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Kitchen Ventilation: To See or Not to See?

Concealing vent hoods with custom cabinetry can help you achieve the look you want in your kitchen.

Kitchen Ventilation: To See or Not to See?Every kitchen needs ventilation, including a dedicated plenum, vent, or hood over the range or cooktop. This vent provides several very important functions:

  • Removing cooking odors from the room
  • Preventing grease and smoke residue from accumulating on counters, cabinets, and walls
  • Reducing humidity to help deter mold growth

Depending on the type of vent you choose, your kitchen ventilation can also have a big impact on the visual appeal of your kitchen.

The first choice you will need to make is whether or not you want to see the actual metal vent in your kitchen. For contemporary or modern kitchens, a sleek metal range hood can actually work quite well. A variety of colors and styles are available

If you have your cooktop in a kitchen island, you will actually be forced to go with a metal range hood since there is no way to conceal the vent in a cabinet or wall. Considering that the vent will be front and center in your kitchen you will obviously need to choose your vent carefully, to ensure that it is attractive enough to serve as a focal point in the kitchen. If you really want to go high end, you might consider a range hood that normally rests against the ceiling but can be lowered into place when you need to use it.

Of course, there are plenty of good reasons why you may not want to see your metal range hood. Perhaps you don’t think the look complements the style of your kitchen, or maybe you don’t want to give up precious cabinet space to a bulky vent hood and chimney.

Fortunately, you can easily conceal your vent with the right custom kitchen cabinetry.

If you have a small range and do not plan to do all that much cooking, you might even be able to get away with installing a smaller vent that can mount on the bottom of the cabinet above the range. You will lose some of the interior cabinet space to the vent, but you will retain the sleek look of an uninterrupted row of cabinets.

Another option would be to have a special “cabinet” created to house a larger vent hood and chimney. In this case, the cabinet would not conceal the presence of the vent, but it would conceal the metal, replacing it with a wood surface that matches the rest of your kitchen cabinetry. This option is actually ideal for large kitchens, because the unique shape of the vent cabinet helps to add interest to the wall of cabinets.

If you are interested in custom kitchen cabinetry for your home, please contact us today to see samples from some of the brands we carry.