DIY Wooden Vent Hood

DIY Wooden Vent Hood

Hey there!!! As much as I love getting my house festive for Christmas, I also love a good quick and easy update around the holidays! We have our family (which resembles a small army of mostly children) over to our home for Christmas Eve. I look forward to it every year and love that it has become a tradition. That being said, I like to have new projects finished before then, it’s kind of a due date for me and gets me motivated! My vent hood update was the project I wanted finished most! And here she is

If you follow us on Periscope, you may have seen the sneak peek of this project and my newly painted cabinets! (What’s Periscope? It’s a mobile app that allows us to broadcast live to our followers AND you guys can ask us questions and we can answer them in real time. Think FaceTime or Skype!) You can find us @shanty2chic on the Periscope App! We would love for you to join us!

The color I had them painted is Anonymous by Sherwin Williams. I had our painter paint them (he’s amazing and if you are local to the DFW area and need his info just email us for it)!

I have wanted to do something fun to the vent hood cabinet (it’s the part over the cook top) since we built our house. I didn’t have the right idea in mind so I opted to just hide it with a cabinet box. The cabinet isn’t functional at all because it has a big exhaust tube running through the middle of it. I love a mantel, over a cooktop, but I wasn’t loving mine so that was something I wanted to incorporate into the new vent hood design. What I came up with was so easy to create and install AND it only cost me about $100 in material!

Here’s how! (I am not sharing measurements on this project because everyones space is different. This tutorial is meant as a go-by so that you can create something similar in your own home).

I started with a piece of 1/2″ Purebond Plywood that I cut to fit flush over the face frame of my cabinet. (The face frame is the 1×2’s that the doors rest on. Then I drew a vertical line down the center point of the piece.

I used 1×4 pine boards (usually called common board at Home Depot) to create the design over the plywood. I made a 45 degree cut on my first board. (All of the angle cuts for this piece are 45 degrees). You can see in the picture above that I slid my miter handle (bottom handle) over to the left to the 45 degree mark.

Next, I lined the first cut up to the mark that I drew down the center of the plywood.

I made the first two boards split the corner, so this board will sit on the right side of the bottom corner. I marked where this piece needed to be cut and made another 45 degree cut.

Then, I laid it on top of the plywood, in it’s spot.

To attach it to the plywood, I applied wood glue

and used my Ryobi 18 gauge brad nailer with 1″ nails to secure it.

I followed the same steps for board number 2.

See how the boards will split the corner. I marked my cut and made another cut.

I laid the second board in it’s spot and attached it the same way.

I worked my way up and across the entire piece. Just measure and cut as you go.

When I made it to the top corners, I was not able to split the corners with 2 boards. It’s an easy fix, just mark where the corner hits the board and make two, 45 degree cuts to fit the corner.

Now, she’s ready for the finish!

I chose Varathane Early American Stain. You can find this brand at Home Depot. If you are shopping Lowe’s, the brand is Rust-Oleum.

I applied one coat of stain using a clean cloth. I let the stain sit for about 5 minutes, then I wiped it with another clean cloth.

To install it on to the cabinet, I called Whitney and sweet talked her into coming to help A Skinny Vanilla Latte and a play date for the little ones did just the trick She showed up the next day with a second ladder in tow! This was very much a two person job and I wasn’t able to get many pictures of the install.

I used my Corner Cat sander to distress the entire piece. I used 80-grit paper for this and distressed it a TON!

I removed the cabinet doors and hinges first. So the inside of the cabinet is exposed and I left the face frame as-is. To attach the piece to the face frame using 3″ Spax screws. I drilled from the front of the piece into the face frame making sure that the screws went into the 3/4″ sides of the cabinets as well.

So far so good I had originally planned to build a mantel to fit over the existing mantel but once I got into the project, I realized that wasn’t going to be so easy and it wouldn’t look as good.

So, I spent an afternoon trying to figure out how to get the mantel off without removing the vent hood and I figured it out It wasn’t easy and I rigged a few tools to get the job done but when there’s a will theres a way. I’m so happy I spent the time removing it because the finished product looks so much more complete.

Now to build the mantel! I didn’t want to spend time building the mantel until I was able to measure the exact space I had for it once the plywood cover was up. This is an important thing in building. Always measure and then cut/build!

I was able to use some plywood scrap to build the mantel. This saved money and a trip to the hardware store. I LOVE my Ridgid table saw. It is a pricey investment but I use it all the time and it allows me to rip scraps down that I wouldn’t be able to use, otherwise.

So, here are the pieces for the mantel. I have a top and bottom piece ripped from plywood, a 1×10 for the front and I cut two smaller 1×10 pieces for the sides. I had to make sure and keep this mantel narrow because I didn’t want it protruding into the walk way of our kitchen – OUCH! I was able to use plywood for the top and bottom pieces because they will sit inside of the frame I made from the 1×10’s so, you won’t see the rough edges on them.

I used my Kreg Jig (K5 model) to drill 3/4″ pocket holes into one side and both ends of the top and bottom pieces. I also drilled 3/4″ pocket holes into one end of each of the short 1×10 pieces.

I applied wood glue to the pocket hole end of the short 1×10’s

and attached them to the long 1×10 with 1 1/4″ pocket hole screws.

Then, I attached the top board to the top of the 1×10 frame that I made.

So, now the mantel should look like this. There won’t be a back and the bottom I put on later.

I used 3″ Spax screws to attach the mantel to the bottom of the plywood cover (this is why I left the bottom off of the mantel. I also drove screws from the inside of the cabinet box into the sides of the mantel for extra support.

Once the mantel was attached, I used my 18 gauge nailer and wood glue to attach the bottom of the mantel.

And don’t worry, I covered up those ugly plywood edges with 1×2! I used wood glue and my 18 gauge nailer to attach the 1×2’s to the cabinet and the vent hood cover. I made the front of the 1×2 flush with the surface of the vent hood cover.

Now to pretty it up! I attached 2 3/4″ casing to the bottom and top of the mantel. This will cover the ugly nail holes from attaching the bottom piece of the mantel. I attached the casing with 3/4″ brad nails and my brad nailer. Measure and cut this to fit. I like to do the front pieces first, then the sides. The sides are easy to sure up because the have a square cut on one end!

I filled my nail holes with wood filler and gave it one coat of the same Early American stain and distressed it all over.

And, that’s it!

I could NOT be happier with the results. It adds so much to my kitchen and because the kitchen is open to the rest of my home, it really adds so much to my home! The best part about this project is that I can dress it up for each season

Like the other items you see in the pictures? Here’s the info!

Marble Cheese Boards: Scalloped: HERE ; Wooden handle: HERE ; Round: HomeGoods

Horse: HomeGoods

Wreath: HomeGoods

Tile Backsplash: The Tile Shop (more info HERE)

Cambria Countertops: HERE

White Cookie Jars: HERE

Marble Cake Stand: Save On Crafts

Salt and Pepper Shakers: At Home

Wooden Utensils: HERE

Wooden Cow Cutting Board: World Market

Wire Egg Crate: Harp Design Co.

Metal Tin: Save On Crafts

White Canisters in metal tin: HERE

Stools: HomeGoods

Original article and pictures take www.shanty-2-chic.com site