Galaxy Pistachio Green Hoods

Green kitchens come in four basic plans. Which one you are building decides the hood more than any other factor, because the hood either continues the colour, echoes it or stands against it.

The last plan is worth taking seriously if you love the colour but are nervous about it. A green hood in a Frost or Linen kitchen puts one strong object in the room and leaves every cabinet neutral. Since it is the only green thing, it does not have to match anything, and it pairs naturally with a green-toned backsplash or brass hardware on the neutral cabinets. The hood page lists every shell in this finish; the lighter perimeter would come from the Frost or Linen collection on the same order.

For an all-green room, the Timber shell is the option people overlook. The RHE, RHS, RHCA and RHF families are listed in Timber at the same price as the painted version, which lets an all-green kitchen have one wood object where it will be seen the most. That is the green-and-wood pairing again, placed at the focal point.

Work the wall out in inches. A standard counter is 36″ high. The bottom of the hood usually sits about 30″ above the cooking surface — the manuals for the specific hood and range set the real number, and a gas range will state a minimum. That puts the underside of the hood around 66″ from the floor. Everything between there and the ceiling is space the hood, its chimney or bare wall has to fill: about 30″ under an eight-foot ceiling, about 42″ under nine feet, and about 54″ under ten.

That gap decides the family. Under an eight-foot ceiling, 30″ is not much, and a tall designer shape either crowds the ceiling or has to be hung too low. The slim shell (GPG RHS) or the plain wall-mount box (GPG RHA) suits it best. Around nine feet, the chimney form (GPG RHE) has room to taper properly. At ten feet and above, a hood that stops well short of the ceiling looks marooned, so either choose one of the taller shapes — the designer GPG RHF or the curved-glass GPG RHCA — or bring the ceiling down with a soffit. The chimney sections trim on site, but only shorter, so on a ten-foot ceiling check the spec-book dimensions first. (The listing called Duct Cover, GPG RHBB DCT, will not fill this gap: it is a recirculating kit, not trim.)

The shell heights are not published on our list. The RHA codes carry extra digits — GPG RHA363021, RHA423021, RHA483021 — but the listing does not spell out what they measure, so do not work from a guess. Ask for the height of the shell and its chimney before the wall is drawn, and check both against the kitchen dimensions guide. In a green kitchen the leftover strip of wall above a short hood is especially obvious, because it breaks the colour with a band of wall paint at the top of the range wall.

The hood should be at least as wide as the cooktop, and a size wider captures better because the steam and smoke roll outward as they rise. Over a 30″ range, a 36″ hood is the better answer; over a 36″ range, 42″.

Here the families matter, because they do not all come in the same widths. RHE, RHS and RHF come at 30″, 36″ and 42″. RHA and RHCA come at 36″, 42″ and 48″ — so for a 48″ range, or a 42″ range where you want the extra width, those are the only two shapes that go to 48″. A 30″ RHA or RHCA does not exist on this finish.

Then the cabinets. The hood takes a fixed width out of the middle of the wall, and the uppers either side should be the same width as each other so the range wall is symmetrical. On a 10-foot wall — 120″ — a 36″ hood leaves 84″, or 42″ each side; a 42″ hood leaves 78″, or 39″ each side, which means a 39″-wide upper or a pair such as 15″ and 24″. Draw the hood in before choosing the wall cabinets, not after. And in a green run, match the flanking uppers’ height to the bottom line of the hood so the colour reads as one composed wall rather than a hood dropped between two boxes.

The five families differ far more in how much colour they put on the wall than in how they work — the blower does the work in all of them. In a greyed sage, the difference is especially visible, because each shape is a different amount of green at the most visible point in the room.

A practical reading of that table: if you are building an all-green room and like a lot of colour, the RHF or RHE put the most sage on the range wall. If you are nervous about the amount of green, the RHS or the glass RHCA reduce it without leaving the finish. And if you want the hood to be the one piece of wood in a green room, the RHS and RHCA are the only two with a Walnut option. The wall-mount hood page shows the shapes side by side.

Every shell needs a blower, sold separately: GPG RHBB 250 CFM at $419.25, 400 CFM at $903.50 and 600 CFM at $1,787.50. Size it to the cooktop and the way you cook rather than to the largest number — the range manufacturer and your local code set the real requirement, and in many areas a hood above about 400 CFM triggers a make-up air requirement, which is a separate installation. If ducting outside is not possible, GPG RHBB DCT ($263.25, listed as Duct Cover) is the recirculating kit that converts the insert, and GPG RHBB FLTR ($71.50) is its charcoal refill; a vented hood needs neither.

Duct, cap, electrical and installation come from your contractor on top of these. If the hood has to recirculate, add the $263.25 kit to any row. Send the range model, the ceiling height and the wall width with the layout, and a free 3D design comes back with the hood drawn to scale and priced against the collection. A designer replies within one business day.

An honest answer has three parts. First, every colour dates eventually — white kitchens have been in and out of fashion too — and green is currently popular, which means it will look of its time at some point. Muted, greyed greens like this one tend to age more gently than bright or saturated ones, because they read as a neutral with a tint rather than as a statement colour; this one is nearer a grey-sage than the bright nut green its name suggests.

Second, the hood is the most concentrated dose of the colour in the room. If you are worried about resale, the hood is the one place to be conservative: keep the green to the island or the bases, and put the hood in the lighter finish or in Timber. If you are not, a green hood in an all-green room is simply coherent — and a coherent, well-built kitchen tends to appeal to buyers more than one that hedges every choice.

Third, what buyers notice first is condition and quality: solid construction, doors that close properly, no damage. A well-made green kitchen in good condition is not a liability. If you plan to sell within a couple of years, pick the plan that uses less green. If you plan to stay, pick the one you will enjoy — and judge it from a door sample ($25.00) held up at the range wall under your own lighting, not from a photo. The hood’s own lights point down at the cooktop, so the face of the hood is lit by the room, and it will look a little darker than a door beside a window.