So, we bought a 30" under-cabinet vent hood (see link) that will go on a brick wall... brick covered with plaster, that is. There are no studs, nothing to hold the cabinet on with. I have little or no faith in the ability of masonry screws in old, old brick being able to hold up a cabinet, vent hood, and whatever is stored in the cabinet. A friend of mine had a kitchen shelf on a brick wall that once fell off and broke everything on it, despite being attached with lots of serious-looking masonry screws.

The height of the ceiling is such that we are probably going to try and attach the cabinet to a ceiling joist or two, in addition to using some masonry screws just to stabilize it. In other words the ceiling is right where it needs to be for a standard upper cabinet to be flush with it, such that we can attach the cabinet to the joist.

So now I'm wondering, would an Ikea upper cabinet (made of particle board) be strong enough to support a vent hood and a bunch of stuff in the cabinet, if attached this way? Is there some special way we should attach the cabinet, or should we try to strengthen the cabinet somehow?

The base cabinets are Ikea and we want to match. This is a rental/vacation home, so we don't want to put too much money into this, but by the same token, we don't want everything to fall onto the stove!

Here is a link that might be useful: Vent hood