I could have totally written this post. The familial EFFECTS have been amazing!

Islands and stools are so wonderful!

Not a grammar expert, but it is thE Effect.... that's how I remember it...so you used it correctly....

He is affected by something...the effect of which is something else.

Effect=noun
Affect=verb
Island family dynamic transformation=awesome!!!

I am delighted to hear of the salubrious changes that the island has EFFECTED in your progeny's behavior. What a wonderful EFFECT. How has it AFFECTED your DH?

(Sorry, but just had to use "effect" as a verb, too, to confuse things! Your usage was correct, as has been pointed out.)

What a lovely post. Congrats on your teen. Getting those eyes up from that phone is a real accomplishment. Speaking is beyond.

I moved a wicker sofa into an odd but open space on one side of the peninsula. The cushion is very flat which makes it great for setting down a tray with drinks. Everyone goes there. Made my kitchen suddenly social (no seating previously).

If kitchen is eating the house -- Yum.

Oops, forgot about the verb effect, my bad! I should know better than to give grammar advice...

The island has done the same for my family! Kids (8 and 10) have gravitated to it and I even caught 10 year old helping her sister with her homework on that first night with the stools. I was so pleased I took a picture so I could relive the moment if I ever questioned if it was all worth it. IT WAS!!!!

SO great! I'm finding the same thing : )

Wonderful! We haven't started yet, but that is exactly the result I am hoping for!

I gave my barstools from our last house that didn't work in this one to my next door neighbor. She had lived there several years and had a raised bar but no stools. It bugged me more than them. I had three in the basement so I took them over and they looked perfect in her kitchen. She told me she didn't know how they lived without them before as they always sit there, the kids sit there always and everyone who comes over sits there. While I thought she would just use them until she got some of her own choosing she still has them and had the seats recovered to match her decor. I could not be more pleased. My old stools have a new life : )) and have brought much happiness in their reuse.

How wonderful!

I can totally see how furniture placement and design drive behavior. If you want a person to do something, make it easy and comfortable. It's actually amazing what amoebas we all are and how easily our behavior can be altered by design!

Fouram: I certainly hope you didn't take my post as a reproach. Your advice is/was sound. The verb "effect" is uncommon, and it was probably unhelpful to point it out to someone who is unsure of standard usage. Hence, I would reckon that any misstep was mine, not yours! Best, A_D

This post was edited by Angie_DIY on Wed, Jan 23, 13 at 22:57

A teen voluntarily talking? Now that is an amazing effect!

I always tell my students that Affect = to influence and Effect = the result

Same thing happened at our house. Our teenage daughter was so excited about having the island to work at because at the time, we'd been without a large table/work area for almost four months. She actually "created" a stool using her trumpet case. I had to run out to Target and buy an actual stool so she could sit there and do homework. We finally were able to get stools so we all could sit there.

I figured we might eat a quick bite at the island here and there. We've eaten several suppers there-we are finding that DD seems to open up more when we're not looking at her (as we would if we were sitting at the table). And naturally, all our guests congregate in the kitchen. So that island really is doing what we wanted it to.

I am delighted to hear of the salubrious changes that the island has EFFECTED in your progeny's behavior. What a wonderful EFFECT. How has it AFFECTED your DH?

With improved affect.

Same here -- how many reporters of effect have we now? A lot I'd say, without actually counting. I'm always so surprised when my kids just come snuggle up to our unheated granite with their books. They actually seem to like to be in the same room as me to be doing the homework. It's really thrilling.

That is great! Anything that can get a teenager to talk is priceless!! If I can just keep my island somewhat junk free, it would help:)

Beat me to it, Marcolo.

I'm also pleased to hear that you are enjoying your heated granite, debrak. The issue has come up before amongst those of us living in frigid climes and is generally greeted with shrieks of disbelief and horror by Southern forum members. :-)

That's a wonderful OP. So, I am sorry, but I have to give a different experience! Our last home's kitchen had an island with bar stools, and our current kitchen has a table and chairs. The island's layout meant no one faced each other when eating at the island, and that seemed to encourage wolfing down food barely saying anything, and leaving as soon as the last bite was eaten. Now, with a round kitchen table, we all face each other during meals, and it encourages lively conversation. The kitchen table has really helped bring our family closer. The kids can do their homework on it too, both before dinner, and after the table is cleared after dinner. Because our kitchen is separate from the living room, rather than an open floor plan, the kids can concentrate on their homework at the table, rather than being distracted by the blaring TV in the living room.

So it all depends on the island setup, the kitchen and home layout, and the family dynamics, whether the island will have a good effect or not!

Oddly, I find our tween (surly though she may be) does actually enjoy being around us. She's been the one chatting up how we will be able to work together in the new kitchen with the central work table and two access points to water and the fridge. She apparently has plans to make the salad :-)

Marcolo and circus: well done! (errr..., and well-intended, circus.)

