I Traded My Microwave for a Custom Vent Hood…and I’d Do It Again

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We didn’t just trade the location of the microwave, we got rid of it all together. I barely used it, it didn’t vent outside, just recirculated air back into my house and it wasn’t adding to the charm I’ve envisioned for this kitchen. So I kicked it out and replaced it with something I’ve wanted for years: a custom vent hood.

Before I committed to tearing anything apart, I had ChatGPT, aka Chatty, mock-up what my kitchen would look like with a traditional-style vent hood cover that I found on Pinterest. I wanted to make sure the vision I had in my head would actually work in the space. Turns out… it looked even better than I imagined even though Chatty made it extremely large for the space with the wrong tile underneath! That mock-up was all the convincing I needed. From that point on, the microwave’s days were officially numbered.

The first step was undoing a little bit of my previous work. When I extended my kitchen cabinets all the way to the ceiling, I added trim across the top to finish everything off. (If you missed that project, you can check it out in my other blog post!)

I started by scoring the caulk with a razor knife. This helps separate the caulk from the wood so you don’t end up peeling paint or splintering trim. Once the caulk was cut, I carefully removed the trim to give myself access to the cabinet above the microwave. Sometimes you have to take a few steps backward before you can move forward!

Next, we emptied out the cabinet above the microwave, which just served as storage for paper towels (which we relocated to the entryway built-in I built a few years ago), and got to work removing the microwave itself. If you’ve never taken one down before, they’re heavier than they look, so this is definitely a two-person job. By two person, I mean Tyler taking down the microwave and me watching. It was hanging on by a metal French cleat, so you have to tilt the microwave forward at the top and lift up in the back to unhook it from this tight space.

While I had everything torn apart, I decided it was the perfect time to fix something that had been bothering me. I removed the trim from the plywood cabinet extension boxes because I wasn’t completely happy with how I did them the first time. They looked good… but not exactly how I wanted them, the separate pieces didn’t line up flush like they should.

One of the cool things about DIY is that your skills improve with every project. Looking back, I realized I’d learned a lot since I originally built those boxes, so this felt like the perfect opportunity to redo them the way I wish I had from the beginning.

Before I could start building the new vent hood cover, the cabinet above the microwave had to go. Technically, I could have left it in place and built the hood around it, but I was after a completely different look. Sometimes it’s easier to start with a blank slate than to try to make an existing cabinet work.

The cabinet was attached to the wall with screws, and the face frames were also screwed together to the neighboring cabinets. Once we removed all of those screws, I expected it to come right down… but years of paint, caulk, and being squeezed between the surrounding cabinets had it hanging on pretty good. After a little wiggling (and maybe a few choice words), it finally broke free.

The cabinet was much heavier than a standard upper cabinet because I’d previously added a plywood extension on top when I took my cabinets all the way to the ceiling. Thankfully, Tyler was there to wrestle it down.

Then came the very important DIY step where I stood there and stared at the space for a while. I took measurements, searched Pinterest, looked back at my measurements, and stared at it some more. I had a general idea of what I wanted, but I needed to figure out how to actually build it in a way that worked with my cabinets, ceiling height, and the vent hood insert. Sometimes the planning stage looks a lot like doing absolutely nothing, but I promise there was a lot happening in my head.

The first thing I built wasn’t actually part of the hood, it was a couple of simple spacer strips. The face frame on my cabinet sticks out about 1/8 inch past the cabinet sides and this will help bring the cover out past that lip. This not only made the insert sit where it was supposed to, but it also gave me a solid surface to screw the vent hood into.

With the spacers in place, I built two simple boxes out of common boards to fill the space between the cabinets. These would become the framework for the vent hood and give me something solid to attach the rest of the build to.

I assembled each box with pocket hole screws because they’re quick, strong, and hidden once everything is installed. Then I secured the boxes to the spacers with brad nails. At this point it wasn’t exactly pretty, but this is the stage where you have to trust the process. Every custom build starts out looking a little questionable!

I handled the bottom one, but when it came to the top box, I recruited Tyler. One of the perks of being married to someone who’s over a foot taller than me is that he could reach it without a ladder… or even a stool! With both boxes secured, the vent hood was finally starting to take shape, but I still wasn’t sure about it…

Once those boxes were in, I stood back… and just stared at them. Again. I still couldn’t quite picture the next step, and rather than charging ahead and hoping for the best, I decided to do a little more research.

