Sorry. I didn't realize that the pictures I copied and pasted would not show up in the published post. Most have links. I'll try to add some pics later.

What you're showing is VERY expensive - these are custom wood hoods with a vent unit built in underneath. You are talking MANY thousands of dollars here.

I have a plain old stainless steel Vent-a-Hood. I think I paid about $1800+ for it a few years ago. It has a 600CFM blower and it's a great hood. Silent? No, but not like a thrashing machine, either.

I should have mentioned that if we went with a wooden hood, my husband would be building it, so it would be materials and time and the workings. He is building all our cabinets as well.

Just regarding hood noise - that is often a function of the exhaust duct size you have. If it is too small, you will have noise, through no fault of your hood, as air is pushed through too small a space. Most hoods needs an 8" diameter duct, or 10" duct for the more powerful hoods. There are hoods that spec for a 6" duct, but those will be noisier. The quietest method is to have a remote motor, say on your roof, but that is $$$. Your best bet is to check your ductwork. Also keep in mind that any motor, working at head height, is going to be noisy. People complain about bathroom exhausts being noisy, and those are typically 80-100 cfms. So a kitchen hood at about 400-600 cfms is of course going to have noise. There'll be less noise with a correct size duct.

My local code requires MUA for anything 400 CFM and greater which is a bummer.

No, but not like a thrashing machine, either LOL Anglophilia

Before you order anything you must know where the joists are in the ceiling above.

It may be that you are unable to center a hood exactly over the stove and so the metal one with the straight chimney dead center may not work.

You may need to have some kind of a cabinet above the stive so that the duct work can be installed at an angle through the ceiling without touching the joists.

While I find those big wooden hood enclosure attractive to look at I would try to find a store that has such a set up and see if you think you would feel crowded with it. I definitely would. Notice how on the Minnetonka kitchen above they cut away the bottom of the upper cabinets so that you felt like you could put stuff to the right or left of the stove. Much that I love to look at twolittlefishes kitchen the fact that that space is so enclosed would be unpleasant for me.

The vent will go to the left and out the wall next to the window. There is already a vent opening there. Our kitchen currently has a soffit, but we'll have the cabinets to the ceiling and hide the vent in the top of the cabinet to the left of the cooktop.

I do think that, after discussing it with my husband last night, we've decided on a wooden hood with an insert, probably just the box that comes out proud of the cabinets with a ledge across. I agree, practigal, that some of those pictured are imposing. We'd definitely be scaling back, and as much as I like the "alcove" look, I couldn't have cabinets down to the counters or anything. We've considered corbels, but nothing as beefy as 2littlefishies.

Perhaps something like this but with a more obvious shelf or bracket for display of a platter or something homey.

Nothing to do with the hood topic, but I really like that photo's backsplash behind the range, with the beadboard everywhere else. That backsplash will be easy to clean the inevitable splatters - vs. something with a lot of grout lines. OK, back to topic!

I love it, too, Frieda! I was lamenting to my husband how I couldn't figure out how to mimic that with wood counters. We can't afford stone right now.

You can do a stainless steel backsplash just behind the range. It's inexpensive, easy to clean, and if you want, you can get a pattern on it like quilted or squares, which will hide splatters a bit.