All of these different materials! Joint compound & drywall, stucco & plaster.....UGH! eam, I'm not sure I'll be using either joint compound or drywall....will I?!? If I do, you will be my go to person! :) live-wire, thank you so very much for that article. I like that they're putting the roof felt on the wood, then the wire mesh to stucco over. Even tho I'm not doing stucco, it sounds like a great idea for plaster, as well. But 1st, I'm not sure what the difference is in stucco & plaster. I may be wrong, but I've heard of stucco for being outside of home & plaster in old homes for walls. Perhaps both can be used in the same context & there's just a difference in the ingredients? I'm just trying to do a range hood, a small one at that, but I know I need to take certain things into consideration. First is heat. Then durability in a kitchen where there could be extra humidity, as well. I don't want this to come crumbling down a few months later, or catch fire!! Instead of the lathe, can the mesh take it's place? If I'm using plaster, will that be ok? Are you familiar w/ working w/ either of these materials &, if so, do you have a preference to use? I have a friend that has plastered walls. Walls that are already up & have texture over them. He's going to do this for me, but he hasn't done anything other than walls, so he isn't sure about having to put something on the wood 1st, or needing something else for this project. This is where I think I'm really stuck. I just want a smooth finish that looks like the ones I see in pictures! I love the look. I'm going to be putting a piece of barnwood at the bottom of the hood, as well. Maybe I should be more concerned about that!! :) Anyway, thank you for your help!

We have had good luck getting masonry contractors to do things like this. Plaster veneers are the same process as smooth stucco with a slightly different product. You could argue that if you are doing a poster hood, you should just use a stucco and masonry contractor anyway. In my area plaster workers are hard to find and you can't throw a stone without hitting someone in masonry.

You did give some constructive criticism, and if you noticed, i have backed off of the idea of “cringey” beams that would, as you said, make the room seem claustrophobic. I agreed (in my comments)with your comment about beams that aren’t intrinsic to the structure, and tried to acknowledge this when i clarified my quest later. I also thanked people who reminded me that my inspiration photos weren’t appropriate for the space, and you’re included in that group. I sent a message to my contractor about the venting specifics that you mentioned. Thank you for that. When he gets to that, i can respond to your comment. They’re quite busy and haven’t gotten to my project just yet. I also clarified the rental situation (known and careful enough to weather issues with the plaster hood). Your two comments about “cringey” choices i was considering hit home, and made me reconsider. I guess i can see that “Hobbit” is a silly way to describe “cottage”, but really, i think i just picked up this unfortunate phrasing from decorating pages on the internet. But really, I’m just going with the limited knowledge i have, and it stings when someone winces at my words like you did. It’s pretty condescending. How would you feel if i said the photos you sent were “cringey” to me? I appreciate the photos you sent as well, but the resolution makes it a bit hard to see the details. And to clarify again, cottage isn’t really what I’m going for. I think farmhouse is a better word. But I’m still working on my vocabulary, so i appreciate your help with that! My inconsistent feedback comes with my inexperience. I simply couldn’t imagine that people would be so combative about something that I’m actually (as i said from the start) very flexible about. I mean, if you’d said “beams that aren’t intrinsic to the structure of the home look contrived, counter to your purpose”, rather then “cringey”, it would have felt less like an attack. Your comment had an element of “ouch… your ideas are really awful!” That seems troll-like to me. Bunched in with some of the other condescending comments (did you think the others i quoted were kind?), i think trolling is an appropriate term. But i do appreciate the rest of your commentary very much, and have adjusted my expectations thanks, in part, to you.

The wings are simply bad design. The pull-out spice rack is bad design, and a holdover from the '90s. If your heart is set on the 48" range, just do a stainless steel hood and be done. The plaster hood is not proportional to your kitchen. Also, the plaster hoods are never built deep enough to cover the front burners. So you've spent all that money, and much of what is cooking on the front burners will go onto the front of the plaster hood, rather than up the hood duct. They get dirty and are hard to clean. And you will have to buy separately the liner and motor for them, and make sure they fit precisely - lots of posts on this forum about problems achieving that. A stainless steel hood comes with everything all-in. The stainless steel is wipe-and-go, it's nice to have that gleam in the kitchen. You can get the swoop look, and you can decorate with straps and rivets if you want, or leave plain.