Have you had a kitchen without a vent hood before? I am not a frequent cook, and I haven't had a vent hood for ten years (1960 electric range built into the cabinets, no easy solution.) I really dislike how the cooking smells linger. And linger. Someday I will have a way to vent (other than whining here about it.)

Do you mean that your vent hood will be installed, but it won't really be set up to vent at all? It's just up there for appearances only (and the light?) That would be a bummer. So close, and yet so far.

Frankly I'd probably even enjoy the light over the range (since I don't have that either...!)

I had a client who had a downdraft and there were pendant lights over the range and the bulb of the fixture over the range always burnt out. If the sconce from that fixture didn't project out far, I would think it would be okay.

I would want a recirculating hood just for the grease capture alone. That's what we currently have, although we will be venting outside despite some difficulties in the remodel. We don't eat a lot of "greasy" foods or fry, but the filter still captures a lot of something because it gets sticky/greasy.

I'm almost 68 years old and don't recall ever having a range hood. My range has been under or near a window in at least the last three places I've lived (35 years), so I've never considered installing one, and I, too, think they're ugly. I wouldn't put a sconce there, though. Most likely I'd hide the wiring under an electrical cover plate and hang a washable plaque or rack of utensils over it.

Hoods may be ugly, they in most places they are required by code, and if not, they should be, not because they trap grease, but because they reduce the fire hazard from a range or cooktop.

I'm 70 years old, and although I have done without hoods in past kitchens, I would not do so today -- or seat belts either, which is something else I'll be you did not see as a kid.

I don't have a vent in my kitchen. I cook. It's never been a problem for me. I don't really fry stuff, which I think would be smelly and messy. We purchased our house from a builder who lived there about 8 years before we bought it. It's a quality home. I have no idea why they didn't do a vent. We have good lighting in our kitchen, including under cabinet lighting in the cabinet above my stove.

This isn't my kitchen because I'm out of town and couldn't take a picture. But this looks similar to the trim above my stove.

The OTR microwave died in my kitchen I'll be remodeling and I really miss having some sort of vent. It gets stinky, smoky, and steamy. Given that, I would only do can lights.

I'm always really surprised when people say that their houses don't smell like cooking when they have no range hood. I have a couple friends who don't use their range hoods and my clothes smell like cooking after I visit them, even if I am there when they are not actively cooking.

Thanks for the strong opinion, mrspete.

And yes, it is impossible to vent through the roof in this renovation. Someday, maybe -- whenever we're up for another reno, maybe one in which we don't do most of the work ourselves, making a lot of things possible like roof work in snow and redoing runs in a steam heating system ... Maybe we can revisit venting it elsewhere if the in-the-way cast iron waste stack ever croaks and we redo the layout of the second floor bathroom... But, no, can't and won't do it now.

I've never lived anywhere with a vented range hood, so while it was on my 'would be very nice' list, big windows, light, workflow, placing the fridge IN the kitchen, adding a dishwasher and getting more than 5' of counterspace were the main drivers of our plans. (Imagine almost any given GW "before" kitchen as our dream kitchen.)

We have a basic gas range that does not require a hood. I'm mostly a baker - stovetop use is for boiling water, steaming veggies, stews, soups, sauces and sometimes tortillas or pancakes. No serious frying, no fish, minimal meat. Lots of windows nearby to open in case of burned, smelly messes or a CO detector alarm.

Here's about the only picture of a sconce over a stove I could find:

sconce over range

I would also consider pulling out the wiring for the hood, and ditching it for open shelving like this:

shelves over range

could you vent horizontally and out a wall? downdraft through the basement?

Houses did not have range hoods for many years and cooking wasn't more dangerous because of it, it's really mostly an air-quality control issue. Most people don't cook in a manner that would require fire attenuation like restaurant appliances.

It's unattended cooking that causes most cooking related house fires, and I don't think a hood would have any effect on that. And unattended cooking, according to some reports only causes about half of the fires, and the other half is related to appliance malfunction when no one is around--coffee makers, fridges catching fire, microwaves malfunctioning and turning on, etc. I know someone who lost a house because of a refrigerator fire.

I am astonished at the number of people who don't plan on having any type of hood or any venting. All cooking produces some type of steam or smoke. I didn't know anything about cooking or kitchen design when we bought our first house but I immediately recognized that you need real venting in a kitchen. And no it wasn't because I burned everything, LOL.

Sorry if this is a repeat for some. Recently I forgot to turn on my vent and started to boil water. Turned away for a few minutes and when I went back found water dripping from my cabinets.

