The two tier breakfast bar is quite dated. Reconsidering your appliance locale would be my advice, WITH the aid of a pro kitchen designer. Especially true in a 1920 home, where your kitchen may in fact be a galley.. Not every home is meant to be "open concept".

Completely useless idea. Island cooking needs overhead ventilation and a BIG island for proper clearances. You need to post your layout. It needs to be different.

There is a recent thread on two tiered counters and there are strong opinions for both. There is no reason not to have one just because some people consider it to be dated unless you are a slave to whatever is currently fashionable.

I am remodeling and deliberately keeping the two tier counter for both functional and aesthetic reasons.

I don't have particular venting expertise, but the fan in the peninsula seems completely ineffectual and I am not sure if would even pass Code - at least where I am located. I would suggest posting your layout to see if the cooking appliances can be relocated so that you can have a proper vent as even the downdraft vents aren't that great - my friend has one with her Thermador and complains about it but it would have been difficult to vent otherwise.

Here's the concept layout, both as a simple preliminary drawing with some dimensions and an overhead rendering. The issue with the layout wrt stove placement is that there are windows on two walls and the third wall is needed for the refrigerator. That means that stove either is in front of a window or weirdly off to one side, or it goes on the peninsula. We've had three different contractors and two different kitchen designers look at this, and everyone has come up with some close variant of the layout shown.

For reference, our sink currently is where the stove is shown in the design (with a full wall of cabinets on the wall that will be demoed). The stove is centered on the wall where the fridge is shown in the design. The fridge is in the corner where the DW is shown in the design, and there are no cabinets along the wall that now shows a sink.

We are going to open up the wall, 1920s house or not. I'm not 100% committed to the breakfast bar (agree that single-tier looks better), but we have kids and if we are going to put the stove on the peninsula, I'd prefer a barrier of sorts. Open to ideas about this and everything in this design, though!

The lateral fan in the backsplash won't work. Kitchens were originally vented this way with through the wall fans in the back or side splash and this is no longer done, because it wasn't effective. There are some fixed or telescopic downdraft vents that may work but they are 12"-18" tall and require a cooktop rather than ranges.

Two make the appropriate decision for your particular circumstance involves two considerations. 1st, what if any ventilation requirements are stipulated by code and 2nd your own personal concerns about cooking odors. Unless there has been a recent change, from every code I have read there is no specific requirement that mandates an exhaust hood above a stove. They do require ventilation but that may be meet by means other than an over the cook top exhaust hood. From an odor removal perspective, over the cook top hood exhaust systems will be more effective primarily due to the fact that heat/steam will naturally rise upward and will be more effectively captured by the physical canopy. A downdraft system does not have this canopy capture zone, it is going to rely completely upon it's CFM draw power to pull the heat/steam/odors off of the cook top. There a many downdraft systems that have the same CFM capability as a quality canopy styled hood so they both have the same capacity to remove air. Given your kitchen layout desires a high quality downdraft system is likely your best choice, they do require sufficient space to accommodate the blower and up-rise unit so this would need to be taken into account concerning the cook top and cabinet set-up.

You cannot have a downdraft without losing the seating. It's bulk and ducting has to go somewhere. It's overhead venting for the win.

But I have to agree with Sophie that this is an inappropriate design for a home of that age. If you want open concept, there are plenty of 90's NeoEcclectic home's available. Removing a wall in them is much simpler, because of the truss structure. And most of them have no actual design character to harm.

A home of this era should be owned by someone who considers themselves a steward to future generations and wants to preserve it for those future generations. It's short sighted to attempt to even think about an "update" to such a home. Add indoor plumbing to a home with an outhouse? Sure, that's an appropriate update. Tear down walls and destroy original character? That's a big NO. That is cestrouying what makes the home special.

We are planning a gut remodel of the kitchen in our 1920s house, which will include removal of the wall between our kitchen and dining room and installation of a peninsula in its place

Please do not open the kitchen in a 1920's home. Those who love a 1920's home will not pay for an HGTV open style layout and in reality, it will devalue the home. Once you "update" it to what is the current trend (i.e.: opening it up) you lose the beauty of what has stood the test of time.

I know of what I talk about. I looked for a 1920's house for 2 years in my current neighborhood and wound up building because every single home that was built in the 1920's looked great on the exterior, but had been stripped of any and everything that gave it character. So if the house had been remuddled in the 1970's it still looked like a 1970's remuddle. If it had been remuddled in the 1990's it still looked like a 1990's remuddle.

And interestingly enough those houses sat and sat on the market. The one or two we saw that still had the original character were snatched up immediately. Even before we could write up a bid.

Might I suggest you head over to Facebook and join the American Bungalow forum and the Arts and Crafts Movement forum?

Can you post your original layout and pictures of your current kitchen and living area? Maybe we can come up with something better.

You know, not every 1920s home is a gem, folks.