Are you talking about cabinet wood enclosures for a hood exhaust? They tend to look best in larger kitchens when the hood is at minimum 36" wide, but even better, 42" wide or more. Often they are considered a traditional style. However, there are also cabinet wood enclosures that are modern to match modern cabinetry. They will only be as dated as the kitchen cabinets are dated. So, if a kitchen's cabinets are from the '80s or '90s for example, and dated, so will be the hood enclosure. Typically a hood enclosure is viewed as dated when it has elaborate corbels and/or fancy embellished mantle and appliques.

When people opt not to get a cabinet hood enclosure, and get a metal hood instead, usually the reasons are cost (cabinet hood enclosures are pricey), degree of difficulty (a cabinet hood enclosure has several parts to it, and you need to ensure the enclosure is made well, with the correct depth, and looks proportional), size of kitchen (they don't fit as well in a smaller kitchen), and ease of cleaning (a metallic hood is easier to wipe down).

Already out of style due to their enormous costs not jiving with the $1.98 budget Chinese cabinets that people seem to think are still to expensive for permanent furniture for the house. Their 5-7K cost seems to be what HGTV viewers seem to think an entire kitchen remodel costs. 🙄

I have never liked the exposed stainless vent look, even when it was super popular. I like it covered. I don't think any of the looks will become "dated" but different styles may pop up.

@live_wire_oak that was kinda dramatic lol. Where did that come from? Our custom vent cover will cost under $100.

You can do a built in vent hood in a variety of ways. We're having a chase built for ours for a very minimalistic, modern look.

The insert, blower, and all of the rest of the guys isn’t even under $100. The exterior, from a cabinet company, is in the several thousands. Add in the installation costs for the higher difficulty level, and you’re at 5-7K. Which is still cheaper than most of the cilustom stainless banded type hoods available. But not as inexpensive e as a plain stainless chimney hood.

Opinions on if I should pull the trigger on one? All appliances are stainless steel, but just recently changed hardware to black and our faucet to black.

Keep what you have. That’s not worth spending thousands to change.

@User we're talking about covers here. You are assuming a lot in your posts, doesn't make much sense.

Mike, your vent is already very close to your cabinets, touching even. So i'm not sure if you can cover the one you have without it looking squished in there, but if you change to an insert maybe it could work? Or leave a strip of the stainless exposed on the bottom where the buttons are like this one.

Just some of the guts needed to be able to do a wood hood. This isn’t even quiet, and doesn’t provide that much CFM. Then the matching cabinet pieces from the company have to be ordered to go over it. Which will never work at all well on an installation like the above.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-30-in-Ducted-Stainless-Steel-Undercabinet-Range-Hood-Insert-Common-30-Inch-Actual-28-375-in/1000510555

Still assuming up there huh... I give up.

No assumptions. Actual knowledge base of how it’s done. For many many years.

You're not a DIYer then..

No, I’m an actual professional. As well as a DIYer. But nothing I do is kludge engineering. It’s done correctly, or not at all.

I purchased an unfinished hood. It came with the liner and I ordered one of the recommended vent inserts that was recommended by the hood manufacturer. I paid a neighbor / handyman to install for a total (hood, liner, vent insert, install) of $1000. I finished the hood myself - stain and ploy because my kitchen is wood. I only have an ordinary 30" range and room for a 30" hood.

I don't recommend covering an existing hood because there will not be a liner and grease can get up between the vent and the underside of the cover. The picture above shows a tight fit, but I've seen DIY on image sites that are not tight and would be a grease trap. Something like the above picture would need to be custom built. I see wood hoods frequently, even in new builds. Keep in mind that wood or any other flammable material should be 30" at least up from the range top.

IMO a nice stainless hood is what I will always go with , I have renovated a few clients kitchens where there were wood covers that were discolored and no amount of cleaning really got the grease off of the ones that were natural wood. I think they work visually in huge traditional kitchens but now you see them in spaces that are quite small and they are just out of place.