One thing that seems to be shown here, from your experience and also laranbrian's, is that mesh filters are noisier. We have "pro style" metal baffles. Here's the (obviously biased, but I think informative) quote off the Modernaire site: "Modern-Aire Ventilating believes like most major range manufacturers and restaurant supply houses that the most efficient filtration system is the Baffle Filter. Unlike non-filtered range hoods, a Baffle Filter catches up to 97% of all grease and grease particles before they ever enter the interior of the range hood, making clean up a breeze. Unlike mesh filters, the air passing through a Baffle Filter is not restricted, thus allowing a smoother and quieter transition. Perhaps the most important aspect of the Baffle Filter is that the baffles in the filter are positioned to eliminate direct passage of flame through the filter thus making it one of the safest and most efficient filtration systems available today." I think it's a far superior design for the liner. And it looks cooler too :-)

My KD told me the standard is 3 inches, but if I did that my cabs on either side would have to have been 21 inches, which I didn't want. Mine is right up against the cabs and I haven't had any problems with it being that way.

Thank you all for weighing in on this decision. I read each and every comment and you gave me a lot to think about! We ended up going to Bargain Outlet tonight to order different countertop. The Soapstone Sequoia tops that we bought ended up not being long enough (Big oops) and they won't work in the final layout that we settled on. When we changed from a range to a cooktop, we could no longer do the cut for the range, and it threw our measurements off. Somehow we missed that little detail until today until we set the counter on the cabinets and realized it was 6" short. : P (Must have been DIY dilirium.) But...we think it might have worked out for the best. We had bought the counters months ago when a local store was going out of business, and then more recently we got the cabinets. Seeing them together showed us that while they could work, they weren't a super match for each other. When we picked up the cabinets, they came with a few small sections of Bella Noche laminate, and they looked great together. Since we were going to have to order counter anyway, we switched directions and ordered Bella Noche instead. We never would have picked it from the little sample cards, but seeing the remnants with our cabinets helped us to know that we'd like it. While we were at Bargain Outlet, we ordered a 30" wide x 18" tall wall cabinet to place under the short wall cabinet in our layout. Our plan is to leave the doors off of it so that I can have a little bit of open shelving, but it will be boxed in along the side of the range hood like many of you suggested. Playing around with the shelf last night made me realize I could have a lot of fun with an open area there to decorate. We also ordered a glass door for the corner upper to help it feel airier over there om the sea of uppers, and it will give us another spot for displaying pretty serving bowls, too. Colors for the oven cabinet, hood and island remain to be determined. I don't really want to paint all of the uppers at this point. We have a busy family that the factory finish will probably handle better than a home paint job. Maybe someday, though! Now I have to see what colors look nice with both the cabinets and the new laminate. Should I keep it simple and do black? (Our fridge is black... and the cabinet doors have black lines along the details of the trim.) There are flecks of dark blue in this laminate too, although it's hard to see in the sample online. Bella Noche:

I won't recommend specific hoods that I haven't owned. Performance requirements first, cost vs. aesthetics to meet performance second. Assuming a wall hood... Overlap is needed front-to-back as well as side-to-side. Assume a hood entry aperture of 42 inches by 24 inches (from a 27 inch deep hood). This is a hood entry aperture area of 7 square feet. You will need 90 CFM/sq.ft. for containment of hot gas combustion products and hot oil from stir-fry. So the requirement is to be able (on high) to pull 7 x 90 = 630 CFM. To do this with typical pressure losses in baffles and ducts, a 900 CFM rated blower will likely be required, consistent with your plan. However, this assumes that the house interior pressure is not reduced (relative to outside) by more than a few hundredths of an inch of water column. Most code authorities now-a-days will be enforcing make-up air (MUA) above 400 CFM (rated). You will need either a large duct opening outside with damper and minimal filtering (perhaps dumping air into a mud-room or basement with a powerful enough heater, or a powered MUA system with filtering and heating, depending on environment. The latter alone will eat your budget. For the hood itself, one is best served by a commercial-hood-inspired configuration (often called "Pro") with a capture volume before the filtering and baffles for filtering. Ducting out the wall or up through an attic are both appropriate, but using a remote blower and intermediate silencer will yield a lower noise configuration if enough duct length is available. No matter which duct layout is chosen, capture volume and baffle filtering will preclude a thin under-cabinet hood. Bottom line, a kitchen ventilation system suitable for the specified range may not cost as much as the range, but will not be far behind if the residence is to be kept free of greasy wet cooking effluent and the hazards of dropping your house pressure are to be avoided.