Small Spaces For Less

Meet Dave Kiley. Dave serves many purposes. He is (the best) part friend and part customer. Dave is also my next door neighbor and is a nut about home improvement, especially lighting and appliances.

He is also extraordinarily talented and perhaps the best contemporary renovator in Boston. Look what he does in a small space.



Samsung French door refrigerator, Miele dishwasher, Bosch cooktop, Thermador wall oven and Best hood.

Dave is a style conscious, upscale guy. In a $4500 per month rental, it is somewhat expected...but lets spend less and still have a great look.



By replacing the Thermador with a Bosch oven, Zephyr for Best, Bosch(or GE Monogram) for the Miele and LG for Samsung, we can save about $3500.

The Best of Kitchen and Bath 2008

I was pleasantly surprised by the level of innovation at this years show:


Here are the highlights:


6. Five burner 30 inch Thermador. The middle burner is 18,000 BTU



5.Bertazzoni Induction range...Great look, but it is 10,000 Euro, Thats 14,000 American



4.Viking slide ins: Induction and gas. Funny, they did not have a price listed





3.GE Single/double oven....Two ovens in a single foot print



2.Zephyr Range hoods...Looks like an Ipod. Then again, they share the same designer



Tomorrow is number 1 and rest of the best...

Dennis Macdonald And Range Hoods

Dennis Macdonald became the sales manager of the store effectively replacing me sometime 1 or 2 years ago. He is actually a great guy, good with staff and customers (which means I will have to fire him in a rage of jealousy)...

Dennis is motivated by the strangest things, refrigerator handles, coffee systems, and now range hoods. He has placed 16 new hoods on display from Miele, Monogram, Zephyr, Faber, Franke and whatever else he has decided to hang today.

The average stove burners are 20-30% more powerful than stoves manufactured 10 years ago. Hoods and ventilation in general need to reflect this change

Which one is best? Have a look...The answer is below



Hoods are based on capture area and CFM(blower speed). The cooking product really determines size of hood...There are some decent ventilation posts on the blog, but for the people who need info now:


How to vent:

Capture area: The deeper the capture, the better

CFM: Motor speed, the higher the CFM(cubic feet per minute or literally how many cubes of area are vented

Size of duct: A bigger motor needs a bigger size duct so the volume of smoke can travel efficiently

Duct run: Shorter is better without turning the duct..If you have more than one bend in the duct, you will have greatly diminished the efficiency

Hoods of Wood

Lets look at a picture







Quick question: Where is the hood? Over the range is the easy answer, but when the blower is enclosed in wood, it is hard to distinguish from the rest of the cabinets. A wood hood is simply the blower and the liner. There is a plethora(great word) of manufacturers: Vent A Hood, Zephyr, Faber and Best









But be careful, installation hight and depth are the same as regular hoods. Our hood shell is only 19 inches deep in this installation and as such the blower can not exhaust the smoke properly

Franke Hoods

There are three great hood lines from Italy: Best, Faber and Zephyr. They actually reside(or used to reside) in the same town of Fabriano. Best was purchased by Broan about 10 years ago, which has not been good for that company. Beautiful design emanates from Italy or Spain and cannot be dictated from our country or so it seems.


Faber was just purchased by Franke. Franke is a Swiss sink and faucet company. Perhaps they have learned this lesson, as these new hoods are really eye catching to say the least....


Have a look:

5 Considerations to Buying Appliances

1. Cooking should be first. Dimensionally, dishwashers and to a certain extent refrigerators have similar specification. The biggest decision will always be cooking. Wall ovens and cooktop versus range changes the complexion of your kitchen more than any other appliance.

2. Consider a shallow depth refrigerator. Shallow refrigerators do not extrude into the kitchen for a more linear, customized look. You do not have to spend a ton of dough on a SubZero or other professional style products. Look at KitchenAid, LG and Frigidaire for decent, more affordable products.

3. Rebates. Most manufacturers have had price increases over the past 18 months. However, the battle for market share is so fierce that rebates could total 20-25% of the total product. Often times, the rebates are geometric, meaning the rebates are increased when you buy more from the same manufacturer.

4. Buy a front loader. The cost savings are too large to ignore. Read some of the earlier blog entries. Buying older technology will cost at least $2,000 plus over the lifetime of the machine

5.Vent properly especially if you cook. It does not cost a fortune for a decent hood. Look at Zephyr and Best. You do not want smoke and grease inside your house

The Newest, Latest and Greatest...Ventilation

There were some interesting vents from Zephyr, Viking and Franke(the new owner of Faber)








Zephyr hood....Very nice



The Shade by Zephyr....It is actually customizeable




Franke hood....Yes they are a sink company, but they recently purchased Faber



More Franke....



Even more Franke

Ventilation Types

There are a ton of venting options for your kitchens. We will discuss styles and a few issues to assist in your decisions. You can trust us. We are non commissioned.

The first consideration of ventilation is the output and the usage stove or range. As discussed in the previous post, the vent has to be sized properly. Lets pick a vent:

The most common type is the straight vent or power unit. These hoods vary in price from $60 to $700 depending on style and CFM. Broan has some decent units at lower prices,

but Zephyr has units with higher CFM, and really attractive styling.

Another popular consideration is from Best, which has one unit with variety of separate blower options


A downdraft is decent option in an island design. This vent is commonly placed behind a cooktop, and can be activated or raised when needed. The motor is either housed in the cabinet or on an outside wall. Think of it as a reverse hood, instead of venting up and through the roof, the venting is placed underneath the floor. Although a downdraft is a stylish option, it does not have capture area for professional style products


The canopy range hood is the most popular style of hood for professional and higher output burners. The canopy tends to be a slightly bulkier hood and blowers are usually sold separately at all different CFM levels. Although Wolf, Viking, Vent A Hood and Thermador market decent canopy hoods, look at the Best K260. It is beautifully styled and relatively inexpensive.


The most interesting hood is the pyramid or trinagular shaped hood. This is the consummate statement piece in a kitchen. They can be purchased in different shapes and styles. Although most of them are available at higher CFMs, only one has enough capture area to handle a pro range, The Best k42


The last option is the microwave hood combination. It is likeable, because the cooking products(range and microwave) are in one area, but it has average CFM and capture area, so it should not be placed over a pro range