Your beautiful chairs are in danger of getting banged up. You could try to "cushion" the edge of the countertop. I'm looking for something to prevent my wood desk chair from getting banged up on the top edge of my desk. There are "edge protector" products for tables, but the ones I've seen look like crap. Something made for cars (side molding) may work. I'm looking for clear molding, and haven't found anything in clear, yet. Here is a link that might be useful: Body Side Molding This post was edited by GypsyWaterfowl on Fri, Aug 30, 13 at 4:13

Our "aisle" has the island end with a 36" 3 drawer base across from the sink, dw, another drawer base. When one person is at the sink another can be at the island working and even opening drawers easily. No one has to scooch in or adjust body movements. If the dw door is open I can open both the top and middle drawers fully, the bottom drawer can open but not fully. The bottom drawer is not an issue though. The over lap is about an inch. I can still put things in and out with no issue. Typically I open the dw, unload onto the island, then put away from there. The drawer has never hit the dw door. If you have 47" you should be fine in my opinion. The extra 5 inches should take care of any possible overlap. Keep in mind that I can't read all of your post, as the right side is covered in ads for me. I did not understand ripleys post to you but I may be missing something. If it would help and can take some photos and post them. Let me know.

Heatheron40, very nice. I asked a question about doing a tile countertop in our guest cabin recently as I feel like the look would complement the cabin aesthetic. Also I’m dying to learn to tile and thought it would be a fun place to start as it’s not an everyday space and I could take my time. Most of the responses were against. Basically stating the grout would make me crazy. The guy at the said what you’re saying I think, he said that modern grouts are more resistant to staining and such, and also to go with a tinted grout of some sort. I love your use of pattern to give it interest and intention!

You're going to have to find and sit in on the spot to be sure it's comfortable for you.