"Maybe I should go with an undercabinet hood instead?"

If you look through Houzz kitchen photos, you see many examples of standalone range hoods like the one in your drawing but never standalone undercabinet hoods. (Often the range and hood is between windows.) Commonly the entire wall is covered with tile, i.e., the entire wall is the backsplash (which you could continue beneath the cabinets on the window wall) but you might also stop the tile at the edge of the base cabinet to the right of the range.

If you don't need the storage, then you can go ahead with what you have. As wdccruise notes, you can do an entire wall of tile.

Maybe I wasn't clear. I definitely didn't consider a stand-alone undercabinet hood. I meant if it would look better built in into a wall of uppers, connected with the upper cabinets on the adjoining wall. The kitchen is a simple shaker cabinets, in a 1920s house, Mediterranean style, and I feel that the style of the hood in the rendering is too modern looking for what we have here. And a custom hood (I was looking at Modern Aire PS15) is about as expensive as an in-stock undercabinet hood plus those cabinets.

I'd like to see a plain, minimal drywall or plaster hood cover with insert. Straight sides. I also don't care for the stainless chimney alone on the wall. If you do the uppers going across you could also play with dropping some of the upper cabinets on the other walls.

The upper cabinet wrapped around the hood and chimney won’t yield much useful storage, a pretty expensive way to store a few bottles or jars. It’s just cosmetic, and money, so no right or wrong decision.

John Liu, yes, the cabinet above the hood is purely decorative, to hide the metal chimney, but I wouldn't want to have it alone, so I would get a 21" cabinet on the right of the hood and about 44" on the left. Which I wouldn't call insignificant. But yes, the entire question is about cosmetics. And maybe the ease of maintenance.

Rebasheba ~ I considered plaster. I really like the look, and all of my walls are plastered, but I have 2 reservations - one is the possibility of grime collecting on that textured plaster, which is not cleaning-friendly. The second is that the main view into the kitchen is from the side of the table, and a square box on the wall will be blocking the cabinet in the corner, making it more in your face than I want.

It's basically down to what is less offensive to the eyes - a stainless steel hood or an entire wall of cabinets.

We have the same L layout and went with open shelves next to the hood. It was largely for cost at the time, but also because we had a corner upper cabinet pre-remodel that we were constantly hitting heads on. We did tile along the sink wall that wrapped at the same height around the L and then under the hood it runs up to meet the hood. If you don't need the storage you could also do art or something aesthetic on either side of the hood.

So if the lack of storage isn’t a concern you could consider a Hoodsly hood. If you need the storage then by all means continue the cabinets and do an insert into a hood that matches your cabinetry or the cabinets there could butt to a square hood that is tiled in your same backsplash material

I often do a wall with not cabinets just a nice hood and then add some art on either side for a bit of color and fun. IMO if no need for the storage leave as is . I really dislike wood hoods or honestly few are better than a simple stainless one I like vent-a-hood brand with the proper CFM.

It’s already overpowered with cabinets as is.

I agree the stainless hood shown is too now for your kitchen. Have you looked on hoodsly? Lots of period shapes available- of course you have to buy the insert too. As an aside skip the valance joining the cabinets that flank the sink, that seems more 40’s on and visually crowds the layout to me.

I prefer the wall without cabinets - (but would get a more interesting hood than the chimney style)

Too much storage is something few people ever encounter. Also, the hood you are choosing seems dated at this point.

Also FWIW our house (and kitchen style) is 1915 and we did use a chimney style hood. The period-style hoods are lovely but many times more expensive so were beyond our budget. It works even if it’s not a replica kitchen. I wouldn’t stress if you can’t swing the fancier options.

Thank you, everyone!

@eam44 Yes, that's exactly what I want and don't want. Adding windows is not an option, but I love the idea of a hood like that, painted the wall color. I guess I need to look into the finish on those and how easy it is to clean.

@artemis78 Thank you for the visual! I guess you are right, and maybe the old-style kitchens are a bit more forgiving of mix of styles. Plus, my Wolf looks much more industrial than your stove (which I love!), so maybe it will pull off a similarly industrial hood...