After another deep dive into Pinterest, I noticed there were two common ways people built vent hoods. Some were assembled piece by piece right on the wall, which is the direction I had started. Others were built completely in the shop and then installed as one finished piece. The second method looked cleaner, more professional, and a whole lot easier to work on.

So… I changed my mind. Yup, I ripped out the common board framework I had just finished building. Was it a little painful? Absolutely, I HATE moving backwards. But one thing I’ve learned over the years is that if something doesn’t feel right, it’s usually worth taking a step back before investing even more time into it.

So it was back to the drawing board… literally. I grabbed a pencil and sketched out exactly how I wanted the vent hood to look. I’m by no means an artist, I just needed something that helped me visualize the proportions and figure out how all the pieces would come together before I started cutting more wood.

One thing I knew for sure was that I wanted an angled vent hood. Every time I scrolled Pinterest, I kept saving the angled ones… but I couldn’t decide if it would actually look good in my kitchen. Plus, I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to build it.

I asked ChatGPT to mock it up for me.

Within a few minutes, I had a realistic rendering of my own kitchen with an angled vent hood compared with a vent hood that goes straight up and down (those boxy ones were just too simple for what I wanted), and that was all the convincing I needed. Seeing it in my actual space made the decision easy. Suddenly I could picture exactly where I was headed, but I also knew the angled one would be much harder to build, I’m not great at angles. But I had to try! I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t. But I also didn’t want spaces between the hood and side cabinets like this because I feel like that would just be a place for dust and grease to settle and hard to clean, even though I love the look!

The other decision I kept going back and forth on was whether to wrap the bottom of the hood in oak or paint the whole thing the same green as my cabinets. I loved the warmth that wood adds, but I was worried it might push the kitchen a little too far into farmhouse territory, which definitely wasn’t the look I was going for.

Thankfully, the ChatGPT rendering helped with that decision too. Seeing the oak on the hood in my kitchen made me realize it wasn’t giving too much farmhouse at all. Instead, it added just enough warmth and character to balance out all the painted cabinetry.

I figured the worst-case scenario was that I’d hate it… and paint it green. No big deal.

But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to use oak. My kitchen island is oak, my master bathroom vanity and built-in linen cabinet are oak, my laundry room cabinets are oak, and even the built-in fish tank that used to be a coat closet is oak. Using the same wood on the vent hood would help tie all of those spaces together and make the house feel more intentional.

With the design finally figured out, it was time to start building! Since the oak would be the main focal point of the vent hood, I decided to build that first.

I used a 1×6 piece of red oak and cut it to 29-15/16 inches wide to fit my 30-inch cabinet opening with just a little wiggle room for installation. To create a seamless wraparound look, I cut 45-degree miters on each end with my miter saw so the boards would fold into a three-sided box.

Before assembling everything, I sanded the oak smooth with my orbital sander. Then I laid the boards face down, applied wood glue to each miter, and stretched painter’s tape across the outside of the joints. The tape acts like a hinge, letting you simply fold the boards up into a perfect 90-degree box while pulling the miters tightly together. It’s such a simple trick, but it works incredibly well, and it saves you from wrestling with a bunch of clamps on a project like this.

While the glue was drying, I needed a way to keep the oak box perfectly square. Instead of wasting another piece of expensive red oak that no one would ever see, I dug through my scrap pile and cut a piece of regular lumber for the back. It’s hidden once the hood is installed, so there was no reason to use the fancy stuff.

I drilled pocket holes in the back panel and attached it to the oak box. Not only did it hold everything nice and square while the glue cured, but it also made the entire assembly much more rigid.

To give the miters a little extra support while the glue dried, I also shot a few brad nails through the painter’s tape and into the corners. The tape was already doing a great job of pulling everything together, but the brad nails helped lock the miters in place so nothing could shift while I was attaching the back panel.

To finish off the frame, I added another piece of red oak across the top front because this piece would be visible as a shelf. It wasn’t just there to look pretty, it also tied the two sides together and helped keep the entire hood nice and square. Between that front piece and the back panel, the oak shell became surprisingly solid.

A few hours later, the moment of truth had arrived. I peeled off the painter’s tape, and it looked soooo good! The miters were nice and tight, the corners were crisp. There’s something so satisfying about taking off the tape and seeing all of your patience pay off. It’s not the tightest corner, after doing this I have seen people take off a little more than a 45 degree cut so it looks more tight, but since this will be stained dark, it will hide the not so tight seam, so I’m not worried about it.

