IMO, it doesn't make a lot of difference. Stainless 'looks' like the colors of the materials or lights it reflects, and unless the are right next to each other, I seriously doub't it will make much differeence, as long as they both brushed finishes, as most units are. As to hoods, Vent-a-hood's 'Emerald Edge' option makes a good match for a Bluestar, as the angles are very similar.

I have just ordered a cobalt blue KitchenAide range, but I can't find one in town to look at. Am I right in assuming the blue is the same color of the rest of the KitchenAide cobalt blue items? I want a blue for the base of the island and for one wall of cabinets that I am planning, and I need a sample to use. Does anone else have any suggestions for a blue to use with that color that isn't so intense? I want to also do a blue granite top on the island, but will most likely use white for the rest of the counters and cabinets. I need to pick some caboinets soon, so if anyone has any ideas, I would really appreciate it. Thanks. Elaine

You don't. Just don't focus on slight differences and it'll be fine. I have four different kinds on my cooking appliances, plus two different on faucets, and they all blend find. What doesn't is my airgap, which has a decidedly yellow tinge, whereas the faucet is uninflected gray. One is in the center and the other is on the side, so about a foot apart. No one notices it. That said, if you want to be sure, get a gray photo balance card, or even better, a black/white/gray set. It should be less than $10 for a set at your local photography store or on Amazon. First assess the store lighting by seeing what color the white card (or a regular white piece of paper) is. See if it looks more yellow, blue, green or red than normal. Next, hold the gray card against the steel and write down whether the steel is darker or lighter. Then look to see if it's more yellow, blue, green or red than the card, and write down what color and how much (a little, a lot, etc.) This can be cancelled out by the lighting, however, but I'm not going to write pages of how to figure that out. You can do it by intuition nearly as well as if you were using a color meter. If you think that the lighting color is affecting what you see, try to go to a different store, or even see if they can show you the piece in the sunlight. It doesn't matter so much if you're choosing all your pieces from the same store with the same lighting. You can then compare your notes to see which ones have different undertones and which ones are farthest from neutral gray. Or just go with my first answer, and figure that unlike putting aluminum and stainless in the same room (aluminum runs very blue), stainless pretty well matches and you'll get as many variations from shadows as from the different minerals.

We installed a similar vent-a-hood (48" with 900 cfm triple blower fan), and you will definitely need to do some work on your ceiling. We installed in a 1 story house, and we were using the vent-a-hood liner, not the stand-alone housing. They built a decorative plenum above the range (cathedral ceiling) and recessed the hood liner up into the plenum. The ducting then connected straight up to a vent through the attic and to the roof. I believe that the unit you picked is actually two 600 cfm dual fans that each require an 8 inch duct. You can then use a duct combiner (about 17" tall) to bring them together into a single 12" duct. The centerline of each 8" duct is about 11" away from the centerline of the hood. Do you plan to build any type of decorative plenum/trim above the hood to get the hood to the correct height over the range? If so, that could give you some working room for ducting options. The option I am considering is whether you could use two 8" ducts, but jog one over so you could run them between two adjacent floor joists or one above the other (hidden by a plenum). It still requires removing quite a bit of ceiling, but will fit well with typical joist spacing. The other choice is to run each 8" duct a different direction along the joist, but you will probably run into a load bearing wall in one of the directions. The other option is to look at the floor above to see if you could route the 12" duct (or two 8" ducts) vertically. If you could grab space from a closet or the corner of a room, you could run the duct(s) straight up and out the roof. The code requirement for make-up air when a fan moves more than 450 cfm is a relatively new requirement. If your city follows code, you will have an added expense for an automatic make-up air vent that opens when you run the exhaust. However, I installed a 600 cfm fan during renovation of my current house in 2014 and the inspector never even mentioned make-up air, so YMMV. Removing and replacing sheetrock ceilings is messy, and looks bad when its out, but its really very straightforward construction work that does not require a licensed professional. I would not get very concerned about how much ceiling has to come out. Bruce