Hi madeline...no problem at all. I can tell that you are very excited about your kitchen and I think that is great! I would most certainly push the range right up to the wall, your marble will be fine. I made sure that my cabinetry lined up right to the millimeter with the front of the stoves BOX, not the oven door. The oven door and control panel above it should sit proud. Also make sure that gas lines etc are places as to not interfere with getting the range all the way against the wall. To tell you the truth I think it would look a bit strange to have the range sit out from the wall with the 4 inch strip of marble behind it. Are you still going with marble tops? I love to hear people gutsy enough to do marble in their kitchens. So many people are scared to do it because of maintenance etc, but it is just so gorgeous. What about cabs? Painted or stained? Framed or framless? Is the look you are going for traditional? Or more contemporary?

Hi all, Thanks for the replies! Circuspeanut, Those are lovely hoods. The smallest is 36" though. And while my range is 30" and i know (from GW) it's desirable to have a hood that is wider than the cooktop, I think I need to stay at 30" for the hood. Besides, i'm just not that good a cook. Two burners at a time is my normal limit. With three going on special occasions, I'm pretty much in over my head! Cleo, yes I did think about shifting the range to the right, but I'm really afraid that downsizing the pots&pans drawer will be bad. MY KD and I were really careful about the amount, type and location of storage needed especially with no uppers) and the super susan is already spoken for! Your mantle hood is lovely BTW. Thanks for the picture. It does help me visualize. Buehl, I haven't seen one like that. That's kind of why I was considering a glass canopy hood. I thought that maybe if the stainless "chimney" part was too modern, maybe I could have my contractor box it in and paint it? If anyone has a picture or link to the hood type Beuhl mentions i'd love to see it. Favabeans - I could do that but then DH would probably kill me and I wouldn't get to enjoy my finally remodeled kitchen! LOL! The range is the only thing that's staying. PO's bought it just before we purchased the house. It' a dacor duel fuel, "pro style", in stainless. It has taken me a full two years to figure out how to use three of the oven modes, there are still two that I haven't a clue how to use. The newest models are probably way smarter than I am!

You can strive for affordability, performance, and aesthetics, but you can have only two. Performance includes both hood capture and containment, and hood system noise level; affordability includes the costs of both the ventilation system and any other changes or systems that make-up air requirements impose. For background, I suggest you review the myriad hood and MUA topics on this forum. There are also some good papers on kitchen ventilation out there, mainly commercial cooking oriented, but one can extrapolate. Greenheck is one manufacturer with a good paper on the subject. Various air quality boards have also produced them. Combining the search terms "kitchen ventilation" and "schlieren" will be productive. I don't have time right now to go over all the requirements and desirements that affect performance, so I'll limit myself to noting what I have installed because it or something like it would work for you. The hood is a Wolf Pro Island hood, 66 inches wide. (See Wolf Design Guide.) It adequately overlaps a 36-inch induction cooktop and a nearby Cooktek induction wok hob. Ducting is 10-inch, with a Fantech silencer in the path. A Wolf roof-top blower (actually made by Broan) terminates the ducting. It is rated at 1500 cfm at zero static pressure (which you won't have, so derate all cfm claims). The internal aperture of this hood is about 10 square feet and I achieve on high blower setting probably 90 cfm/square foot as desired for full capture with baffles (and probably meshes). One can converse along or across this hood at full power mainly limited by wok cooking sizzle. My last comment for now is: Ventilation power cost is at or near the top of all commercial kitchen expenses. The industry has spent a lot of effort attempting to have good cooking plume capture and containment for the least operating cost. From this you might deduce that commercial hoods are going to be fairly optimal for their purpose. Commercial plume capture and containment is not that different from our residential cooking plume capture and containment. Hence, the more a residential hood diverges in configuration from a commercial counterpart, the closer one must investigate to decide whether the trade-offs that were made for aesthetics do not impair the hood function more than you will tolerate. Once installed and your nose and ears make the final decision, it is too late. kas

I found some options from Lowes in your price range that would look good with your materials and have enough contrast not to look too beige. You can order them online and pick them up at your local store for no charge. Big box stores can be great places to find a good tile value. And I love that you can buy 3 or 4 sheets of tile, bring them home to see if they look good, and return them if they don't. Here's your space. Tile options start below. My favorite is the lantern tile. The hexagonal tiles are a very sexy look, but I'm not sure you have enough height in your bs. The glass and stone mosaic is a subtle look, but it has a nice level of contrast. The marble mosaic might look a little busy, but the colors are good. I hope these are helpful.