Before moving on to the stain, I added a piece of oak plywood to the bottom of the hood. I left a rectangular opening in the center that I cut out with my jigsaw for the vent hood insert to slide into later, so this piece serves as both the finished bottom and the mounting surface for the insert.

With the oak frame finished, it was time for my favorite part, bringing the wood to life with stain. If you’ve followed many of my projects, this color will probably look pretty familiar. I used my go-to stain, Spice Brown by DuraSeal. I only stained the front parts that would be visible, no need staining the parts that will never be seen. I just LOVE the way the dark stain brings out the gorgeous grain in the red oak.

Before I could start building the upper section of the hood, I needed to give the vent insert something solid to attach to. The mounting screws on my vent insert sat more than 3/4 inch above the edge, which meant the oak plywood bottom by itself wasn’t thick enough to catch the screws.

To fix that, I built a simple rectangular frame out of 1×2 primed pine (because I already had it on hand) and attached it to the inside of the oak hood around the opening for the vent insert. I put the 1x2s together with pocket hole screws. It wasn’t going to be seen, so there was no reason to use expensive oak here. This added the extra depth I needed for the mounting screws while also making the entire bottom assembly even more rigid.

With the oak portion finished, it was time to build the upper section of the hood. I grabbed a large scrap piece of 3/4-inch Sande plywood, another great way to save a little money since this part would eventually be painted. I opted for the cabinet grade plywood because it’s smooth compared to the cheaper plywood.

I cut the plywood to fit the height of the hood but intentionally left about 3 inches of space at the top (29.5in tall) because I knew I’d be adding trim later. Then it was time to create the angled sides. Using my track saw, I cut each panel by measuring 18½ inches wide at the bottom and 14½ inches at the top, creating a 4-inch taper. Connecting those two measurements gave me the exact angle I was after. I only cut the 2 sides, not the front and back.

One thing I’ve learned is that you don’t always need to know the exact degree of an angle. Sometimes it’s easier to work backward from the dimensions you want. In this case, I knew how deep I wanted the hood to be at the bottom and at the top, so the angle basically figured itself out.

Rather than using full sheets of plywood to connect the two angled sides, I ripped more of that Sande plywood into 6-inch-wide strips. It used a lot less material, made the hood much lighter, and honestly there was no reason to close in the entire back when no one would ever see it.

I drilled pocket holes in the strips and attached them across the top and bottom on both the front and the back, creating a strong internal frame without wasting a whole sheet of plywood. I’ll be adding a front piece later. My little trick with something like this is to add glue to the joint, shoot a few brad nails in to hold it in place and then drill the pocket hole screws in.

This design ended up having another big advantage. By leaving the center of the hood open, I could still access the electrical outlet behind the vent insert, and once we lifted the hood into place, we’d still be able to reach inside to connect the vent duct to the insert. If I had enclosed the whole thing with plywood, that would’ve been pretty much impossible.

Once the upper plywood frame was assembled, I needed to attached it to the stained oak base. But, I had completely forgotten to drill the pocket holes that would attach the upper section to the oak before putting the frame together.

Could I have taken it back apart? Sure. Did I? Absolutely not. Instead, I squeezed my pocket hole jig into the already assembled frame and drilled them in place. It was awkward and definitely would’ve been easier if I’d remembered them from the beginning. But it worked, and that’s one thing I hope this blog shows: even after years of building projects, I still forget steps sometimes. The difference is I’ve learned not to panic, I just figure out another way to get the job done. But I got the pocket holes put in and got it attached to the oak.

There’s no way I was lifting this thing by myself, so Tyler and my neighbor, Shane, helped me get the vent hood cover into place. We mounted the bottom of the hood about 33 inches above the countertop, which put the bottom roughly 3 feet down from the ceiling.

For a gas range, the recommended clearance is usually around 30 inches, but we decided to mount ours a little higher. The main reason? Tyler is 6’4″, and I’d rather the hood look slightly taller than have him smacking his forehead on it every time he cooks or having to bend down to look under it to cook. The extra few inches still keep it within a good functional range while making it much more comfortable for our family to use.

Seeing it hanging in place for the first time was one of those moments where it finally started looking like the vision I’d had in my head.

With the hood secured to the wall, the next step was installing the vent insert. Tyler and Shane carefully lifted it into the opening from underneath while making sure the reveal was even on all four sides. Once we were happy that it was perfectly centered, they drove the mounting screws into the wood frame I’d built.