Shannon-she was referencing island usage during her meal prep and daughter homework not meal time when they are eating. That is a big difference.

We have snacks and use our peninsula for what debrak posted about - we eat at the table where we are facing each other. I'm not trying to split hairs but family meal time is much different than other kitchen time.

When I am working in the kitchen and they are sitting at the peninsula snacking/reading/doing homework we are facing each other as well since I'm the one working in the kitchen. We do not have family meals at the peninsula ever.

One thing I insisted on was that we didn't have a row of stools. The island is radiused at one end as I didn't want that ducks in a row type of island.

Sorry shannon your island didn't work out but glad your round table did :)

Its good to hear everyones stories. Glad there are other positive effects.

Saturday (national soup day) I'm having a soup swap at my house. I plan on all the ladies sitting at the island to try the soups. When we are ready for dessert I'm going to ask if they want to move into the dining room or stay at the island. I'm curious what the response will be.

As for the heat, there is no way I would be sitting here right now if this rock wasn't heated.

my kitchen is going on 7 years old now and can still say same story here. my dd was in middle school then and immediately gravitated to the island for homework. it became the place where all the girls hung out during high school (great for keeping an eye on our girls..) and even now when dd and friends are home from college for holidays, they gather here in the kitchen and around the island :-) it has truly become the gathering place of all, just as i'd hoped

I have an elevated square peninsula at the end of my counter run between kitchen and DR - kind of like a table-top with 3 stools (one on each side and one at the open end). So basically it is a bar.

THAT BAR HAS SEEN A LOT OF ACTION! We built it when DD was a teenager, and like kgsmom, lots of teenagers hanging out! I could write a book about all the gossip and girl talk, boy talk, he-said/she-said conversations and lots of giggles.

DH had an excavation business for about 20 years, so lots of "business" meetings were conducted at the bar. Think Red Wings boots, jeans, and lots of dust.

Along comes the GD almost 11 years ago. The perfect spot for coloring, artwork, Pla-Dough, water colors, picky eating. Thank goodness it is laminate.

And of course - its intended purpose - eating. We have all our meals there when it is just us. It is the "serving buffet" when we do use the DR table.

The mail gets opened there; sometimes the bookkeeping and paperwork gets done there when I don't want to go to the other end of the house to the office. Great TEMPORARY landing spot for anything that requires my attention. Gift wrapping station. But I promise, it gets totally cleaned of "stuff" each night except for a cute little Longaberger key basket. Or a note to DH to "remember to do something".

How did I ever live without it?

Autumn - I agree. And while it may sort of be splitting hairs, it's actually what this is all about I think. For us, I agree, I really don't much like eating at the counter - it seems to urge trough-shoveling behaviour. I don't even have a fourth stool for me so I'm standing up. We actually do do this occasionally because I sense everyone wants and nneds a break from the dish schlepping and setting-up. Things are unbelievably busy around here. But I actually never get complaints about the formal-DR sit-down. And this is really interesting to me now, from here, since it all seemed so redundant at the time, to fashion, yet *more* formal horizontal space. It's so hard to see into the future....

But what I didn't realize, prls, was how much those surly teenagers seem to want to breath the same air as you, just not share in any discussion of it. Now my precious youngest is turning all teen on me too (gak), and she, charmingly, tells me that basically every single second where she has to be in public alongside of me if there is a friend around she is mortified with embarrassment. And I'm OK with this because *I* know that at the very same time, she still steals, silently, like her own private guilty important touch-stone of a personal present to herself, down into the kitchen to share space with me while I'm working/she's working. It's not meal-sharing and day-sharing and family-bragging-or-other-wise time; conversation and sharing is not the point. Passively receiving the salve of presence is.

I can't explain it, but it's palpably, empirically true. And it's amazing to me to read so many others' experiences likewise.

But Shannon - I do see and agree that everything's complicated of course and the specifics totally matter. I actually think what you describe is the same as the others here have described -- your round table is +/- the same as the counter and is functioning that way as work-sharing space, as well as eating-space. I think it's the availability and proximity of the space for passive interaction that's the point. Your former setup sounds distancing, not enclosing.... not the right word, "encouraging", perhaps is better?

I'm still really shocked by this. Prls, thanks so much for the thread. Because though I knew this, sort of, I had not at all focused on it or contrasted it with my misgivings about the design and its long-term utility/redundancy, etc. It's actually been kinda teen-family-saving. Like marriage-counseling for teens - just provide shared air to breath; no talking necessary. No talking allowed, in fact!

I love soup and this weather is perfect for it (2 below this morning)! Enjoy debrak - what a fabulous idea. Make sure you come back and report on dessert and table usage v. island.