Have you ever cleaned a kitchen without a real vent system? I have to occasionally at a rental property. Even the really clean tenants who eat mostly veggies, have gunk on the ceiling, cabinets, etc. Steam mixed with a little dust will create a sticky mess over time.

I don't find hoods or vents ugly. Maybe some are not my style but some are really beautiful. They can be big or discreet. There are a lot of choices.

I heard the codes are changing in our area requiring some new builds to have real venting.

I understand working with what you have. Both pics are pretty. I'd stick with the sconce between the 2 options, easier to clean than the shelves. :)

We can't do horizontal through the wall behind the range because of waste and steam pipes. We could do horizontal along the wall through upper cabinets, but after demo, we fell in love with how open and airy the tiny kitchen became without uppers, and we did not buy any. We've spent our already minimal cabinet budget, so adding any uppers would probably not happen before we close out this permit. Some industrial touches are okay with me, but bare duct along bare wall is just a little too wharehousy...

For downdraft, we don't have a slide in range, so I didn't think that was an option?

Lathyrus, the lights and shelves shown in your photo links both look nice. Personally, I prefer to have nothing protruding over the range, but given those choices, I'd probably find the shelves more useful than the lighting. They look easy to clean if not full of little knickknacks. But the lights might also be handy if your range area isn't well lit, and I like that they can be pulled out and collapsed when not in use.

Reading your list of needed improvements, and as the owner of a kinda
wonky old kitchen myself, the way you've prioritized your needs seems
logical to me.

I think this is one of those trade-off issues that
varies a lot from person to person, based on past experience, and
cooking styles. Shellking, it's interesting that your previous builder owner didn't see the need for venting in a recently built quality home.

Another factor is resale, and you're the best judge of how unusual it would be in your area not to have ventilation. In my neighborhood it frankly would not be a very big deal (I'm just tired of the cooking smells.) In others it might be a deal-breaker, as people would expect it.

In a way it's an opportunity
to do something visually interesting there, if you decide a vent hood is
just not for you. I liked the visual effect of the shelves you posted
in your link, but agree that you'd have to accept the trade-off of
cleaning them. I'd sure think scrubbable when choosing materials, of course.

This post has a number of photos of wall sconces over ranges:
Remodelista: Kitchen Wall Light Round Up

We just moved to a home where there was an island cooktop and no vent. We reasoned that since the kitchen renovation was 10 years old and they had gotten by without it that we could, too. 3 months later, all of our upholstery in the whole house stunk like old cooking odors. A family member have even had a coworker comment on the food smell of her jacket while riding in a car together. No vent is no good. Sure, food AS IT IS cooking smells great, but that same food smell in your upholstery and clothes 3 days later smells horrid, really atrocious. We’ve spent every weekend over the last 3 months ripping open the ceiling, siding, moving lighting, ripping down cabinets to install and vent a hood over the island cooktop. It has been an enormous project -- even if you don’t want a vent yourself, put the duct work in for the next owner before you close that thing up. Please.

Personally I'd choose a recirculating hood over no hood. It would be something non combustible over the range and I think it would at least filter some of the odor.

If you don't want to do that, then I would do a recessed can over the range for lighting rather than a sconce. I think it would look better and be less of a cleaning issue.

Even if the only thing you do is boil water, the steam mixed with the dust in the air will make the sconce and bulb dirty in no time. We only cook about 60% of the time, use our hood regularly, and I'm still having to scrub it (not just wipe it down) at least once a week.

I don't have a hood over my stove, for similar reasons. In a future house, given the proper planning, I will have one. I don't do much frying, which I think should be a big determinant (if you fry a lot, you will probably want to do the uncomfortable thing and at least have a recirculating hood). I also do not mind cooking smells, as it makes a house seem like a home to me to smell all the good things baking and simmering.

In my last house, I had a plugged-in scone with a shade over my range. It was something I picked up at a flea market, and it did get cruddy. I just washed it frequently. It looked very charming and provided needed task lighting, which roughly made up for the chore.

lathyrus, another idea is to do a second thread in the Appliances forum. Those folks were great to help me kick around ideas for our own oddball situation; they are good at brainstorming some of the technical issues, I think.
Appliances Forum

mermanmike, I so agree about things baking and simmering, I love those smells. But for me it's the lingering onions/garlic ***8 hours later***...somehow it's not the same! :-)

crl_ said "Personally I'd choose a recirculating hood over no hood."

This times 1000. Seriously, we still have our old OTR micro hood, vented outside, until we finish our remodel but I've actually started using the fan in it regularly after reading posts here about why we have fans. I used to think it was just to get rid of the immediate odors. Wrong, they do so much more. My entire house is much cleaner since using my fan regularly. I can't wait to see how much cleaner my house stays when the new hood, with more CFMs and quieter operation, is installed. And I only fry something maybe once a month so it's not just frying that causes stink and grease.