As we were getting ready to plug in the vent insert, we realized one of the rear support pieces I’d added was sitting directly in front of the electrical outlet. Oops.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a big deal. Tyler grabbed the oscillating multi-tool and carefully cut out just enough of the support to clear the outlet. Problem solved in about five minutes. It’s actually a good reminder that no matter how much planning you do, sometimes you don’t catch little things until everything is hanging on the wall.

And here’s another little “learn from my mistakes” moment. Remember when I forgot to drill the pocket holes before assembling the upper section? Well… that came back to haunt me. Because I was drilling them after everything was already together, I accidentally placed one of the pocket holes a little too far forward. I didn’t realize it until we put the vent hood cover in place, and suddenly I had a very visible pocket hole staring back at me right above the oak on the right side.

As you’ll see in the photo below, that pocket hole had to be filled before finishing the hood. Not the end of the world, but definitely one of those mistakes that’s much easier to avoid than it is to fix. Consider this your friendly reminder to double-check where your pocket holes are going before pulling the trigger on the drill.

With all of the structural work finished, it was finally time to build the part everyone would actually notice, the face of the vent hood. I wanted it to tie in with the rest of my kitchen, so I borrowed the same design I used on the decorative end panels of my lower cabinets. I started with 1×3 primed pine and built a shaker-style face frame. Instead of one large recessed panel like the cabinet ends, though, I decided to split it into two recessed panels. I put the 1x3s together with pocket hole screws.

Before I committed to finishing the rest of the face frame, I did a quick test fit. Thankfully, everything lined up just the way I’d hoped.

Since the test fit looked good, I went ahead and finished building the front panel.

I flipped the face frame upside down, applied wood glue to the back, and attached the center panels. You might notice I used beadboard for these panels, but I installed it backwards. The smooth side faces out, giving me the clean, flat recessed panel look I was after.

Why beadboard? I already had it in the garage. I love using leftover materials whenever I can, and since no one will ever know what’s on the back side, it worked perfectly. Normally, I’d use hardboard (brown board) paneling for something like this because it’s already smooth on one side, but there’s no sense buying another sheet when you already have something that does the job just as well.

Once the panels were glued in place, they needed a little pressure while the glue dried. I just sat a bunch of random things on the back panels while it dried.

While the front panel was drying, I took the opportunity to fix that pocket hole mistake I mentioned earlier. I filled the exposed pocket hole with spackle so it would disappear once everything was sanded and painted.

Once the glue had fully dried, it was time to add the finishing details that really make the panel look custom. I cut pieces of base cap moulding to fit inside each recessed panel, mitering all of the corners at 45 degrees on my miter saw so everything would meet up nicely. Then I ran a bead of construction adhesive along the back of each piece and glued them directly onto the face of the panels, right over the back of the beadboard.

This was all that was left from the moulding I bought! PERFECTION!

Once the base cap moulding was in place, I went around every edge with paintable caulk. Caulk fills all of those tiny gaps where the moulding meets the panel, making everything look like it was built as one solid piece instead of several individual boards.

When I went to install the panel, I realized the angle of the hood meant the bottom edge was making contact before the rest of the panel could sit flush. Thankfully, it wasn’t a big deal, I just marked where it was hitting and trimmed a little material off the bottom of the panel with my track saw until everything fit perfectly.

I ran into one more little hiccup. Since I didn’t route a groove in the 1x3s and recess the beadboard panels into the frame, the beadboard sat proud on the back of the panel. That meant the entire face frame stood about 1/4 inch away from the plywood hood instead of sitting perfectly flush. My plan was simple: install the panel first, then fill that 1/4-inch gap afterward so it looked like it was always meant to be there.

If you remember earlier in the project, I removed the original face frames because they never lined up quite the way I wanted. At the time, I had built and installed them piece by piece, which made it difficult to get everything perfectly flush.

This time, I changed my approach. Instead of assembling them on the cabinets, I built the entire face frame on my workbench first, joining everything together with pocket holes.

To backtrack a little, the way I measure for tight spaces light this is measuring to 10in on one side and make a mark, and then measure from the other side to that mark and then add 10 to that measurement. That gets a more accurate measurement than trying to read a bent tape measure. So for example, the total measurement here is 30 1/8in.

I carried the panel and the face frames outside and sprayed it using my Graco paint sprayer. Could I have brushed and rolled it? Sure. But for cabinet doors, trim, and detailed pieces like this, I almost always reach for my sprayer. It gives a much smoother, factory-like finish without brush marks, and it’s especially good at getting into all of the little corners and moulding details. Plus, it’s a whole lot faster once everything is set up.

