Kitchen Update – The Range Hood

This post has been a long time coming, eh?

Nick here… I’m gonna share all the details about how our vent hood came to be.

*Our friends at Kreg provided us with product for this project. Thank you for supporting the fabulous brands that make Reality Daydream possible! This post contains affiliate links.*

When laying out our kitchen and ordering out 36″ stove, we knew that we would need to have a special vent hood. We knew that we wanted to build our own and that led to the decision of buying this vent hood insert.

Beth and I did a lot of online browsing before finally deciding on something simple and sleek.

Due to the complex angles, I knew that I would want to sketch this out in CAD prior to ordering material or making any cuts.

We mounted the hood insert early on and started laying out the vent hood. This allowed us to tile just beyond the edge of where the vent hood would be.

After that, the project seemed to stall for a bit. I could blame it on a thousand things, but the truth of the matter is, I was just nervous to cut a hole through the exterior of our house. Finally, I mustered up the courage to complete the task. It really wasn’t difficult, but given the stud spacing, I sure didn’t have a lot room to make a mistake.

After piecing the duct work together, we screwed the assembly and painted it with an Acrylic Latex Duct Sealant. This helps seal the system and prevent leaks or drafts.

Let’s just say it stayed this way for AWHILE. We were just happy to have a functional vent hood!

Once the ducts and electrical was in place, we cut the pieces for the apron of the hood (the part that wraps around the hood insert). The piece needed to be about an inch thick, so we glued two pieces of half-inch MDF that were roughly the size we needed and glued the together. Once the glue dried, we ripped them to the correct width.

Our friends at Kreg were kind enough to provide us with their router table. The fence and easy adjust-ability made cutting the rabbets on this apron simple and accurate. To check out more information about their router table click here.

After cutting the rabbet on both top and bottom of the apron, we measured and cut miters to wrap the apron around the insert. Lastly, we secured it in place using pin nails and glue.

Next we cut the front and sides to a size slightly larger then the required dimension with our table saw, then cut the angles on the top and bottom edges.

Time to lay out the front! We did this by measuring the distance from the center line to the edges. I measured several times to make sure it was accurate, then used a straight-edge as a guide for the trim router. This cut the angles that created the taper of the vent hood.

Using a one inch wide scrap of half inch MDF, I secured a mounting point for the sides on the back of the vent hood front.

Using the trim router, we cut the sides of the vent hood.

Lastly, we assembled everything with construction adhesive.

We patched the little nail holes with wood putty, and primed and painted it white! We considered other colors, and/or putting a exposed wood border along that bottom apron, but for now we like it just white!

Don’t look too closely, or you’ll get a sneak-peek of the crown molding above the cabinets! (that’s coming in the next kitchen update post sooooon!)

This kitchen has been such a labor of love, and it’s been an absolute delight to document the process here on the blog (and real-time in Instagram Stories!). If you don’t follow us on Instagram, come join the fun! We’re @RealityDaydream.

Bethany