I went with the raised bar to hide my dirty dishes and to provide a visual cue as to what kind of crap can be deposited where. I don't regret it.

I think flat gives you more usable space. Dishes don't bother me because if I'm entertaining I try to have dishes cleared out!

I think it may depend on your island. I have had one island with raised bar and couldn't wait to take a sledge hammer to it.

Went from raised bar to flat island and couldn't be happier. My sink is on the perimeter. It's deep enough to get stuff out of the way. My husband wanted a raised bar. I fought him tooth and nail on that score. He loves the way it turned out!

We have a peninsula that is flat and it's so great for all sorts of tasks beyond kitchen duties -- wrapping packages, laying out fabric, etc.

I like flat islands visually and functionally.

I prefer the one level island, but I have seen some really cool raised islands, especially with the solid piece of wood on top. I agree with benjesbride-I think the deep sinks help hide the dishes.

I think it depends on your floor plan and how you most often use your space.

At our home, it's primarily (empty nesters) DH and me. In addition to prep, our island is where we have most of our meals. I prefer the comfort and convenience of counter height seating and I like to use the expanse of the island for other things, like folding laundry. I like the openness of the space here and we have a separate dining room so that company isn't eating in close proximity to heaps of prep dishes. For those reasons, we did a single level here.

At our lakehouse we did a bi level island with bar height seating. We have many guests there and I'm often prepping food while chatting. I prefer them being seated on a separate level where they can enjoy a beverage or snack & not be in the prep area. Also, the dining table is adjacent to the kitchen space, not in a separate room, so I like having the option to have things like carving boards, grill pans, & other non pretties out of sight from the dinner table. The floor plan is set up so you enter the LR & face the kitchen, so the whole area looks neater with the bar hiding the workspace. So for that home 2 levels seemed the better choice.

I would add that if little kids will often be sitting at the island, counter height would be a preference over bar height.

Jarlaw, I am designing a kitchen at the moment and have opted for a flat island. Mainly because I wanted to use it for staging/prepping and other tasks such as crafts etc. occasionally.

Another thing that I read around here is that, for eating, most comfortable height is table height, followed by counter height (read flat island), followed by bar height. In short, people do not find bar height very comofortable for eating for long time. That was an additional factor for me. If you plan your island for just occasional, casual drinking of wine then bar is ok but otherwise go for a lower height.

I think it depends on the lifestyle of the people in the household. Some folks routinely clean as they go and their island/peninsulas are clear and clean as soon as the work is done. Other folks are more the laid back, "We will get to it" types.

As a guest, I'm not comfortable looking at someone's dirty dishes straight on and putting my arms on their possibly sticky counters. A bar height counter above sink/prep space minimizes this and still provides the space to lay out a buffet for entertaining.

We have a bar height - but plan to lower it to counter when we remodel this year.

I'm doing it more for "looks" b/c I think it will make my space look larger - plus, it will be nice to have one large flat surface (for the reasons listed above)

I do wonder how my dish soap, and other things that I have on my lower counter right now will look when the whole thing is one level. After 10 years, it will be something to get used to.

From a seating perspective - I actually enjoy sitting on bar height chairs.

Not much help here.

In our previous home we remodeled and took out raised bars on both the peninsula and island. Absolutely hated them (clutter collectors). We replaced both with flat surfaces that we loved for the 8 years we continued to live in the house, post-remodel. In this house, a raised bar wasn't even a consideration. My 4 X 10 island is FLAT!!

I used to have raised bar in my old house which I have tons of stuff behind it because they were hidden by the raised bar. In my current home I have flat peninsula and it has been nice and clean! For me, it was the "convenience" that "makes" me lazy and messy in my old kitchen and now I cleaned up after myself every time and it's such a nice feeling to see the beautiful kitchen! Good luck!

We are going with flat for our peninsula, there will be an overhang but we don't plan seating there since we have the dining table and chairs there would not be space. We don't leave dirty dishes on the counters, they go in the dishwasher, so no need to hide them!

