Pictures would help but you do not put a shelf in between a stovetop and an exhaust fan.

Is it something like this?

While beautiful in the photo, seems very unpractical if you actually use the kitchen. Especially marble, and why that deep? Imagine all of that grease that is trying to find its way to the hood...and gets stuck to your marble shelf in stead? I would get a deeper hood AND skip the shelf in that location.

Yes like that. I’ve definitely thought about the downsides but I’m settled on the plan. I don’t have a lot of issues with greasy cooking. I also have a weekly housekeeper. I want it deep to hold all my plates and bowls. May I ask why would you recommend a deeper hood if I didn’t have the shelf?

Millworkman, I’ve added pictures.

Kat, ideally your hood should be at least 21" deep, even deeper for high heat cooking. Your front burners are far from the 12" hood which means that the grease, smoke and steam will escape and spread around your counters and cabinets. With any type of use of your range burners, the plates and bowls above will need to be cleaned before use. What type of range? If it is high BTU, you have certain clearances to follow for safety. I hate to be such a downer, because I also love the look of your inspo pictures.

Lucky, thank you for your thoughtful response. I do have a high BTU range but I rarely use super high heat, I’m more of a low and slow person. I usually use one front burner at a time, sometimes two burners. I rarely use my range fan now unless I’ve made a mistake. the shelf will be 26” off the cook surface. i have opened the entire wall to add support between the studs. We will use strong metal brackets to support the shelf. My Brother in law‘s business partner is doing the fabrication. I plan to keep plates and bowls above the range that I use every day so they will be rotating out and cleaned often. I have no backsplash now, and I rarely need to clean behind the range, there is no grease everywhere like some posters are concerned about. anyhow, i have given this a lot of thought and know I want to do it. So I appreciate any and all suggestions on how best to execute it successfully. I am thinking I will look to get a deeper hood.

Marble is not up to the task of being above a cooktop. The splatters will stain and etch it. It will look unsightly in no time. The shelf will impede significantly the exhaust of the hood. People who opt to have a shelf over a cooktop have a railed stainless steel one, so that there is air flow, and the stainless steel can stand up to heat and can be wiped easily.

"I’ve just been looking more closely at the specs on the hood I purchased and it’s just shy of 12 deep."

This hood will be a waste of your money. Keep in mind that a range is at least 24" deep, and the "pro" style ranges are several inches deeper than that. Most people mostly use their front burners. Your 12" deep hood will just barely cover the back burners. Hoods need to be 24" deep front to back, or if you must compromise, 22" deep front to back.

Hi Kat, I'm also in the middle of a renovation where we will have a marble backsplash & supported marble shelf above the range, similar to your photos. I've selected a 19" deep hood range insert by Zephyr. I have a question for you. How high above your range will the hood sit if your shelf will sit at 26"? What's the clearance between your shelf and hood? Thank you!

Hi Jen! Glad to hear someone else is as “crazy” as I am haha! The hood will be 36” from the cooktop, so I’ll have 10” clearance. I may lower the shelf a tad though, as I am working on a detailed rendering (attached below) and it looked better placed between 22” and 24” from the cook top. I need to check with my fabricator if it would be okay to have it closer. Have you had any pushback from your contractor or fabricator? What type of internal supports have you built into the wall? What type of brackets will you use? Please keep me updated on your project!

I also am planning to do this, but with quartzite instead of marble. Brackets go in tomorrow!

This is a firm over function major issue. Disrupting the flow into the range hood means that grease and odors don’t end up in the hood filter. I’m sure you know that they will end up all over your kitchen. If it’s an open concept, there’s no barrier to it moving its way to the living areas

The shelf will act as a big baffle that will direct the exhaust out into the room. A large part of the heavy greasy crude will attach itself to the bottom of baffle (shelf), a significant amount of the less heavy crude will be pushed out into the room and a small part will get sucked out by the fan.

@Thao Le my brackets will go in tomorrow! would you share a picture of yours?

My brackets are in and backsplash is done. Hood, shelf and range going in soon!

Ooh looks great! What kind of range are you getting? We’re still finishing my cabinets and countertops. I’ll share more progress pics as they come.

Hood and shelf went in today!

Our range is an Ilve, going in soon!

Love the black cabinets @Kat Berkery! Excited to see more pics of your kitchen.

If Athena Calderone has this setup in multiple houses you can too! Haha. Plus she cooks a lot. Go for it, its gorgeous!

I lived for 14 years with no vent hood at all - just a 1940 freestanding Wedgewood. I hever had grease problems. If you’re not frying up meat on the regular I’m sure you’ll be fine.

Did the marble fabricator decide on creating a mitered box around the brackets for your shelf?

