Actually....it's recommended your hood be at least 6" wider than your range/cooktop...so a 36" hood over a 30" cooktop is perfect...especially if you do any high-heat/frying/stir-frying/meat browning/high-smoke cooking.

Since you also want open shelving, I also recommend getting a high-cfm hood as well as a 24" deep hood. Oh, and mount it according to the specifications. The combination of high-cfms (at least 1,000 cfms), 6" wider, 24" deep, and mounted properly should eliminate the vast majority (if not all) of the grease/steam/smoke/etc. in the air and help keep items on those shelves grease-free. It won't prevent the dust build-up that's natural for any open shelves, but that dust won't be mixing with grease in the air causing a "gunk" that's difficult to clean off. (If items on the shelves are used frequently, then there shouldn't be too much of a dust build-up.)

An added bonus for the high-cfm hood is that you will be able to run it on a lower setting most of the time and it will be quieter than getting a lower-cfm and having to run it on high all the time.

Looking at your picture, I see a couple of problems that explains the grease build-up...

(1) The hood is mounted too high...most hoods should be mounted around 30" off the cooking surface

(2) The hood is too narrow and, I think, too shallow (it's hard to tell from the pictures).

Good luck!

thanks for all the helpful feedback! Will definitely be looking at the 36" hood instead, then.

Hi Cirone,

there was another thread recently addressing a similar question, and several people replied with pictures as well as the key info that buehl stated above. Thought you might want to look at the pictures...

welcome to the Kitchen Forums, by the way!

Here is a link that might be useful: vent hood thread