lovestocook... I remember the pics of your kitchen because the cabinets are so unique and beautiful. Contemporary, clean, yet warm and inviting. Your hood suits your purposes perfectly! We went down to the house we're going to renovate and I took a look at the area again. Now I"m thinking of completely changing up the layout yet again so the hood won't be smack dab in the middle of the living area. Rather then try to explain... I"m going to take some pics of the exisitng mess (construction site and all) and post them for ideas. I'm still a work in progress when it comes to drawing layouts so I think some real time pics will help to start the process rolling a little better. If I do change it around, the hood would be infront of a huge 9' long window that has about 18" of space above it before the ceiling and the same amount of space below it before the floor. I guess that would make the window 5' high (DUH!... took me a minute to figure that out!) When I took a tape measure to a spot 30" above a standard height base cabinet I was surprised at how low that actually is. Since the area is going to be all open, I'm not yet sure if I want it in the siteline from family room straight through to the backyard. The backyard is what makes this house so glorious. Thank goodness this is a long term project and we are just beginning to begin. Thanks for taking the time to post pics.

Your stainless hood definitely fits your gorgeous kitchen much better! Thanks for posting. So far, the only non-stainless hoods I've seen have been bulkier than I think I'll like, certainly bulkier than all the stainless hoods out there. Stainless is *the* thing these days so it's really hard to find inspiration rooms with any other appliance color, especially in the magazines. But they've got to be out there somewhere (is that hoping for too much?). Anyone else?

I have an induction cooktop in a one-level island. We have 2 small kids, aged 4 and 2, who sit on the other side of the island to eat their dinner. I can cook/prepare and face them and a large window behind them. We love this set-up and do not think it is unsafe. The induction cooktop means that the cooktop does not get hot enough to burn, and it is out of reach of the kids (unless they climb onto the counter and crawl over to it, of course). They are close enough, though, to see what I am doing, and they can "chop" something to add (blunt knife!). I can give them a prep bowl to mix in, and they can see what is cooking, and how, on the cooktop. They are both interested in cooking (and eating!), and I've found it a really nice way to get them involved in both everyday meal prep and in baking/special recipes, etc. I think with small kids, any kitchen set-up can be potentially unsafe. Its just a matter of determining the potential hazards in your own set-up and watching for these and making the kids aware of them too. In our last house (which had cooktop against a wall), when my little boy (then 2-3) wanted to help, he had to sit up on the counter between the cooktop and sink -- far less safe and not very comfortable for anyone. Our island is about 4 ft deep by 6 ft wide. The cooktop has about 12-15 inches to the left and i think 30" to the right. There's about 2 ft of counter behind the cooktop. I do my prep on the island -- mostly in that 12-15" to left of cooktop (if I stand sideways, then I have 4ft wide by 12-15" deep!) We have a no-name Italian island hood (Lux-Aire), which i got online for about $800. It seems to work OK, but its not quiet! I am vegetarian though, so I don't often cook meat/fish on the cooktop. I'm linking to some pics below. Here is a link that might be useful: island cooktop

Thank you guys so much - I thought this thread was going to fall into oblivion so I am happy to see responses. One thing I noticed was that both of you have, in one form or another, a free side without chairs blocking access. Today when I was bringing in groceries I thought about how it wouldn't work so well to have to lift things over chair tops to set them down on the table. Hhhhm, gets me thinking. I really like the concept of making it 1/2 "real island" like yours budge1 - and that only uses up 1 side while leaving 3 for seating. And antiquesilver, your kitchen is really pretty. I think the table adds a lot of attractiveness to your kitchen so this is showing me I am on the right path for my own kitchen asthetically.