Island - raised back for bar stools behind or one open countertop

15 years ago

Help, please! I am in the process of planning for my kitchen renovation. I will be adding a sunroom to the back of my house and the kitchen will open up into it. There will be an island separating the 2. The island will have my kitchen sink and my induction cooktop with an island hood. I had planned for a raised back to have a lunch counter and bar stools behind. I am now wondering whether it would be better to have a flat counter right into the sunroom. The countertop will be granite. If it is a raised lunch counter behind, the backsplash will be tile. I have seen many photos where the backsplash is the granite. So, essentially I have 2 questions:

1. one flat granite countertop right into the sunroom (means that while I'm cooking, those who are in the sunroom can see the mess) or is the lunch counter better aesthetically speaking

2. should I have tile as backsplash or another piece of the same granite as backsplash?

Thank you for your input!

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Comments (6)

trixieinthegarden
15 years ago
A lot of people prefer to hide the sink and cooktop with a raised bar. A raised bar gives you the advantage of that, plus the safety/splash factor, plus the opportunity for outlets along the riser. The downside is that the raised bar needs 42" stools and that is sometimes uncomfortable for adults and possibly dangerous for children, and sometimes things fall off the back of the raised bar.
eandhl
15 years ago
Which is more important to you. Being able to socialize easily with sunroom activity and having a large uninterrupted work space? Or keeping the mess hidden. Different people have different priorities.
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Count me among the others who urge you to make the decision based on what you really want in your space. I have both. In my home I have a granite island that has nothing breaking it up - no prep sink, cooktop, etc. In addition to using it for prep, it seats 4 and we eat 80% of our meals on it. It suits the kitchen and I love it. In our lakehouse I have a long island with a raised countertop (also soapstone). In that house, where we entertain a lot of overnight guests, I would not want the island to be a single level. When people come down for breakfast, for instance, they can sit at the island with their coffee or juice and chat with me while I prepare breakfast. The spaces are clearly defined, and I don't feel like they're right in my space while I'm cracking eggs and rolling out scones, etc. A tip I got here was to make sure the raised counter had ample enough width to comfortably fit a placemat & dish setting. Having the counter raised enhances the view from the 3-bay window and many casual meals are enjoyed sitting at the island watching the sun rise over the mountains. I would never want to change it out for a single counter-height island. I could offer many examples of why one style works better than the other in each of the houses, but they are subjective and have a lot to do with the flow of each place. That's why my best recommendation is to go with your gut - what you want, and how you'll use it.
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slightly off topic, but still connected with ergonomics... 1) I am unhappy with "farm" sinks that have a cold front panel to lean into when doing dishes or washing veggies. I find myself holding back, which makes the lean forward an even bigger back-killer, plus I'm not relaxed because I'm worried about touching that cold sink front. I decided to put in a regular sink, not a self-front-panel one. 2) I have a popup camper trailer with built-in countertops of a sort, but they are very low, as low as the camper bottom section. In order to work in it, I bought two folding bed trays, the kind for breakfast in bed. They were in a department store, cheap but useful. I elevate the dishpan, the cutting surface, whatever. Very handy and it might help someone with similar issues in a house kitchen. 3) I read somewhere that the new deeper sink trend is a response to people's desire to camouflage dirty dishes in an open-architecture kitchen. If you are embarrassed to have a working kitchen, build a wall between it and your table. Don't compromise your back!
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ugh.... we are just at this point now and realized that our new counter/breakfast bar is 12' with the sink cutout dead center. My wife is stuck on an undermount and we really wanted granite... we will, of course, be getting a few fabricators to bid it. But is it feasible to do the seam with a cutout at the seam? The front edge of the sink seems a bit vulnerable to me. Also the current layout has the dishwasher adjacent to the sink and I guess we'd need to get the cabinet built with a support at the seam. If we can seam at the sink it would be small, just the length of the front setback (breakfast bar transitions to countertop there)... how well does the bullnose normally line up on a seam? Do they polish it on-site? Are we better off getting used to NOT granite? The 12' counter is not negotiable in our design.
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I should have known that you weren't contemplating a bar height range. : / In the New to Kitchens thread is a link explaining kitchen zones. 70% or more of kitchen time is spent prepping, with 10% at the cooktop. I'd leave the current sink and DW, to keep the dish mess off the island, enlarge the window over the sink to match the other one, then center the range and hood between the two large windows. Then add a prep sink to the island--you'll spend less time with your back to the room, and have a larger space on which to prep.
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datura-07
15 years ago
Not many people do a table height counter. WE have had one for 27 years and are in the process of enlarging the island. The designer wanted to do stool height counter but we said no. We have game room chairs at the island and it is so comfortable to sit/talk/watch tv/do paper work, etc. My back gets so soreat a bar stool especially when there is no back.

think about it - I think the flow is perfect when you have the island between two rroms.

good luck with your project.
michellemarie
15 years ago
One designer told me that an island with one height countertop looks more like a piece of furniture. In my case I couldn't do an island without the bar height counter because I had to integrate a steel post into the island. My mission was to find an island that I could be happy with that had the higher countertop. I found some really pretty islands on this website. www.cabinetsatdanada.com
lilyfreak
Original Author
15 years ago
thank you all for your comments.

trixieinthegarden, i hadn't thought about the discomfort associated with the bar stools for older people, that is a good point but I do like the idea of the additional outlets along the riser. I'll have to speak to my KD about that and see if he can include outlets elsewhere if I want to go with a one height countertop.

datura, I hadn't given that a thought but I think I'd prefer either the one height or the raised lunch counter, personally.

Michellemarie, thanks for the website. some lovely islands there.
hestia_flames
15 years ago
Our remodel necessitates a bar height divider, so we are going to incorporate a typical bar foot rest (we don't like using only the ones on the stools, for comfort reasons.) I've linked to one source for you, though I have no idea as to their quality.

Here is a link that might be useful: Supplies for Bar Foot Rest

Island - raised back for bar stools behind or one open countertop

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trixieinthegarden

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Island - raised back for bar stools behind or one open countertop

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