allcash

My stove/oven is in a freestanding island. The range hood and cabinets hang from a soffit above the island. I'm trying to remove as much of the cabinets/range hood housing as possible to create a view from the kitchen to the dining/living room.
I removed the back paneling and can see now that the range hood (30", basic) is supported by an inverted T-shaped cabinet. It appears that I can break away the cabinets to each side of the range.
I plan to install another basic range hood: black, 30" (would just do without but will have to install before selling in a few years.)
The range hood is vented to the outside through the ceiling.

1. Is there some support the cabinets on each side of the range hood cabinet provide that I may not be seeing? (The cabinets appear to be just glued side by side.)

2. If I remove all cabinets including range hood cabinet, can I simply mount the new range hood under the soffit without a supporting/hiding cabinet? It may look ugly but I could hang something like a stained glass panel behind it to camouflage it, and I will paint the duct black to match.

3. If I can mount it on the soffit, would I still use the long chimney duct or could I use a shorter duct and raise the hood up a bit? (If I can raise it I could build a canopy that would hide the hood; the height it is now would make the canopy nearly as wide as the current cabinets.)

3b. Is there any code about how far a range hood and stove top can be from one another? I'm in CA and have been unable to find this info.

Thank you for any and all advice.

glennjanie

Welcome AllCash:
You could remove all cabinets in the hood area and use a four-sided hood suspended by small chains at each corner. A rack for your copper cookware around the hood would look nice too.
Glenn