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TOUCHES OF WOOD

# A PINTEREST WORTHY HOME

Kitchen Vent-hood Makeover

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Intro

No matter how nice a kitchen is we usually find ways of wanting it to look better whether it is cabinet hardware, paints, pendant lighting, appliances, rugs, island upgrades, or for me a vent hood. My home is located in a subdivision where every home is very similar “cookie cutter” and I am on a mission to make my home feel more custom and “home”. To achieve this I decided to do a kitchen vent-hood makeover.

I wish I could have brought you a tutorial on how to make the vent hood we made for out kitchen. I do have some photos a long the way. We made this vent hood a few months before making this blog otherwise I would have had all the steps for you, but I will explain as much as I can. You can ask questions in the comments and I get those answers for you.

Before and After Our Vent-hood

My original vent was definitely an upgrade from the prior vent I had at our old home but it still lacked character. It was stainless steel and was much harder to clean compared to the vent we currently have. The stainless steel was just such a boring vent, I wanted something that I could decorate for each holiday or season.. everyone wants to hang wreaths from their vent-hood right?

Scanning through Pinterest and pinning all the beautiful vent hoods I knew we could make an amazing vent-hood. I was after farmhouse style vent for my kitchen. In my home I am trying to achieve a modern farmhouse vibe. I needed to incorporate wood for sure in my vent-hood.

Budget

This is was actually a budget friendly project especially during the covid times where wood prices have sky rocketed. This vent-hood was under a 150$ to make for us and that is including the quart of paint we used. If you get online and try to shop around for vents that are similar to the one we made your going to see them close to if not over a thousand dollars. This was definitely a pro for us when deciding to make our own vent.

The most money went towards the cedar on the trim and the future decor that will be bought for it. If you are planing to make something like this I hope my pictures can help give you motivation and ideas on how to make your own vent. You should try it, makes your kitchen feel…custom.

Building Process

  • We built our vent around the existing vent. We did not remove it and we left enough room for all functions to work properly and buttons to be reached.
  • We built a top frame first (pictured below), excuse our mess.
Top Frame
Top Frame
  • We used 2×2’s secured to our backsplash and our ceiling. It is important to make sure this is very secured since the rest of the vent will be attached to this.
  • After securing the top frame, we made a bottom frame to attach cedar too. I do not have a picture of this step but maybe these photos will help understand.
Inside of frame for cedar
Frame for cedar (bottom trim)
  • Pictured above is the inside of the bottom frame.
  • Added regular pine wood to the backsplash and this is what we will be using to secure our bottom frame.
  • Our bottom frame was built separately and then installed.
Bottom frame with trim
Bottom frame with trim
  • Added any trim to the cedar frame we wanted
  • After this we installed and attached to the pine boards that we attached to the backsplash
  • You can also add extra cedar to the bottom of this frame to hide your pine or existing vent. (inside of frame pictures will show you this)
  • After this we used .25 inch pdf board for the sides. We chose to use a MDF board that wasn’t heavy because we didn’t want to much weight pulling down on the top frame.
  • You will need to determine the angle for your sides.
  • Attached with nail gun and liquid nails
MDF board has been added time for decorative features
  • You can add any decorative features now, we added trim to the bottom and crown moulding
  • I wanted this to match my existing cabinet color and our local Ace Hardware was able to do a color match by taking a cabinet door to the store. Pretty awesome.
  • A quart of primer and a quart of paint is all we needed and we had some left over
  • We left the stain its natural color and sealed it.
Final

Closing

It is important to plan this out before making cuts and knowing what kind of design you are after. You want your vent-hood to be proportioned, you don’t want the top part to be too short or to long for its body. I have a thing about everything needing to be proportioned.

Our custom vent-hood transformed out kitchen, I absolutely love it. I wish I could have provided better instructions on how to make this, ask questions if you need to in the comments would love to help you out.