I vote for desk height. I added a table height area to my island and I use this as a desk. I love it. I actually added it for the grands when they are over. I was fixing breakfast for 3 of them while they waited patiently , seated on stools and watching the TV we put in the cabinet over the fridge. There was a huge crash and I turned around to find my 4yr old GS on the floor with a large deep scratch up his back. His stool had shot across the room and almost gone through a window. No one could tell me what happened. All I got was "I don't know." I could only assume a little extra gas on his part. BOYS! so--- I wouldn't want the kids any higher off the ground than necessary.

Here's ours, which still is not used as a desk, although we're getting closer now that the construction tools aren't here as much. I never thought it should be desk height, but DH did and he won. We have the swiveling t.v. over it so if HE wanted to, he could look at it from chair I think. We still have to decide on an appropriate chair. Currently we have a wastebasket and dog bowls under it. Cute, yes? Items jump from that lower surface to the upper one constantly. I had hoped that it would be a barrier, but it's not. In my thinking, we might as well have had entire surface flat. Cork board between cabinet and desk is now used less decoratively. It's a working message center. That's where calendar hangs, thank-you notes and such are posted and oddball coupons get put. Although there's a "pencil drawer" we keep a pencil mug on the desk. Cabinet above desk is 16 inches deep--allows notebooks for financial statements, phone books, etc. Top shelf is unrelated storage of party gear. A permanently mounted power strip at front of bottom shelf of this cab allows DH to put chargers in here and let cord dangle down so that the device is seen and not forgotten once it is charged. He can turn off power to all chargers with one switch. Lobby is to left of desk. I'm trying to put "things going elsewhere" into the shelves in the closet in lobby instead of on desk--lib. books, stuff for Mom's sr. residence, things going to friends, etc. Otherwise, they accumulate on desk. But that's fine with me--better there than in the rest of the kitchen where they used to cluster, esp on top of refrig. because that was by front door. Because the peninsula is right there next to the desk, I would rather spread out on that to do any work with pencil and paper, but then, I'm a person who needs special glasses to focus on arm's length stuff, so I suppose that little desk just looks like too much work--easier to stand and write at peninsula with my multifocus lenses and squint. I clear pencils and paper and calendar and address book off the peninsula at least twice a day and plunk them back on HIS desk. Computer will never be used at desk, I'm sure. (It moves between peninsula and dining table all the time.) Telephone holder lives on desk, at least for now. I'm hoping to get it wired into a place on wall closer to dining room, but until then, it's here. This cordless phone is another thing that hides throughout the kitchen and has to be put away on desk when I spy it. One benefit of this space: For parties, we can clean off the desk and bulletin board, put up a sign or something decorative like this framed piece, then put beverages here. Keeps traffic out of kitchen. Remember--this is Formica, so it's not going to mind.

These aren’t square at the ends, but this is the type of hinge you need (the weight of the lid pulls the hinge flat)…

While I think your garden stool option is pretty, I don’t think it’s practical. They are a bit heavy and unwieldy to move. There are many other options as others have shown.