it do this. Not sure if the insert models can do this. We very much like the "turn off in 10 mins" automatic setting also. Oh and it came in white. And it was affordable on our budget.

You might look into the Elite models. I think that they may be freestanding.

fyi: our unit is notoriously hard to install properly. I suspect that some of the poor reviews are connected to installation issues. DH struggled and struggled with this thing. But he loves it now, don'tcha Mr Deaf?

Well this shows just how uneducated I am on this...I thought the liner was what surrounded the underside of the unit. We plan to have it vent out the side of our house (we live in a wood siding house). We havent bought the new stove yet, but the new one will be electric, 30", nothing fancy. Right now we have all Stainless appliances except the oven, so Ill be getting a stainless to match. Babs, I love love love the third hood on your post, and Ill be showing the husband this one as an example! And I agree florantha, I think that getting the grease and smell out of the house before it takes hold is really important, so Ill look into the one that you talked about. I really like the idea of an automatic turn off setting.

I swear Im going to get some pictures on here...when I can figure it out and get a minute. This kitchen nightmare is making me a little loony....Im making all these decisions as my husband is doing the work. Not the brightest decision in the world, thats for sure!

Ok, I've convinced the husband to make the hood for me. In showed him pictures, and he thinks he can do it. Other than the insert and liner, is there some other material that needs to go inside the hood made of wood? Seems a little dangerous to just send Hot grease and air up there without maybe painting it with fire retardant paint??

The grease-laden/hot air path is inside a metal duct, so no need to paint it as long as it's sealed. Depending on the design of the liner you may have no other cumbustible materials under the hood.

But in planning your DIY fan and hood design make sure you consider how you'll take it apart for cleaning from time to time. Since yours is a short path, direct vent that shouldn't be hard.

I am expecting to create a DIY design as well, but I haven't gotten to that stage of the project. I'm planning on buying the fan and liner but creating my own surrounding hood. Like yours, mine will be directly vented, so no long duct work. On thing that I'm thinking will need some careful review is that I understand that fan effectiveness is somewhat controlled by the size and design of the capture area - that is both area of hood (width and how far it cmes out from the wall, the height from cooking surface and depth of the hood, meaning how deep it is from the bottom surface of the hood to the fan intake. In general more depth seems to make the fan more effective because more air is sort of trapped near the fan instead of meeting the plane of a shallow hood and then spreading by convection outward.

Before I finalize my plans, I'm going to spend some more time researching the subject in order to make sure my understanding is correct. Since you may be closer to needing the info I thought I'd pass it on now, as a heads up.

HTH,
L

Catvault, the blower vents directly into the metal ducting, so nothing ever touches the wood hood cover itself. Here's what mine looked like before we built the plywood cover. What you see is the sturdy wooden support frame that holds the whole schmear up, the liner (not very visible, underneath -- in our case I tiled a liner rather than using stainless) and the blower after being connected to the ducting. If we didn't care about looks, it would have functioned just fine left like this: ;-)

And this is completely cheesy, but I drew this in a hurry for someone else on the forum who couldn't visualize the installation, perhaps it will help?

One thing I learned after drawing this was that these units don't actually drop down into the hole in the liner, as you'd expect, but instead are pushed up into the hole with clips that expand once it's popped up in, then screwed in for safety. This means that you can remove the unit from below if you should ever need to, without destroying the decorative exterior of your hood.

(PS: does 'catvault' mean that you have a number of felines locked up somewhere while you're doing this remodel..?)

Circuspeanut-that diagram is AWESOME! I dont know why that info it so difficult to come by, but this makes so much sense. I went to Lowes today and they had a display that explained it all too. They had the hood vent and liner in place and the wood cover had a cut out so I could see what was going on in there. Its just a big fancy cover up! Ahhh! Its all explained now. And my name (catvault) has nothing to do with cats, but rather the first three letters of my name and the sport that I did in college (polevault). But if kids were the cats in your analogy, you would be right. I have three under three years old and a DIY kitchen reno with them is kind of super crazy!

Lirrio-you are doing your homework for sure! I cant wait to see how yours turns out...Ill be able to post pics in a couple of weeks. Progress pics sooner, hopefully.

Im just so glad that there is a group out there that gets me like this one...I love it! Thanks to you all!

Welcome to GW, big sis. Maybe you'll listen to my advice if it's reiterated by the masses here?

Well since the decision is already made, probably not...you got here too late! But Ill listen anyway....Whats your HO?