@HALLETT & Co. I did look at Hoodsy, but there were one too many reviews about damaged hoods arriving. Thank you for the comment about the valance! I was doubting it, too. Somehow, I like it in the bar area, but it's much smaller there.

You might want to give Hoodsly a shot. The one I specified for a California project arrived fine and looks great installed.

Hi - I totally understand the concern.

Hoods can be:

• isolated (as in your project) = statement item;
• under-cabinet = to increase storage space;
• ceiling-mounted = invisible.

The kitchen seems big and airy so any of these options would work and look great, it’s really just matter of your preference.
I would suggest you to consider a Wolf appliance to match the range in the look.
Now, since you don’t have need for extra storage, I would exclude the under-cabinet option.
Wolf design is very simple and elegant, so placing a statement hood wouldn’t be too much in my opinion.
If you prefer to go completely minimal, ceiling mounted is a great option - please mind the ceiling height supported by the chosen hood and the finish of the (whole) wall in the cooking section.
Hope this help.

Some of this also depends on what choices you are planning for other areas of your new kitchen. We have a clearly modern stainless steel refrigerator, for instance, so it isn't jarring to mix it with stainless in other areas. But if you are planning to panel your refrigerator and dishwasher to blend into your cabinets and if your range isn't stainless, a stainless hood is going to look a lot more out of place. You could also do a search to see what kinds of hoods other people have paired with your range to get a sense of what a chimney hood will look like vs. other styles.

So after lots of back and forth, we decided to choose function over looks and go with a stainless steel chimney. Most likely Zephyr Titan, 750 CFM. Before, I had a 650CFM hood before, and it was fine without MUA. The house is in SoCal, and 1920s in a historic district, which means 100-year-old single-pane windows (actually, mostly french doors on the first floor) with so many restrictions that they are not likely to be replaced any time soon. Plus, we have a fireplace with a flue that doesn't have a damper. The city doesn't care if I use MUA or not. So, do I need one?

We did not do MUA with a similar house and conditions in the SF East Bay, although we considered it. We renovated our kitchen in 2010 and have not had any issues in the years since, though obviously YMMV based on your particular house. (Our kitchen is all original windows, so far from air-tight, and it isn't heated, so there's no particular incentive to try to insulate it better.) Our hood is a Kobe, though we were deciding between that and Zephyr—I think it goes up to 760 CFM. And in case your home also has 9' ceilings—we did have to plan for a chimney extension for the Kobe. It isn't fancy, but it has worked well for nearly 15 years, so I have no complaints.

Thank you, @artemis78! That's what I am thinking, especially with the chimney working as an always-on passive MUA. I used the 650 on high all the time, as it was very shallow and I am too short to cook on the back burners, and I hope not to have to use this one on max. We do use heating/cooling, but not too often, and at least some windows are open most of the time. Our ceiling is 8.5', so no extension necessary.

If you only cook on the front burners, be sure the hood you select is 24" deep. 19" or 20" deep hoods do not fully cover the front burners and that means it will be less effective b/c not all the steam, smoke, etc., will be captured as they will rise and expand well outside the front of the hood.

The house we're purchasing has a 20"D hood and while we were there the current owner was cooking pasta on the front burner (she's also very short) and most of the steam was completely missed by the hood. First thing we're replacing when we move in!

@Buehl Yes, depth is one of my requirements for the hood. Zephyr Titan is 24", and I am getting a 42" hood for the 36" range. I had enough of an 18" wood hood with a 10" insert.

My house is 1910, uninsulated, pretty leaky, 1,000 cfm hood, no MUA although I have plans for where it will go. No issues backdrafting furnace or water heater, but the fireplace will backdraft resulting, when a fire is lit, in smoke in the house. So, when a fire is lit, I crack the kitchen door to the backyard before running the fan on high. This is not at all optimal but tolerable until I get MUA (next year?) We don’t have a fire in the fireplace that often.

@John Liu Thanks! It makes sense. We use the fireplace maybe once or twice a year, and always in the evening, after all the cooking is done. But I'll keep that in mind, in case it changes.