I'll have to chime in with another vote against counter height tables. I just don't find them comfortable and I also worry about my kids sitting on them. The way my 2 1/2 yr old bops around in his chair at the dinner table, I would be a nervous wreck. He almost knocked out a tooth when he fell off his Aunt's counter height barstool and hit the granite counter. We are looking for an expensive table to get us through the young children yrs (who knew little kids could be so hard on tables!? I have a thousand fork dents in my old table to prove it!). I am seeing a lot of counter height tables in the lower price ranges...Not sure why that is...Or maybe it is just "the thing" right now. I am also seeing a lot of chairs with upholstered seats...Another thing I want to avoid right now... The little ones are just too messy. I am just going to keep looking until I find what I want. Good luck to you. I hope you find something that meets all your criteria. It's out there!

The stools that are there now are from an old counter height kitchen table. My dilemma is the wrought iron chairs that are in the dining area, I am thinking of possibly a tufted counter stool. I want it to be extremely comfortable, but I'm worried that they will be too bulky for this look and take away from the overall appearance of the kitchen?

If you are furnishing your house with the expectation House Beautiful or Architectural Digest is going to show up for a photo shoot, then OMG! they are so wrong. OTOH, if you're furnishing it for you to watch the sun rise and to enjoy the wildlife cross your view, they are just perfect. Did you do the needlepoint pillow? Love it. Keep your chairs and revel in your mornings. We had a mama quail and her 9 tiny babies on our patio yesterday afternoon. Not sure what they found to eat, but they were very busy doing it. Priceless.

Counter Barstools in a location such as yours get a tremendous amount of use, probably more than any other piece of furniture in the home. This is the one place where you want to buy strong and sturdy and well-made. No one builds a better barstool than Hancock and Moore, and leather will hold up 10x better than any fabric in that environment. This is my top selling Barstool in my store, the Steele Farm (and I have these exact ones shown in the photo in my own home). They are not inexpensive, but they can take what the family can dish out for twenty years or more without a creak or a joint separation. Over 400 leathers to choose from and these are made in the USA