I can understand how frustrating it is when you have difficult access for venting so a recirculating hood should have been on your priority list.

My MIL rarely uses her hood and it shows with gunky build-up of greasy dust all over her house and lingering, stale, unpleasant odors that she doesn't notice as she's used to it but the rest of us sure do. And, yes, it can linger on our clothes when we leave. In fact, that's usually when I notice it most. I accidentally left a jacket there and didn't pick it up for a few weeks. The smells were so bad in the car that I took it straight to the dry cleaners, didn't even take it home first.

Please reconsider your choices. I think you'll find it's worth it.

I am not a huge lover of soffits or chases--I am in the midst of major remodeling because I wanted to avoid random soffits or chases when I reworked the HVAC system--but I would consider going out horizontally through a soffit.

I think it could look intentional if it was designed to correspond with an upper open shelf or shelves.

I understand that you love the open look with nothing on the upper, but sometimes the practical or functional aspects have to take precedence over the esthetic. There are plenty of things that I would love to do in my house, but can't because of one constraint or another.

There are a lot of homes that have island cooktops with no vent, just as an example. Not everyone cooks the same way and some people get by just fine without one.

Since you are saying there is no way for you to vent, then I'm not sure what the point is in all the comments telling you that you must vent.

I really like the idea of a sconce above the stove. I might also consider some shallow shelving beneath the sconce. I think that can look very interesting.

This photo is from the link Mudhouse shared above. I actually have this image pinned in my kitchen favourites and I think it's a really cool look.

In food service, any light mounted over a cooking appliance must be of the "shatter-proof" type. That means is the bulb were to pop, the broken glass would be contained within a close-fitting heavy glass enclosure, or the bulb itself must be similarly encased in a plastic tube or coating.
Casey

ainelane, several of us have mentioned recirculating hoods that don't require outside venting would be an option and better than no hood at all. If you really think the cooking style has to do with whether or not some kind of exhaust or air-filtering is needed on a cooktop, you haven't researched this enough. It's a mistake to not have, at the very least, a recirculating system. Period. If I was buying a house without any kind of outside exhaust, I would low-ball the price to factor in the cost of adding it in.

I had a kitchen with no vent hood. There was a transom window above the French doors to the garden but, over time, spatter and stains accumulated on the ceiling and the large light fixture lens in the center of the ceiling was covered with a film of grease.

If you cook, this will happen without a vent. If you don't notice it there is something wrong.

Sometimes it's not possible to vent to the outside. In that event a good quality recirculating vent should be installed. Some of these can be concealed below a cabinet and pulled out to catch everything. That will allow the filter to catch the junk and you get rid of it by washing the filter.

A house or apartment without a vent hood will, over time, develop a certain smell. Odors become trapped in fabrics and on walls and other surfaces. I don't feel that's sanitary or even healthy.

A sconce over a range is something I don't understand. There needs to be proper task lighting. Sconces don't provide that. It's also likely a fire/health hazard as a light bulb bursting above a stove where food is prepared. The picture posted above with the lamp mounted on the wall may be cool to look at but it's also a great example of the safety issue.

The photo with the sconce over the cooker looks like a case study in things NOT to do in a kitchen.

From the grub grabbing hardwired light fixture (409 & wet rag meet electricity)--to the stone or brick backsplash (who wants to volunteer to clean it?)--and ending with the utensil rack hanging directly behind and over the cooker (steam burns are a real B)...

Yeh, it's 'A Look'. But I wouldn't do it because it doesn't play well in Real Life.

Thanks for all the responses so far -- it's clear what I'm contemplating would be somewhere between "different" and "bad crazy," and many of you have brought up different nuanced reasons to give it a hard think.

The hood we bought is convertible, so I'm especially going to mull palimpsest's idea of venting through a soffit but still leaving some open shelves; maybe not now, but as a project for another year.

I've also posted on the appliance forum about the specific recirculating hood we have, and whether it is even up to the task of denting grease and odors.

As to the points about what others who live in the house after us might want, local norms seem to be either an otr microwave, no hood or a hood stuck in an otherwise untouched 1920s-1970s kitchen, making it doubtful that other stoves on interior walls actually vent outside. But worth thinking about.

"local norms seem to be either an otr microwave, no hood or a hood stuck in an otherwise untouched 1920s-1970s kitchen, making it doubtful that other stoves on interior walls actually vent outside."