While the front panel and face frames were drying, I turned my attention to the plywood portion of the vent hood and painted it with a brush. People ask me all the time why I don’t just spray everything, but I almost never spray inside the house unless it’s something like a large wall with paneling. By the time you tape off every cabinet, cover the countertops, hang plastic everywhere, and protect the floors, you’ve spent more time prepping than you would have just painting it with a brush.

Since this was a relatively small section, brushing it was actually the faster option. As long as you use a quality brush like the Zibra brand that I use and take your time, you can still get a beautiful finish. I save the sprayer for pieces I can take outside, and the brush for projects like this where the cleanup and masking just aren’t worth it.

Once everything was dry, I installed the face frames back on and they were perfect!

Then I couldn’t wait any longer, I had to see if all that measuring, tweaking, trimming, and second-guessing had actually paid off. I held my breath as I set the front panel in place… and it fit perfectly.

This was one of those magical DIY moments where the project suddenly comes to life. The second that painted panel clicked into place, it finally looked like an actual custom vent hood! I may or may not have stood there staring at it for a few minutes with a huge grin on my face. Those little moments are exactly why I love building things. They make every mistake, every redesign, and every “What in the world was I thinking?” moment completely worth it.

As much as I wanted to permanently install the front panel right then and there, we weren’t quite ready. We still needed to install the ductwork, and once that was in place, the panel would cover everything up.

This is where Tyler entered the chat. His first job was cutting an opening in the ceiling directly above the vent hood for the duct to run into the attic and out the roof. He stuck a sharp item up through the ceiling and then went into the attic to make the cut so he wouldn’t cut into any ceiling trusses. He put a towel over the vent hood insert to make sure drywall dust didn’t get into it.

Next came the fun part… wrestling the ductwork into place. Tyler fed the ducting up through the hole and into the attic, which sounds a whole lot easier than it actually was. It took quite a bit of maneuvering, a lot of reaching, and more patience than either of us expected to get everything lined up correctly.

After all of that work wrestling the duct into place, we realized we were using the wrong type of ducting.

We had bought the flexible, accordion-style duct, but after doing a little more research, we learned that for a kitchen vent hood, rigid metal ducting is the better choice. The ridges inside flexible duct create places for grease and cooking residue to collect over time, which can reduce airflow and make the duct harder to clean and be a potential fire hazard. A smooth-walled rigid duct allows air to move more efficiently and gives grease fewer places to build up. So… out it came. And we did have to cut the hole a little bigger, but he got it all installed.

While Tyler was busy getting the new ductwork installed, I took the vent hood cover back outside for one last step before it could finally go up. Since this hood is going to live above a range, I wanted to give it a little extra protection from grease, cooking splatters, and the occasional overachieving pot of spaghetti sauce. I sprayed the entire wood hood with a clear protective topcoat to help seal the finish and make it easier to wipe clean down the road. It goes on a little cloudy but dries clear.

Once the clear coat had dried, it was finally the moment I’d been waiting for, it was time to install the front panel for good. I lined it up, made sure the reveals were even, and secured it by shooting a few brad nails through the front of the panel and into the plywood structure behind it.

With the front panel installed, all that was left was to reinstall the trim around the top of the hood to tie everything into the cabinets.

For this, I used simple baseboard moulding, which might sound a little unconventional, but it’s actually one of my favorite tricks. It’s thin, lightweight, and the profile was exactly what I needed for this project. Sometimes the best trim isn’t the trim that’s marketed for the job, it’s whatever gives you the look you’re after. After making all of the miter cuts, I nailed the trim into place.

Side note: even though the vent hood was angled, I did not angle the miter cuts and baseboard trim. To keep it simple I just did regular cuts.

The last piece of trim to go on was another strip of the same base cap moulding I used across the middle of the vent hood’s front panel.

The last thing standing between me and paint was that annoying little gap I created by using the beadboard panel. Remember how the beadboard added about a 1/4-inch of thickness? That left a seam where the front panel met the plywood, and there was no way I was leaving it like that.

To make it disappear, I mixed up some Bondo and spread it into the gap. I know Bondo is usually associated with auto body repairs, but they make Bondo for woodworking as well and it’s one of my favorite products for projects like this. It dries hard, sands beautifully, and is perfect for filling larger gaps that regular wood filler would likely shrink or crack in over time.

I also caulked all the seams.

