Here's a sketch of that wall:

Love Plain English! I think it would look fine to have the bulkhead/soffit on both sides of the hood, but you could use an open shelf under each side, to make it look more like a planned feature.

Do you know which direction the ceiling joists run? If parallel to the range wall, can you run the duct through the ceiling to the outside wall?

I agree with mamagoose, the bulkhead is fine. I might run electirc in it and have two task lights, like Library Lights mounted on it. Also, for balance, I might use art instead of shelves.

It seems that your goal is a more open and airy feel. I think to achieve that feel, a small bulkhead to cover the duct will be better than any attempt to hide it. Also, if it turns out that you don't like the bulkhead alone, you can always add a shelf or case.

It is a nice kitchen but I would be pulling out the backsplash for sure if it were mine!

Raee, yes the goal is to make it feel lighter and more open. You wouldn't guess that this kitchen is south facing with its current colours and materials sucking the light out of it, but it is!

Mamagoose, would you run the crown along the bulkhead, or just have it end at the bulkhead? And just have the bulkhead over the cabinets on both sides of the hood, and not along the entire length of the wall?

localeater, I LOVE the idea of a pair of articulated sconces on each side of the hood. Two questions: 1. Will it seem odd if they aren't aligned with the pot lights? 2. The bulkhead is only 7.5" tall at the moment, so if we have the 4" crown run along the bulkhead, only 3.5" will be drywall. That's not enough for the light plate. So if we do lights, do we not run the crown along the bulkhead or do we make it taller? How much space should we along around the plate?

I'm a huge Plain English fan so I understand the look you're trying to achieve. Can you truly afford to give up those upper cabinets on the stove wall? That's a lot of storage real estate! And if you someday put in a larger window on the sink wall, you will be losing still more uppers. Remember - many of the Plain English kitchens are ENORMOUS and also have a butler's pantry where not only are the dishes stored, but often the refrigerator is in there as well. It's a look that is very difficult to achieve in an American home. It took me many months to accept that fact!!!

I would make the soffit a few inches deeper (or maybe that should be taller) and add the lights. I removed part of a soffit in the kitchen, over a doorway to an addition, and left the part over the sink and upper cabinets, because it holds the electrical wiring for the light over the sink. I ran the ceiling trim all the way around it. Here's a pic of that corner--and if you look closely, you can see that the replacement ceiling tiles have a slightly different pattern from the others. : /

I'm leaning toward just doing the bulkhead on the left of the range. If it looks all wrong we like the idea of an open shelf like this. Would it be oddly asymmetrical?

I am a person with no uppers in my kitchen. I love it and will be hard pressed to move someday to something else. Have you looked into converting your base cabinets to pull outs?

Personally, the built in shelf to the left of the stove would feel constraining to me. I wouldn't like it impinging on my counter space to the left of the stove. I cook a lot. And I do canning. I really like workspace open on both sides of cook top.

If you want to do lights on the soffit I would make soffit 2inches taller than the lights backplate.

I love Plain English as well! I have spent 5 years dreaming about my kitchen, and it still makes my heart sing more than anything else, so I'm going for the look, too.

I think that the open shelf you have pictured would be awkward right next to the range. I am imagining a large stock pot or frying pan on that back right burner that wouldn't fit or would be pushed against and touching the side of that shelf. Usually you see the confined look around those giant 48" ranges that give you lots of inside burner options for big pots and pans.

I have a similar problem in my kitchen, and because I also need the storage, I am going to have a free-floating cabinet to the right of my cooktop. Mine will not be glass and is a narrower spice cabinet, but it won't be fitted to the range hood on the left or the oven cabinet to the right, which in our drawings, makes it feel less awkward and more intentional without the cabinet to the left(instead of having a "run" that just stops shy of the wall). Something like this:

Painted and Wood Kitchen · More Info

I have another such cabinet on the short wall over the peninsula in the dining room side of my kitchen, and both cabinets will be lighter than my base cabinets to help achieve the airiness.

You see the look of the free floating cabinet in a number of Plain English kitchens, though I can't easily find some of their older designs that used it more (in more modest sized kitchens).

Localeater, I have felt penned into a very small galley for too long, and the idea of an open and airy kitchen is too much. I can't wait. And a full wall of windows out to the garden? Worth the wait!

Five of the base cabs are already pull-outs, and the pantry right of the fridge pulls out as well.

I think adding the lights would roughly double the height of the bulkhead and would mean running it on both sides of the range hood. I love library lights but part of me feels doubtful it's worthwhile. I'll have to sketch it up. A 7.5" tall bulkhead only 6" deep just to the left of the hood, all painting white, and with 4" concealed by crown, seems less imposing than one twice the height on both sides.

LindsayMarie, you're right--it would feel restrictive. It's also probably just a bad idea to have wood that close to a burner... I sure like that shelf though!!

Mamagoose beat me to it! Thank you!!

Mamagoose, I had suggested using the 2 cabinets left of the range to flank the hood with an open shelf in the left corner. My husband shot it down. He figures if we're going to the effort of removing all the uppers he doesn't see why we would put them back. As a cook with a huge assortment of spices, cupboards beside the range hood make some sense. I'm a little torn between form and function.

Lindsay, the floating cabinet wouldn't help conceal the bulkhead though, unless it ran to the ceiling. Then it would just look like an upper cabinet without doors or with glass front doors, right?

I did not want a bulkhead in the kitchen to run the vent. My laundry room was behind the range wall. So I have a soffit above my laundry room cabinets.

What do you think? I think this could work. I stripped the lacquer off my brass hardware yesterday and it's so pretty! More questions on this kitchen to come, including: Faucet choice: brass or black? Am I right to prefer the look of the pro-style Jenn-Air over the Kitchenaid induction range? And many more!

I think it looks pretty if you don't think you'll mind losing the counter space. It is not as tight as it would have been on the right. You will probably appreciate having the storage.

We started demoing the kitchen ourselves over the weekend and it was unnerving. The wall behind the backsplash were a disaster. It felt like we were ruining something that was perfectly functional. But so much more open and bright already!

The range, which we'll replace, is pulled away from the wall by a couple of feet because there was no tile under the cabinets we moved.