Here are some pictures of my bi-level island. Please forgive the mess on lower part - just got 2 new drawers added and trying to organize stuff, I have things out waiting to buy trays. The top doesn't collect stuff now that DD has a drawer for her art supplies. Though I do need a better place for tomatoes and bananas (empty hanger for now). And wish I could think of a better spot for coffeemaker. Breakfast bar (though I eat dinner there with kids when DH is away - as soon as I finish 4th stool maybe we'll all eat there) From FR (had to shut door to mudroom b/c the bench there collects our things - ignore junk on counter by fridge - more organizing to do, put her art stuff in our old "junk" drawer) Lower level (blue tape marking studs so we can nail in trim under plugmold - I'm finishing side pieces now)

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.

My parents have a counter-height table in their kitchen. Because theirs is a small kitchen, my mom designed the table that way because she uses the table as spillover counter space. It worked/works fine for our family because: 1) All the kids (my sisters and I) were teenagers/tweens at the time she switched to a counter-height table. 2) Everybody in our family is tall. (My sister is the family runt at 5'7". I'm the runner-up runt at 5'9".) 3) My mom got unusually comfortable counter-height seats. I remember she went through quite a process to find ones she was happy with -- bringing various chairs home and having us all try them out. Her effort was well worth it. I have no problem hanging out on her kitchen chairs comfortably, but I generally refuse to sit at bars/counters at restaurants because I have some medical problems with my legs, and the vast majority of bar/counter chairs in restaurants are wicked uncomfortable. In particular, the seats of my mother's chairs are a big bigger than is typical, which allows the seated person a bit more flexibility for how they can position themselves on the seat. Plus my mom's chairs have a serious, full-height, comfortable chair back. Not those artistically half-height backs that functionally worthless and uncomfortable. 4) My mother frequently uses the extra counter space afforded by the table to make truly excellent pies, and we'd rather walk on lava than discourage my mother from making pie. All in all, it's worked great for many years, and I do think it was the best solution for her kitchen. That said, her counter-height chairs are definitely not good for small children. They're too hard for kids to get in out and out of without assistance and quite precarious for them to sit on/climb into. Kids aren't careful and have easily and dramatically flipped those chairs more than once, even with really strict supervision (those kids were caught by a watchful adult and were unharmed). It's just a fundamentally taller, tippier seat that requires constant vigilance with kids. My mom's table is actually a standard-height table with all four standard-height legs lowered into big white PVC pipes that were cut to counter height. The PVC pipes were meant to be a temporary solution to help my mom judge how tall she wanted the real, final legs to be, but the pipes matched the white undercarriage of the table so well and go so unnoticed that they've been left that way all these years. The upside is that, if my parents do have a lot of children over (like at Thanksgiving), my mom just has us lift the kitchen table back out of the PVC pipes, and sets up the kitchen table as a table-height kids table with random standard-height chairs and benches borrowed from elsewhere in the house (the piano bench, the bench in the foyer usually used for sitting on when you remove shoes, and some desk chairs from the living room/bedrooms).

I have decided upon ordering the Vintner White Counter Stool from Crate&Barrel. It $189.00 each. I am finishing up on updating 36" kitchen island which has white cabinets and the counter top is white marble with light silver streaks in it. I try to find counter stools that have narrow depth because my in between walk space is 29" wide. From under the inside space to edge of the counter is 16.5" long! This counter stool should fit the opening with a 1/4" to spare and be flush with the counter. The 3 inches is at the top of the chair; so it will not affect the walk way between the other counter and kitchen island counter space - the 29". Seat Depth Depth: 16.25" Seat Height Height: 24" Overall Dimensions Width: 17.5" Depth: 19.25" Height: 39.5" This seem to fill the bill for me since is is not a distress white nor linen white or a white with wood color seat and it is made of solid wood; not rubberwood or laminated wood with particle board or a combination of the two. Another big plus; is that it is already preassemble! The chair cushion is $30 each. I think that pretty pricey for a cotton holder and polyfill inside it! Beside it only comes in two colors: black and wheat! The wheat is more light wheat color then beige. I was going to use the 10% off coupon for sign on to their email but furniture and accessories are excluded! Anyone have this counter stool? And how does it hold up and is it comfortable seating it for a couple of hours? Do you have the chair cushion and how comfortable is it and doe it too hold up? The users review said the straps break easy! So I passed on seat cushions for now! *There was no sample/display of the Vintner counter stool at the Crate&Barrel stores in my city of Minneapolis, MN! The link to Crate And Barrel Vintner White Counter Stool Thanks in advance for any feedback!