I also had to fix the trim underneath the cabinets. We actually had to remove part of it when we took the microwave down because it was preventing the microwave from coming out, and in the process, a few sections came loose. Thankfully, it was an easy fix. I resecured the loose trim with my pin nailer, filled any small gaps with caulk, and smoothed everything out so it looked seamless again. I actually added this trim myself a few years ago to add some more character rather than the bottoms of the cabinets being plain and square.

Since the old over-the-range microwave extended much farther down than the new vent hood cover, it had been hiding portions of the cabinet sides that had never been finished. Once the microwave came down, those unfinished areas were suddenly out in the open. So I cleaned, primed and painted this part.

I painted all of the new trim, covered the areas where I’d sanded the Bondo smooth, and painted over every freshly caulked seam. It’s honestly one of my favorite parts of any build. Watching all of those individual pieces become one finished, built-in feature makes all of the extra prep work worth it.

As I mentioned earlier in this blog post, I decided to repaint all of my kitchen cabinets while I was tackling this project. It’s been about five years since I painted them the first time, and after years of daily use, they were definitely ready for a refresh.

Instead of trying to repaint the entire kitchen at once, I like to break big projects into smaller, more manageable phases. I repainted the lower cabinets first, and while I was already working around the vent hood, it made sense to tackle the upper cabinets next. Not only is it less overwhelming, but it also means my kitchen isn’t completely out of commission all at once.

Sometimes the best way to finish a big project is to stop thinking of it as one giant project and instead knock it out one section at a time. Here I’ve already repainted them and I’m just adding the clear coat.

Since all of the cabinet doors were already off for painting, I figured it was the perfect time to knock out another upgrade I’d been wanting to do for years. I replaced every one of the old hinges with soft-close hinges. It only made sense to do it while the doors were already off, and it saved me from having to take everything apart again later.

If you’ve never upgraded to soft-close hinges, I highly recommend it. No more cabinet doors accidentally slamming shut, just a nice, smooth close every time. It’s a relatively inexpensive upgrade that makes a surprisingly big difference in how your cabinets feel to use every single day.

With the paint fully cured and the new soft-close hinges installed, it was finally time to put all of the cabinet doors back where they belonged.

The very last step was reinstalling my favorite cabinet knobs.

I know hardware might seem like a small detail, but it’s basically the jewelry of a kitchen. The right knobs/pulls can completely change the look of your cabinets, and I still absolutely love the ones I chose years ago. Since they were already the perfect fit for this style, there was no reason to replace them.

Just when I thought I was finally finished, I stood back, looked at the vent hood… and decided it still needed a little something. The oak hood looked great, but it felt a little too flat for my taste. So I grabbed a couple of 1×2 oak boards and added one to the top and one to the bottom of the hood. Those extra trim pieces gave the hood more dimension, helped frame the design, and made it feel much more substantial.

To create the trim for the bottom of the hood, I cut the ends of the 1×2 oak boards at 45-degree angles so the corners would meet with clean miter joints. After making sure everything fit together nicely, I glued the joints and reinforced them with a few brad nails to keep everything securely in place while the glue dried.

Once the glue had dried, I sanded everything smooth, applied the same Spice Brown stain I’d used on the rest of the hood, and let it dry completely. After that, installation was quick and easy. I lined the trim up with the bottom of the hood and secured it with a few brad nails. Since the trim piece was lightweight and already fit perfectly from my test fit, it went on without any issues.

Unlike the bottom, I didn’t have enough room to use a full 1×2 because it would have interfered with the cabinets above. Instead, I ripped the board down on the table saw, keeping the full 3/4-inch thickness but reducing the width to just 1/2 inch. Rather than sitting on top of the hood like the bottom trim sits underneath it, this piece attaches to the front edge of the hood at the very top. Even though it’s mounted differently, I still let it overhang the face of the hood by about 1/2 inch to match the bottom trim.

Once I was happy with the fit, I attached the top trim using my brad nailer. The biggest thing I paid attention to was making sure it was the same distance from the bottom trim all the way around the hood. Keeping that reveal consistent is one of those little details that makes a project look intentional and professionally built.

Here’s a quick video of the whole vent hood makeover.

And here’s what the finished vent hood looks like!

And if you’ve been following this kitchen makeover for a while, you’re going to love what’s next. Stay tuned for my next blog post because we’re finally replacing the countertops that I painted about five years ago! The painted countertops were an amazing budget-friendly solution that bought us several more years before we were ready for the investment, but it’s finally time for an upgrade. Trust me, you won’t want to miss that transformation!