Choose the vent room by room.

Choose the vent room by room. A bathroom, a kitchen and a living room ask different things of the same opening, and the lookbook is arranged by space. HiFi's proprietary, patent-pending design and manufacturing process makes any shape, size or pattern fit the duct behind it, so the choice can start with the room. Decide what each finished room should show, then match the face, the connection and the access to it.

Start with what the room should show

A plaster-in vent starts the same way in any room: the outer flange is finished into the wall or ceiling and painted to match the surface, so the room sees the opening, not an applied rim. What remains is a choice between an opening that recedes into the surface and a pattern the room is meant to see.

A full plaster-in face takes the finish across the grille, so only the openings show, and it stays fixed once it is finished. A magnetic removable face keeps a grille that lifts out for cleaning, set flush with the surface or inset. An inset grille can be painted to match the wall or in a contrasting color. Round or square, fixed or removable: each room gets the one it suits.

Bathrooms

A bathroom is a small room with a lot of decisions in it: tile, mirror, lighting, fixtures. The lookbook shows a 4-inch round in a hotel-inspired bathroom and in an everyday one, and the same opening can just as well be square. With a remote or inline bath fan, the motor sits elsewhere in the ductwork and the vent is the outlet: round or square, fixed or with a magnetic removable grille, connected straight to the duct with no register box.

For a fan mounted in the ceiling, HiFi makes a custom flush grille to replace the fan's cover, in any shape: round, square, linear or a pattern of your own. Send us the fan's model number and we'll make it fit.

If the room is cleaned often, choose a removable grille, which lifts out for cleaning.

Kitchens

A kitchen already has plenty to look at: cabinet lines, a hood, open shelves, hardware. One kitchen in the lookbook sets a fixed linear register high on the plaster wall, finished into the surface, so the vent reads as one more line in the room. Another, an English country kitchen, goes the other way with a hexagon honeycomb inset, a pattern chosen on purpose.

Both are register faces. They fit the square or rectangular register box or boot already in the wall, so the size on the order is the size of that opening. Measure the box before ordering, and choose the lip height for the finish: 1/16 inch for joint compound, 1/8 inch for plaster.

Living rooms and bedrooms

These are the rooms where people sit and look at the walls. A linear register finished into plaster keeps the wall calm and lets the furniture, the art and the light carry the room; the lookbook shows it in a living room and in an apartment. A chevron face adds a pattern and still defers to the room, as in the lookbook's warm modern living room. On a plain painted wall, a 6x6 face plastered in and painted in the wall color asks for very little attention.

The same thinking holds in a bedroom. Pick the face for the wall it sits on, not for the duct behind it.

Ceilings and floors

Ceilings work the same way as walls. The rim is finished into drywall or plaster and painted with the ceiling, which suits rooms where the wall space is already taken by windows, cabinets or art.

Floors work too. The floor outlet in the lookbook, a fine line set into hardwood, is one of the high-velocity outlets and is secured from below. For any other system or floor finish, tell us the duct and the surface and we'll make it fit.

Hotels, restaurants and galleries

The lookbook also covers hospitality, restaurants and art spaces, where the walls do much of the work: a hotel bathroom, a restored restaurant, a gallery wall that should keep the attention on the art. The order of decisions stays the same. Decide what the room should show, then match the face to the system.

From room ideas to an order

The lookbook images are concept renderings, made for inspiration. The exact model depends on the system, the connection, and whether the wall is open or already finished. Find your vent narrows the family in a few questions, and its project list lets you add a room to each product, so the schedule reads room by room.

When the rooms are chosen, there is no need to build the order in a cart. Send us your list in any format, from a spreadsheet to a photo of your notes. We'll match each vent to the catalog, confirm it with you, and send one invoice for the whole order. A shape, size, pattern or connection you don't see in the catalog goes on the same list: tell us what you need and we'll make it fit. HiFi offers a standard catalog of sizes and patterns, along with custom options for project-specific requirements. Orders typically ship within 2-3 weeks.

Start with room ideas in the lookbook, choose the faces in the catalog, then send us your list.