Hood Heaven

Oh my, they've gone and changed the blogging format again, let's hope I can navigate it ok. 

 I was not a kitchen designer over 9 years ago when I designed our kitchen and didn't even know about the work triangle, the National Kitchen and Bath Association or it's guidelines but I did know I wanted a custom hood similar to the one in the incredibly talented Brian Gluckstein's own home along with the same style details as his cabinets.  I wanted to create the same shelves as these as well but I won't get into that. Actually the hood was the same as the cabinetry originally but I guess Brian needed a balance to the darker cabinetry and later painted it chalkboard black. 

(I still want those shelves)

We first  installed  a standard range hood that usually goes under a cabinet 24" off the stove surface and later on Todd built the custom canopy. 

24" clearance was ok when  it was just the range hood but when we added the canopy made out of plywood it was not to code since it was not a fire proof material.

We knew we had to eventually fix it and that stainless steel would be expensive both material and labour wise so we came up with another more cost effective answer.

A friend of Todd's who owns this contraption called a break which is used to create aluminum soffit and other things like siding  came by and they got to work  bending a inexpensive roll of aluminum sheeting to fix my design flaw.

and would you just  look at what I came home to!

The workmanship was nothing short of a truly professional job that not only makes our hood completely safe now but is a thing of beauty.

 I had told Todd that we will add molding to the bottom of the hood after and so they wrapped the 

metal up only 1" but when I came home I was so shocked at how good it looked and was sooooo

frustrated that I hadn't been there as I very well might have told them to make it larger and keep it instead of the molding

All wrapped up and covered oh so nicely.

Of course  you can buy interior fan components for custom hoods so you don't have to do what we did. 

Ah well, live and learn.

One day I hope to have a stainless gas range and will feel confident cooking underneath such a beautiful hood.

Last weekend I put two coats of paint on the living room's coffered ceiling and did almost all the caulking on the trim and it just about killed me, took me the entire week to recover but I am giddy over how it's looking. We installed a well priced ceiling fan and I am not sure about it as it doesn't seem to be strong enough. I think it does add a nice casual vibe to the space without overwhelming this smallish room.

Time is my enemy and the longer it takes for a room to come together, then I start to question my choices to be. I guess I have to realize that sometimes you have to try something and not be afraid to fail if it is not right the first time.

Hope you have a great weekend!