Is there any place else in your kitchen you can put a new microwave. You could always add a shelf in line with the bottom of the cabinets and have cookbooks, spices, etc. up there if you can relocate the microwave.

Why don't you get a proper hood and a counter microwave oven? OTR microwaves are terribly expensive, don't do a very good job and style wise would also require a new range to look coordinated.

I don't agree with that. They vent as well as a regular hood exhaust if sized right & vented outside. Sometimes it is costly to have them vented outside, I agree with that. I have two OTR microwaves & neither were that expensive.

Can you post photos of the whole kitchen, please & maybe we can help.

The kitchen is small, but extremely efficient. I love to cook and cook every day and bake once a week. I have no counter space to spare. I was thinking of having a carpenter or cabinetmaker create a shelf ABOVE microwave to support and hold cookbooks and get rid of the "hood." For 28 years, I had no problems with the microwave, nor its convection function, nor the vent. It does vent to the outside through this hood.

I agree with some of the other posts. You should be able to have someone come in and mount plywood and bracket it to be structurally sound, and mount a new microwave to it. They may need to take out the sleeve that's currently above your microwave to increase the space available. Also, do check about height clearances. From the picture, it does look quite low, and not up to code in my area (and more importantly not safe). Good luck.

Depending on how the hood is designed you should be able to remove the microwave and be able to mount a ledger board to fasten it to .

This is a unique idea!