@elizabeth_eclectic THANK YOU hahahha. Exactly. She cooks a ton. i never even used my old range hood unless i burnt something so surely this will not be the demise of my home. Usually if were cooking meat inside its a roast. Otherwise we usually grill.

yes the plan will be a mitered box, with the face being about 2” or 2 1/4”. im still shopping for slabs. i haven’t found “the one yet”.

@Thao Le i had left another comment saying how great your setup is looking but houzz hates my comments apparently. You must be very excited, it’s looking great!

Thanks @Kat Berkery! Yes, we are beyond excited to have a kitchen back. We unpacked our range today and can't wait until it goes in. Almost there!

@Thao Le

Please share photos of your kitchen with the Ilve tange installed! Planning on using a 48” in my remodel. Let us know how well the range is doing in terms of function.

Progress report! It’s moving along over here. i still need to select a slab for the shelf, I’ve gotten distracted managing a slow moving carpenter but hope to get out this week and visit the slab yard again. after I’ve selected it I’ll decide if im going to do the plaster treatment on the wall and if I’ll tint it. (i stuck old drawer fronts on the brackets for makeshift shelves).

Here are a couple updated photos!

Nice look but shelf greatly inhibits vent fan from proper action. Wouldn’t pass code inspection here I don’t believe. Looks cool though. Although. Do be careful reaching over hot burners to shelf. If it were me, I would do shelf either side of range but not on back wall behind range.

It's not combustible if it's made of natural stone, which ours is. Yes, looked into whether it would inhibit the fan but with the fan we chose, we don't notice any less efficiency at sucking up smells. Definitely not a design choice for everyone, but may be for some. We are really happy with it and glad to use up more of our stone that otherwise would have not been utilized.

Thao your kitchen looks amazing! i hope you‘re enjoying it. You guys did a great job!!

Thanks @Kat Berkery! We are enjoying it very much!

Thao how high up and how wide is your shelf?

@Kat Berkery can you post new pics? I would love to see what slab you ended up choosing! Thanks!

We’re in the process of designing our kitchen with a shelf that will span the area above the range. For everyone else that had done this or plans to do it what depth are you using for the shelf?

We’re doing a 12” shelf 20” above the counter

We are also currently working towards an Athena-inspired kitchen and getting some kickback. For those of you that have the shelf, how has it held up? Any regrets or changes you'd make?

We’re going for quartz counters and backsplash then probably sourcing a marble shelf if we can’t use quartz over the stove for heat reasons.

We got these heavy duty iron supports drilled to the studs underneath the sheetrock so an elephant could stand on these shelves, haha. But I have them flanking the sink vs over the range.

I’m so glad to find this thread! I too am currently in the middle of a remodel and am hoping for a marble floating shelf above our slab backsplash. My contractor and I have been trying to figure out how to do it- and the fabricator basically says it came be done. I’d love to see the brackets you all used and how everything was fabricated. Seems from the above picture that the shelf is a hollow mitered box that slides over brackets anchored into studs? I’d love any other details or solutions! Trying to work out these details so I can pull the trigger on my slab.

Also for those with a marble slab backsplash- was it painful to watch them drill the outlet cutouts? Anyone install outlets above their slab?

Hi Jessica, yes the shelves are a hollow mitered box. This is what I got: https://ironsupports.com/collections/hidden-countertop-brackets/products/hidden-granite-countertop-l-bracket

Here’s a drawing from the fabricator

Elizabeth your floating shelves look wonderful.........I can understand the L-shape bracket fits inside a mitre boxed marble shelf and takes the weight of the top of the shelf but how does the front and lower part of the shelf stay together - just glue??

Yes just epoxy! @Bronte Bather

Thanks Elizabeth and Johnson Brothers.........such differing views and so many gorgeous pix of floating shelves to be found.........does anyone have a proven success/fail story to share......as it could be a dangerous and not just costly decision

@User you mean you are worried about the mitered edges falling apart? My mom had mitered edges with 20 years of heavy use…the epoxy didn’t fail. Inside are heavy duty supports

Could someone with this design comment on the cleaning and whether this fear of the hoodfan malfunctioning is legit? we are also looking to use this in our new kitchen

@Jessica Uhler in case you haven’t come across this yet, here is how Athena mounted her shelf https://eye-swoon.com/marble-floating-kitchen-shelf-athena-calderone/

if you did proceed woth the design, did you change anything about the placement of the hood fan to avoid the problems mentioned in this thread?

Thao, how high above the range did you place the shelf? Can you update us on the functionality of the vent? Any problems?

Hi, it's 19" above the counter, and shelf is 10" deep.

No major concerns 2.5 years in. Shelf needs cleaning like any other surface in the kitchen.

I am so happy to have found this post! We are doing the same thing but the shelf itself will be much shallower (thinking only 6" from the wall). I would hesitate from putting plates and bowls over the range because of the aforementioned grease issues and plan to just have small items (salt cellar, pepper mill, etc).