I would have the wood hood made by Brookhaven. I would also forget the tile.
Another option would be to choose a wood hood from Habersham or any other online venues.
I had my wood hood made by Crystal Cabinet Works. They also constructed my cabinets. I designed my hood and also chose what mouldings would be attached.

hi Dave,

One thing about tiling a vent hood: what's underneath doesn't need to be fancy. and whether backerboard or plywood, really isn't the most attractive of substrates on its own. But you also don't want to pay for the expense of a finished wooden hood if you're going to tile right over it. So alas, you might have to make that decision now rather than later.

I just finished tiling my own a few weeks ago. We originally purchased a wood/paintable steel hood that we finished to match the cabinetry, and I had considered tiling the bottom of it. As it turns out, I really disliked the style once it was installed. Luckily (!) that fan failed within a year, so I was able to justify doing a whole new one. We got a good quality insert and built a simple plywood frame over it for tiling.

Here's the new plywood frame with vent insert:

Here's the finished tiled hood:

In general you don't want to be tiling over plywood, but in this application we stiffened the bajesus out of it, and we predict it will hold very well. If you're really worried, you can use backerboard (cement board) instead of plywood for the outer portions of the frame.

Good luck! I love my tiled hood, very glad we did it.

I have no advice here just have to say how much I love circuspeanut's hood. Gorgeous!!

And I love circuspeanut's *cabinets*! ;-) But then, I've loved those ever since I saw them in a cabinet thread.

circuspeanut, your DYI skills always amaze me! I can't tell from the pics: did you tile over the metal portion of the vent insert? Or make a plywood box over the whole vent shebang and tile on that?
(And did you end up covering over the yellow tile that's on the back wall in the first pic)?

What do y'all think about cast stone range hoods?

I spotted this mentioned in the Traditional Homes magazine the other day at the doctor's office:
http://oldworldstoneworks.com/range-hoods.html

Lee

Circuspeanut: your tiled hood is fantastic! I visit GW to read and learn, and your DIY kitchen is a favorite. I love your beautiful tile!

Koala

i bought my hood material from a different company but the same principle. the material was larger than tile and I think easier to install.

the framing:

This isn't a victorian or even period kitchen, but I do have a hood which we tiled later so I thought I'd share some of the details to see if I could help. I must admit up front that this hood design was inspired by a fabulous tiled hood I saw on GW (it's white with mexican tiles and I can't for the life of me remember the name).

This is the finished hood:

It's a vent a hood insert though...the rest was designed by me and the carpenter we had on site at the time:

The hood is made of marine grade plywood (handles wet better) but is 100% lined with the vent a hood insert which we had rebuilt to the size we needed (french range, american hood). The insert is actually mounted to the wall and hung from huge chains inside the wood body. This is a picture of the hood prior to being plastered (applied over the plywood). The black area is granite tile which is trimmed out in cherry we had made to act as a frame (it has a lip the same debth as the tile so it tucked in as in a frame). Our tile is grouted, and mounted with standard tile stuff (what ever you call the crap that tile is applied to LOL).

Our hood weighs a ton, and you do need to take that into consideration when you are adding tile to a wood hood, hence the stronger plywood and chains. Six guys did pull ups on it to test it :)

And this is the only in progress showing the plywood with no trim...It's a pretty basic shape and easy to copy:
{{gwi:1428545}}

I am now working on a victorian kitchen and have to say that the hood itself could easily be transitioned to a victorian feel with tile on a white painted hoood. And of course...high ceilings! I had to do that hood on a ceiling of less than 8' which was a challenge!

I don't know how traditional you're going...in my victorian I'm hiding the hood in a nook because hoods weren't really found in a victorian kitchen. But if you're not going that true to the look, you could easily have the feel with a tile trim or total tile hood :) CP has a great example! I love that kitchen.

MY hood is framed much like salmon's with plywood and two by fours. I'd personally do that again verses paying a huge price for a wood hood from a manufacturer. Especially with a painted hood with tile highlights...no need to drop the hard cash on that one, and I think you can still get wow (at least I think our hood is wow LOL)

Ohh by the way..I just reviewed the post and see I forgot to add...the top of the hood is plywood with drywall over it on which we added plaster (had a little dude from venice come and do it the old fashioned way).

Great advice. I didn't think I had so many good options on approach. Your kitchens look spectacular. Thanks so much!