Our current house was built in 1949 and the current OTR microwave/fan is hooked up to the original venting hole to the outside. Our former home was built in 1908 and when the previous owners remodeled the kitchen in the 1960's, they put in a simple hood that vented outside. Our house before that was built in the 1950's and the original kitchen had a small hood with an outside vent. I really wouldn't assume that the OTR micro/hoods you're seeing or hoods stuck in an older kitchen don't vent outside. I'm sure some do and some don't. Those that don't are still recirculating hoods that catch some of the grease.

It's always been my understanding that gas cooktops require ventilation due to the fumes produced from the gas burn off alone. If you have a gas range I've read you should be using the vent even to boil water just to prevent air pollution in the home.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/06/science/la-sci-sn-gas-stoves-air-pollution-california-20131106

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2013/07/23/kitchens-can-produce-hazardous-levels-of-indoor-pollutants/

I do think induction would be a better choice than gas with no hood, but I'm not sure that's up for change.

I'll jump in on the opinion that any kind of hood, is better than none. We have a log cabin with a loft on the 2nd floor. Because of the design, the vaulted pine ceiling and log walls, it was impossible to have an outside vented range hood. But we still bought an inexpensive one that recirculates. You can put a charcoal filter in behind the grease catching grid and that helps too. In our home which was built in 1956 we added duct work and vented our range hood thru the ceiling 20 some years ago. We had to go a couple months without it recently when we renovated and had a new hood on order. There was a big difference in odors thru the house without a fan to remove them. I can't imagine doing any amount of cooking without something.

My last house had a microwave that recirculated. Even with that, there was always grease on the pendants over the sink which was opposite the microwave and stove. We do eat meat a lot. The house before that had no hood, or a crummy one- there was always grease on top of the cabinets. My current home has a very good hood which I use all the time. There is no grease on the cabinets flanking the hood. The house is much cleaner. I haven't noticed grease on any item or surface.

My friend has an older home with no hood and 5-6 cats and a dog. I have a problem breathing there. I think it is due to the combination of cooking by-products mixed with dust and fur. Maybe even mold. I had to stop going there. Her family doesn't notice because they are used to it or maybe just not sensitive to it.

Our house had a microwave with a recirculating vent. When we moved in we noticed immediately that all of the cabinets in the kitchen smelled absolutely disgusting. They had ancient contact paper on all the shelves. I never could figure out why it smelled so bad until now! We're remodeling the kitchen now and due to space constraints we stayed with a microwave above the range and added the outside vent. Not having a real hood is a big disappointment to me but I felt like I couldn't give up the lower cabinet space. I hope the vented microwave helps with the smells.

Well, a vented OTR microwave will do a lot better job than a recirculating one.

Have you ever shared your kitchen plan here for tips? I'm always amazed at the creativity here. I wouldn't be surprised if someone can figure out how to utilize your space better so you can get a better hood.

Hi Lathyrus, I just thought I'd add my two cents. I opted out of a hood as well and received the same feedback (that I was making a mistake). I have to say, I think it really depends on the type of cooking you do. I don't do a lot of frying (actually, I haven't done anything more than bacon and eggs, and the bacon is very, very, infrequent). I decided to do shelves over my stove, and was still worried that they'd get as messy as people were telling me they would. I will say, I'm a cleaner, but so far, no problems and it's been a year and a half.

I'm not sure I'd put a light there unless I saw a real benefit to it. I have one set back from my stove that adds a good amount of light. I'm not sure I'd want one directly over it.

My opinion on vent hoods is, do you really need one or is this just one MORE kitchen item that manufactora of said product want you to think you need? I have never had a vent hood, I currently have a microwave with a vent and I almost never use the vent. It does turn on automatically from time to time. Did your mother or grandmother have a range hood? I guess they got by without them and probably their house didn't stink that bad or burn down. I don't have a problem with smoky greasy air since I don't fry or deep fry anything, not good for you. My house doesn't stink or have greasy stuff hanging on walls, windows or light fixtures. Range hoods are basically not attractive and take up valuable space. I put them in the same useless category as toe kick drawers. Just my opinion.

Part of if depends upon how new and how "tight" the house is. My grandmother didn't have a range hood, but her kitchen had a big gas range and a big radiator and she tended to crack a window when everything was fired up, no matter how cold it was outside. In my parents' house, built in the 1960s and much tighter, if you saute onions without the fan on, you can smell them in the master bedroom across the house if everything is closed up for the winter. And newer houses are even tighter.

magsnj has a lovely kitchen. But with that range set up there is no lighting over the range -- another benefit a hood provides.

Again, charming kitchen magsnj but way too little light for many.

Just wanted to add one more thing I noticed today.

