the kitchen chronicles – Part 11 ~ Free vintage website

Range Hood ‘How-to’

You may notice I didn’t call this a ‘tutorial’, but rather a ‘how-to’. The reason is this: Since Mr. Charming and I were totally flying by the seat of our pants on this one, I’m sure I haven’t written step by step instructions. I honestly can’t tell you how many times we changed our minds and changed directions on this project.

Instead, this ‘how-to’ will give you some understanding of what is involved with making your own range hood. Since many of us revamp our kitchens by painting our cupboards, there’s nothing stopping you from installing a painted range hood for that added custom look.

The first step is buying a fan insert. You might be able to rework your own fan into this project, but as with everything in my house, my fan came as a complete patchwork job when I bought the house. So it had to go.

I used a Broan PM390 . Don’t forget you’ll also require a liner. The liner looks like this (model LB30).

Our hood is made from MDF and will be made to fit this space. I wanted the hood to cover the bulkhead and go to the ceiling.

For that reason, you can see the sides of the hood have the extra piece that will reach the ceiling. Start by cutting the sides. We only mitered the FRONT. You wont need the back mitered.

Cut pieces for the back that act like braces against the back wall. Make sure to take an embarrassing picture of your mans backside at the same time.

Measure and cut your FRONT piece with the sides mitered. We cut two pieces of MDF to place on the inside corner of the mitered joint for support.

Using carpenters glue, glue the sides and screw them to the front piece.

Glue up the joined sides and place the back frame on top of the front.

Now you have a shell that looks something like this. I should mention that the front could be as long as the sides, but we were short of MDF and decided that that short piece would do since we were adding something to the bottom anyway.

We added a couple of spare pieces to attach our decorative front to.

Then a couple of coats of primer, and a FEW coats of paint.

We used hardboard for the front. It’s thinner, lighter in weight and was the right thickness for what we needed.

We attached our painted beadboard with adhesive and then trimmed it with a painted L- profile wood trim.

I doubt this is how the pros do it, but I needed some weight to keep the glue together. I knew I saved those granite samples for something.

Now, if you remember our little mantle piece that we made in an earlier post Kitchen Chronicles – Part 9. This was constructed to fit on the front.

Keep in mind that anytime we added something or changed anything we always made sure the inside of this frame remained 27” (the measurement of the liner). Very important to ensure the fan insert and liner fit properly.

Enlist cheap family labor (love you Michael!) to help with the heavy stuff. If your ductwork lines up properly you can hook up to vent outside. If not you’ll need to get a charcoal filter.