Kitchen Hoods

Despite my conflicts over some aspects of creating this apartment, some things are known. The kitchen will have a Tuscan style hood over the stove. Here’s some inspiration for kitchen hoods:

All pictures above are from Tartaruga Design.

Sometimes these hoods are edged with wood. I like this curvy design featured at kitchenbuilding.com:

For a very different look, here’s a hammered and stamped metal hood with gorgeous artistic design:

Beautiful weathered bronze kitchen range hood:

Wow, this zinc hood is 6 feet wide (or, approx 2 meters):

The company that made the custom hood shared above discusses the need for attractive ready-made hoods with moderate prices, such as the one pictured below. So more people can live with beauty. Yes, I wholeheartedly agree!

Similar to the above hood, this company also creates a white enameled hood. Enough variety that something should fit most kitchen visions:

A Spanish style hood with tile:

A faux brick hood that beautifully incorporates storage to showcase your nicest bottles and cooking supplies:

I am really enjoying look at these as I upload them. Many feel so warm and homey, as a kitchen should be. Hope you’re enjoying too. Here’s some more …

I cannot figure out what is on this hood (applique? painted?) but it’s very interesting and colorful. This is a real Tuscan kitchen from one of the Tuscan villa rental websites. Note the differences between this authentic kitchen and the kitchens built by people with lots of resources who want a Tuscan feel. Frankly those kitchens just feel like rich kitchens. This one really feels like the one we cooked in for a week when we visited Tuscany and created many great times and memories. Only this real Tuscan kitchen brings those memories back:

Despite what I say above, it’s still fun to be inspired by all these kitchens whether they’re really in Tuscany or not! Here’s another kitchen in Tuscany. Note that it’s much simpler than those of many people who seek to recreate a Tuscan kitchen:

Yet another kitchen with range hood from Tuscany. Note how it’s common to hang pans on the hood:

Below is the kitchen in the villa we rented in Tuscany a few years ago. We poured over hundreds of villa photos on the villa rental website. We needed a smaller villa as there are only two of us, so we found this one with two bedrooms (many villas can hold a whole entire extended family for a vacation together, very big with many bedrooms). But most important, we could see it had a charming kitchen because we like to cook. It’s a charming country kitchen that real people live in, not just upscale creation for tourists. We liked that. It has two fireplaces including the one you see here in the kitchen. We used the fireplace in the family room to roast eggplants and other vegetables while we drank and danced to American 80s music on the radio! Yes they had an entire 80s music station. At one point a neighborhood cat poked its head in a door ajar to see what was going on in this place. We tried to coax him in, but alas, he decided 80s music and dancing were not for him. The views are beautiful as are most in Tuscany — overlooking olive groves and rolling hills. This villa is located in a rural area about a 30-minute drive east of the town of Greve in Chianti. The owners are lovely people who are available to greet you when you arrive and help you get settled in. We have many happy memories in this Tuscan kitchen, and surely we will return to this kitchen someday, if only for another week:

I adopted a new philosophy about wanting things during the week at this villa. We were sitting one evening at the table on the outdoor loggia here:

Looking at this:

And I was whining about why we can’t have this view at home. Yes, full-on whining. It wouldn’t even be fair to use a euphanism like “musing” or “discussing.” It was whine time. And my husband said, Appa would say, but you do have it. Right now. For now. Enjoy it. It is yours for the week.

Wow.  Yes. He was correct. It was ours for the week. A wonderful week. And that’s probably why we’re creating a Tuscan style kitchen in the India pied a terre. There is no denying it. I still do want more of it! :)