Thanks. The hood is 27" deep and the island is 32" deep from the front of the counter top to the back of the raised overhang behind the range running the length on the island (with no seating). The kitchen is open to the entire living and dining areas with 12' vaulted ceilings, so the hood will be the focal point. Just not sure if 48" is too much of a focal point and if will be out of balance with the range. The look of the kitchen is what I call modern/industrial.

On the subject of installation. The hoods are generally heavy, so one should plan to have suitable joists or cripples above the ceiling to bear the weight. One hopes that the manufacturer will supply suitable screws. If not, use long, self-boring, structural screws (they use T type bits). In the picture above, we can guess that the hood is tied to the duct covers by sheet metal screws or bolts and nuts, depending on weight. The apparent (and apparently very custom) duct covers, in turn, are attached to roof area beams. Internally, the ducts rest on the hood structure and do not provide support, but rather depend on support. The bigger problem results from having the beam parallel with the long axis of the hood. There usually isn't enough room in the hood top to construct a counterpart of the design above. In such a case, it may be necessary to be as custom as the above, and adapt a more commercial style layout such that there is enough front to back room to pull off a concept such as above. The duct out the back and up is an interesting variant. The duct and/or duct cover would not provide suitable support. Perhaps wires or pipes or some other scheme could bring the weight of hood and ducting up to the ceiling. Some effort would seem to be needed to make it presentable. kas

Oh wait....you are talking about putting a wood shelf over your range to set your microwave on?? No....that would be a very bad idea. BIG fire hazard. Microwaves that are made to go over ranges do not sit on shelves, they are suspended from cabinets above them. You should never put anything combustible over a range. Also I think your microwave's electronics would probably be exposed to way too much heat since it is not insulated for over the range use.

Wow, I'm very grateful to all of you who took the time to reply! Great to see your pictures, too. Some responses (if you're interested), now that I've finally been able to go through: Sammy and The Kitchen Place are correct that we could put it in the upper above the dishwasher — that's the only upper that is the right size that wouldn't block other cabinets. (Thanks for the pictures, The Kitchen Place!) I was intrigued by nidnay's idea of bumping into the bedroom closet, but that closet is filled with custom cabinetry so it would be a huge project to put the microwave there.If Icould put a Miele microwave (/speed oven) in an upper cabinet, I'd try for that, but of course our uppers are only 13" deep and the Miele opens down, so not workable. My better half is against mounting a "normal" microwave in an upper cabinet (he thinks in that case we might as well go OTR, and that it will pull away from the pretty stove/hood that's the whole reason for this conundrum). (ci_lantro questions the whole premise of opening the kitchen. Others in our building have done it and it makes a significant difference in the feeling of the whole unit—we're confident it's the right move, long term.) Helen, HU-41121833, Buehl, Interior Concept, RTHawk and others: Thanks for saying good things about the Sharp microwave drawer. nidnay, thanks for your criticisms of it, too! The slimline microwaves are attractive too! Unfortunately induction sounds great, but not in the cards for us. I do believe everybody who says we need something more powerful than a microwave fan — the Vent-A-Hood system does look quite good. kaseki, thanks for your hood comments. pittsburrito, I hear what you're saying about external ventilation. There is a small vent in the kitchen and windows in the living room, so we try to be careful. Thank you all! Still not sure what we'll do, but I'm grateful for all the advice on the Houzz forums.