Because the heart of the home is the kitchen, it deserves the finest touches. When we design luxury kitchens, every detail matters, including the often-overlooked hero, the extraction hood. It’s not just about removing smoke and odours; a high-performance hood can be a statement piece that complements the design and elevates your cooking experience.
Function Meets Form: The Hallmarks of a Luxury Hood
High-end extraction hoods go beyond basic functionality. Luxury kitchens handle serious cooking, but they also need to look fantastic. When designing handmade kitchens, we look for hoods with powerful motors that swiftly clear the air, ensuring a fresh and comfortable environment when cooking for friends and family. A powerful hood shouldn’t come at the cost of noise, however. Luxury models often boast cutting-edge technology for quiet operation.
Style of Extraction Hoods
Extraction hoods come in many shapes and sizes, from sleek stainless steel finishes to statement natural metal panels and integrated lighting. Hoods are designed to complement your kitchen’s aesthetic, so they can become a statement feature or be cleverly integrated within cabinet design. We’ve worked with them all, even reclaimed ones, which can look fantastic. The beauty of a handmade kitchen is that you and the designer get to choose exactly what you want.
With a variety of styles available, you can find a hood that seamlessly integrates with your design:
- Classic Chimney Hoods: The timeless choice, chimney hoods offer a touch of grandeur and provide excellent extraction.
- Island Hoods: Perfect for open-plan kitchens with central kitchen islands, island hoods make a bold statement and ensure effective ventilation from the cooktop’s location.
- Downdraft Hoods: For a minimalist aesthetic, downdraft hoods discreetly integrate into your cooktop, rising only when needed.
- Undercabinet Hoods: Ideal for space-saving, undercabinet hoods provide effective extraction in a low-profile design.
Extraction Hood Features to Consider
High-end extraction hoods offer additional features to enhance your kitchen experience. Some may provide perimeter extraction, which draws fumes from the edges, ensuring more effective odour and smoke removal. Integrated lighting is a great way to illuminate your cooktop for optimal visibility. Touch controls and sensors are sleek and intuitive, adding a modern touch to a handmade kitchen. Some hoods feature sensors that automatically adjust fan speed based on cooking intensity, ensuring optimal performance with minimal effort.
Papilio’s Favourite Extraction Hoods
Georgian Townhouse Kitchen in Bath
For our Georgian Townhouse Kitchen in Bath project, we designed a beautiful bespoke kitchen in a Grade I listed Georgian townhouse. The design needed to keep in with the property’s architecture but with a contemporary twist. We selected cool Neolith ‘Sintered Stone’ worktops that seamlessly interact with the original stonework, perfectly framing the LaConche range cooker. A bespoke Westin extraction was encased in a custom-made patinaed brass canape to omit a warm golden glow, which was repeated around the room in the brass detailing on the hardware, handles, pulls, and shelf brackets by Armac Martin.
Mid-Century Inspired Kitchen in Somerset
We designed a lavishly spacious kitchen in the heart of Bath for our Mid-Century Inspired Kitchen in Somerset. It features two bespoke kitchen islands, a mini living room, and statement reclaimed and original furniture pieces. The extraction hood had to be in keeping with the mid-century styling and copper touches throughout the design. Together with our client, we decided that the copper hood from the original kitchen be reclaimed, matching one of the kitchen islands clad in untreated copper, which will patina naturally over time.
A Kitchen in Bath
We cleverly integrated the extraction hood in our Kitchen in Bath project to match the expertly made cabinetry. The main kitchen space was flanked by parallel perimeter cabinetry painted in Farrow and Ball‘s ‘Drop Cloth’ colour. We painted the cabinets and hood encasing in the same colour as the walls so that they recede, maintaining the feel of openness and light. The bespoke extraction and high shelving were built above the Everhot range cooker and a Miele gas hob and combi oven with bespoke extraction and high shelving.
So, don’t underestimate the power of a well-chosen extraction hood when dreaming of your new kitchen. It’s the finishing touch that will ensure your kitchen is beautiful, functional, and a joy to cook in.
