We have a L shaped island with a cooktop and room for seating on the back side. The countertop is raised to bar level along the back L and works well. I think your DH is probably right on this one. That being said, we have decided not to have any stools at all. We like gathering the family around the table. Beyond that, the bar ends up being the buffet spread when we have a party. It is also a great place for gathering to keep the cook(s) company. The higher bar is comfortable for leaning on while standing and provides another height for work surfaces (all the adults in our house are tall--we have tall counters everywhere except where appliances dictate a lower height). Stools would just eat space and make our open flow less easy to navigate. HTH Brian

The problem (or maybe there isn't a problem) is that there will be no raised countertop. We just removed the higher countertop in favor of doing one level, large countertop on the island.

A couple of thoughts:
1. Kids will LOVE to hang out and watch you cook (until they want to get in there and help you!). Setting up seating space for them to do so acknowledges a reality and will make them feel included. (in the old kitchen, the thing my son lamented the most was no space to hang out and watch me work - we now have a counter for him, complete with stools!)
2. Measure out 28'' at a table. Sit a kid down. Ask him/her to reach across and get whatever it is at the 28'' mark, still seated. Is 28'' enough?
3. If you want to use the counter as a buffet occasionally, then get backless stools that slide under the counter.

HTH

Thanks Mommycooks. I'll have my daughters sit at the table and take some measurements. I do know they like being in the kitchen (and sometimes "helping").
Astrid

My sister has it, and everyone loves gathering roung the 'fire', even when the stove is off. When actual cooking is going on, its very nice-- casual fun, the cook is included and the food and cooking are literally central to the experience...

But her island is about 44 inches wide, and I wouldn't go much narrower. You also don't want to be sitting there while bacon is being fried. If her cooktop was strong enough to put a good sear on a steak, that might be a little uncomfortable, too.

She has an awful Jennaire cooktop that lacks the guts for high heat dishes. Since the area is separate from the living/dining, she could [should] have gone with a better cooker and overhead venting. [For people who haven't been on this site for long, the 'con' of this layout it that in an open plan home, the venting can be an issue-- cuts off the cook's sight line and routing the vent pipe is difficult if there is finished living space above.]

Our island is a little over 4 feet deep with a Blue Star gas cooktop on one side and seating on the other. There is about 27" of countertop between the cooktop and the seats. With the previous island and electric cooktop there was 24". Even the 24" was fine - it was far enough to keep the heat and spatters/splashes far from people sitting at the island. I'm not generally frying on the back burner so any frying action is more than 3 feet from the seats.

We do have a big hood 30" above which puts it out of my sightline. Island hoods are more expensive (because they are finished on all sides and have to have the internal structure to support them instead of using a wall). It is worth it too me because I like this spot works for my kitchen.

There are solutions. If you're concerned about your children operating the burners, you can get a cooktop with a child safety lock, which the child probably can operate if they're at all clever but which will slow them down. Also, you can get a vertical frame to place around the cooktop to help keep fingers from getting in the way. I purchased one at IKEA (not going to link it; it's a pain to find on the website). I haven't tried it yet; so I can't tell you if it actually works, just that it's out there.

The bigger issues, described by previous posters, are boil-overs and popping grease. Will you have any sort of a lip on your cooktop to keep boil-overs from oozing across the counter and into the abyss? Also, I know from personal experience that splatters can fly fairly far.

We're building an island with a cooktop and seating right now, but the seating is at a raised bar. That said, there's still the possibility of a child climbing on top of the bar or over-reaching from across the bar and tipping over it.

Hth.

We used to have a peninsula with a cooktop and seating opposite and it made me very nervous with the kids. My kids are young, though, and still too young to completely understand how dangerous it can be. Boiling water was no big deal, but cooking fish or anything that sizzles and splatters was a real concern. Unfortunately I never measured it, so I can't help you with exact dimensions. I still have the kids at the island, but the cooktop is now on a perimeter wall and the sink is on the island with the kids. IF I had kept my cooktop on the island, I would have probably made it multilevel or made some sort of barrier. One of the designs I had was to put a pony wall up directly behind the cooktop to separate the areas (the island would still be all one level with this small wall only behind the cooktop), but I was never able to really envision what it would look like. My KD assured me it would have looked great, though.

I have young kids and I have to say I would never want an island cooktop, even if they were older. Grease splatters, and could cause a pop that flicks someone in the face. Pots boil over. Knives and other dangerous cooking utensils are left nearby during cooking. Just seems like a recipe for disaster, especially if you're considering a continuous countertop as the OP talked about.

Think about someone sitting doing homework at the island. You wouldn't want to use the back burners -- paper could catch fire, too hot for a laptop. What's the point of a good cooktop if you can't even use it?

When I'm cooking, I like to have all of my pots, knives, implements, etc., along a wall so that I can push them to the back, turn handles to the side or back, and know that nobody can accidentally get hurt on them. Islands, IMHO, are best saved for baking, cleanup or prep work.

My mother has her cooktop in her island with seating on the opposite side. It is everyone's favorite place to sit. She does a lot of cooking when all of us are there and the kids enjoy it so much. I don't know the measurements but I am not aware of any problems with safety thus far. It is a one level island and she has a gas cooktop.

I've been cooking in my new kitchen since Thanksgiving and I am very happy with the island/cooktop/bar we installed.
We have a 5' raised seating area behind our 36" cooktop with a popup vent. The island is 91" long and 41" wide on the ends and bumps out to 48" wide where the raised section is. We have counterheight bookcases next to the raised section and an overhang behind where we put narrow saddle stools, so the island seats four, two bar height and two counterheight. The counter height stools are 27" away from the cooktop which is plenty of distance from spatter, (I don't fry a lot). The raised bar diners are about 24" from the cooktop and the pop up vent is a great barrier~if I need one. I love having people around me while I'm cooking and since I store my plates in a drawer next to the cooktop I can plate our meals and pass them to the diners without taking a step! Good luck with your design!
Jeannie

We have our cooktop in our island with seating.

It is a 4 burner. My kids are 9 and 7 and we have never had any issues with them and what is cooking.

I think our island is 5 feet by 5 feet.

My main reason for choosing not to put a cooktop in the island was that I would be worried about tipping over tall stockpots. I will frequently have all burners going with huge stockpots on each one. With raised gas burners, many times, the wall behind my cooktop has saved a pot from tipping over. The thought of a 16 quart pot of simmering gumbo spilling off the back burner--even if no one was seated at the island--was enough to convince me to keep the cooktop on the perimeter.

Also, I love the look of a huge expanse of island countertop uninterrupted. Mine will have a prep sink at one end, but the rest is available for whatever work I can dream up for it.

My sister-in-law has an island with seating on one side, and gas cooktop on the other. Once while eating breakfast there, and shuffling through the Sunday paper I glanced up and noticed that one of the sections of paper slid too close to the cooktop and was now aflame. Yikes.

I quickly extinquished it and disposed of the evidence, and I don't think my sister-in-law was ever aware of the near-disaster, since she had left the room to awaken her son. Later when she (or her husband) asked if anyone had seen the missing section of the paper, I sheepishly disclaimed all knowledge.

Although, I think I may have just confessed since she often reads this forum. Sorry sis-in-law.