Our last home had a flat island and I loved it. The one we're in now has a raised portion and I can't wait until we do our kitchen reno and get back to a one level island. Nightowl best described how I currently feel when saying "couldn't wait to take a sledge hammer to it".

One level counter height for us. DH sits at the island and reads the paper every a.m. and couldn't do that on a raised bar. For entertaining and serving, having the large area to spread out food is wonderful. For baking, having a large flat counter to do rolling on is perfect. For us, we wouldn't have it any other way.

We have a long wrap around raised island. If the island was much shorter I'd prefer a flat bar. I love it. When I'm cooking a recipe from the Internet I place the laptop on the raised part. It's at the perfect height for me to read the recipe and it stays out of the food prep area. My raised island hides any mess and and it's great for parties. We lay out the food on the raised bar and drinks on the lower portion. My kids prefer to eat breakfast at the bar. We're designing a new house and the architect designed the kitchen with a flat island. He was shocked when I insisted he replace it with an island similar to the one I have in my current house.

DH likes to sit at his laptop every morning, so he asked for a raised
bar like we had in our previous house. I could have gone either way, but
it's really worked out nicely. With our L-shaped island, it really maximizes our gathering space while still keeping the main cooking area free from congestion. And I like that I don't have to worry about
spilling anything on his laptop :) Forgive the weird color cast on this photo, but you get the idea.

I'm a "clean as you go" kind of gal--by the time we sit down for dinner, there aren't any dirty dishes sitting around. I think it just depends upon how you use your kitchen.

Flat.

Thank you for all the comments! Lots of things for me to think about. If I go with the flat, I hope I'm like yeh_yeh...just being lazy due to the convenience of the raised bar hiding my clutter.

I have a peninsula and went with a single level flat counter - it's a 90 inch counter run and wanted to be able to have a large surface are for baking, buffets and overall counter space for siting, gathering in the kitchen. I also have three young kids, and felt that the bar height stools would just be too high off the ground for us to sit safely & comfortably. Either way, the angle wasn't going to hide my sink dishes but the new kitchen has motivated me to put dishes right in the dishwasher anyway, so that want really a factor in my decision. Also, I have lo;wer ceiling (New England Cape) and I wanted to maximize sight lines for the feeling of more open space - and the bar height would have broken that up too. Four years later, and no regrets on the counter height.

I have the 2 level island in my open floor plan home. I am guessing it was designed that way to hide everything in the kitchen. I LOVE IT! Not because of hiding things, but because I don't sit down much. I have had both hips replaced and have found through all of the years proceeding surgery, standing and walking was much better on my body. I put all of my filling on the upper level, projects, etc. I also have the rest of my base cabinets taller than normal.

I'm in the minority but prefer raised. I have my stove, not my sink in the island which I prefer because it is my "stage" when I'm cooking for a party instead of having my back to guests. My sink is behind me. I prefer to have a kitchen sink by a window. I also work from home from the seating side. I like having the stove separated by height from the rest of the island so that the cooking does not spill into the serving area.

The wife and I have the same issue, torn between 2 level island or 1 level. We are wanting the sink on the exterior wall with a triple window so range will go in the island. So I didn't want the sitting area at same level as prep area, plus the island will separate family room and kitchen, which will help hide the pots on the stove when cooking with guests over. I like to eat sometime standing up so 2 level would be easier. Then we think about getting older and will 2 level still work for us and 1 level does allow for more of a continuous workspace for other tasks. Need to install a motor to raise and lower a portion of the island so we can have either options with a press of button, just have to do the same for the stools. :)

While raising part of the island can be helpful if you have a sink or stove top to block, IMO, it's better to have nothing in the island if possible....or in our case, a small prep sink on one side. That way the island can be used like a kitchen table for people to sit around. I don't think I'd want guests or even myself sitting around either a sink full of dirty dishes or a cooktop with a fry pan spattering grease...or esp reaching over a cooktop to refresh someone's drink and such.