Background: I have white liners in all my cabinets. We use the range hood fan 99.9% of the time. We have a 30" electric range with a low cost 30" fan that exhausts outside. I fry things occasionally, DS fries eggs every day but has the fan on high.

Today I noticed that in a cabinet close to the range....the white liner has discoloration around where drinking glasses sit. It actually is darker the closer to the range.

What does this mean? That even with using the exhaust fan 99.9% of the time dirt particles are getting inside my cabinets closest to the range! Exhaust fans do matter. Yes, you can live a healthy happy life until you are 105 without a fan but particles of stuff WILL go somewhere.

If it not for the liners being white I would not notice. I have dark cherry cabinets that I wipe down somewhat regularly so haven't noticed anything there but obviously there is still grime floating around.

My lesson to myself and others if you care..... Next time get a hood that extends 3" on each side of the range to increase the capture area. Get a higher quality exhaust fan.

Now I feel compelled to clean out all my cabinets which isn't really a bad idea.

Sorry, it's Sunday (and I'm lazy) so did not read entire post. But, we are looking at a home with a similar problem...snow roof was built over existing vent, so no ventilation in kitchen. The previous owners put in a shelf (?) but it's weird there....so I think we'd replace it with an OTR microwave.

Normally, I'm not a fan (LOL...just realized that was a bit of a pun) but when you have no other ventilation possible, this is an option. And it gets the microwave off the counter. Hope this helps :)

International Fuel Gas Code

501.8 Appliances not required to be vented.

The following appliances shall not be required to be vented.

1. Ranges.

2. Built-in domestic cooking units listed and marked for optional venting.

3. Hot plates and laundry stoves.

4. Type 1 clothes dryers (Type 1 clothes dryers shall be exhausted in accordance with the requirements of Section 614).

The code is not written to ensure that a home is free of lingering odors and that the air is cleaned of steam and greasy gasses that travel through the house collecting dust and settling on interior spaces. It is purely a safety code to ensure that someone doesn't die from carbon monoxide poisoning and such. In other words, not applicable to this discussion.

I don't feel this is a controversial topic. But people get invested in what they know and experience. I throw in what I have learned from having lived with kitchens with and without hoods. As long as I don't have to live with a kitchen that doesn't have a range hood I don't care if someone else doesn't want one. But I have learned the hard way that this forum consensus is generally correct and to act on it.

Thanks rococogurl. The kitchen is really small, I can typically just have the sconces over sinks drainboards on and have plenty of task lighting. When I'm really doing a lot of late night cooking, I turn on all of the lights, and believe me, there's more than enough light on all of the counters. Perhaps that's helped by the light colors and the lack of upper cabinets, but believe me, there's no spot in the kitchen that doesn't have enough light.

All of the comments have been very helpful, thank you all again.

Magsnj, I really appreciate seeing photos of your kitchen. Shelving like that is what we are going with short-term, with wiring in place in the wall to keep the option for a hood (or something else) at some future point.

We now have lights back on in the kitchen, and so long as we don't do looming upper cabinets on that wall, we don't appear to need additional task lighting over the range. So no decorative sconce for now. And for the first time since moving into this house (more than a year ago!) we have a working stove.

I knew a very nice lady who was starting her catering business. She put a huge Vulcan range in her kitchen without any ventilation; well, not completely true, there was an exterior door and three double hung windows. When she had that range cranked up in the winter, you could open all the doors and windows and not be cold. But when she used the salamander (a charbroiler mounted where 2 burners would have been) it completely filled the room with smoke. She simply put a box fan in the widow to push some of the smoke out while pulling in fresh air from the other openings.
It takes all kinds.
Casey

We just redid our kitchen last summer. Originally I had a recirculating hood and the tops of our cabinets always had a thin layer of grease. I don't fry many things, and tend to use the sideburner on the grill outside if I am doing something messy or smelly. That being said, our number one priority in the renovation was venting the hood outside. It was a bit of a process- the range is on an inside wall. The HVAC tech vented up and through the ceiling to the outside. We have a 2 story house, so the poor guy actually crawled through the ceiling on his belly to lay the ductwork. But he did a great job and the kitchen stays so much cleaner, though in the interest of full disclosure the new cabinets go right up to the ceiling so the grease on top issue was solved anyhow. Still it was worth every penny. I would definitely go with a recirculating fan over nothing.

I know what you want. We have a cottage and I am thinking the same thing as we are not putting any upper cabinets in the kitchen, just a few open shelves. Happened on your post because I was looking for lighting ideas also. As for venting we are going to put a through the wall pull chain vent. It will be on the opposite wall from the stove but it is a small kitchen and think it will be fine. Also it will be more in keeping with the 50's cottage style we are trying to preserve. Good luck.