Excellent example! Thank you!

Our peninsula overhangs 9" on the side as shown, but 12" on the long side. The 9" is actually enough to scoot a chair in when needed.

We are planning a 10" overhang on our island. The counter showroom had 10" overhangs and I sat at those to test out. It was plenty big. We are shorter more petite in stature and felt that 10" was enough for us. If you are taller, longer legged, it may not be deep enough. I think it also depends on your house. We're a mid-century ranch and big, big, BIG! just doesn't fit. If you've got a big ol' house, a big ol' overhang makes more sense. No pictures yet -- we are just entering demo next week.

I'll dissent here. I'm 5'6 and the missus is 5'. We had a peninsula with 9" overhang and hated them, major part of why the kitchen was redone.

We have just under 12". I'm sitting at the island right now. If I were pulled in to eat a meal, I'd have about 2" to spare (I'm 5'2"). We don't eat meals at the island, though, just coffee and maybe breakfast, and read the paper, and peruse GW, that kind of thing, and for that, I would have no problem with 9" or 10" because you don't have to be pulled in (I specifically pulled the stool in to check this just now - before I did I had at least 5" to spare).

What you're forgettin is that even if the kids can squeeeze their knees into the space, they will still occupy the same amount of cubic space. Which means that the adults that can't get their knees under it will sit sideways and actuall occupy more space by doing so. Also, there isn't a single saddle stool even that will fully fit under a 9'' overhang. If the stool is gonna be in the way, and the people are gonna be in the way, you might as well have the bigger overhang anyway. That is, if you actually really actually have room for any overhang at all. Not all kitchens can squueze that in.

Ours is 10" and I was really stressed about it being too shallow. Our kitchen is not that wide so we had to minimize the overhang. We found 14" diameter stools that tuck under pretty well. We don't sit at the island for meals because we have a toddler in a high chair. We didn't design our island to be the primary eating space so for the casual use it gets, it's fine. I'm 5'9", DH is 6'

Here is a link that might be useful: white kitchen reveal

My overhang is just shy of 10". If I had done a better hacking job, it could have been 14" deep .... That said, it's more than comfortable for me. It's really only used for casual seating. Breakfast dining area is just to the right of it.

Countertop is IKEA Numerar oak in the 73" x 39" island sized piece.

Please ignore the lack of trim, backsplash, crown, etc on this going on 6 yr old DIY build :)

We had a 12 inch overhang on our island with a 24 inch base cabinet and replaced it with a 27 inch base cabinet with a 5 inch overhang to buy us more space between the overhang and our kitchen table. We never used the overhang for stools and with a kitchen our size never understood why the builder specced such a dimension in the first place.

We have a frequently used island w/ seating on two sides. One side has only a 10" overhang, which is annoying. You can't pull the chair in all the way, while sitting. So, I often find myself sitting at an angle on that side or opting for the side where I can pull the chair in all the way without running my knees into the cabinets. For the record, I'm not even 5'6". That side is still usable, and we do use it; it's just not right.

(I'm also bitter that the one side ended up only 10", but that's for another story. :p)

Our countertop has a 10in. overhang. I don't have a picture handy, but it's been fine. We don't eat all our meals here, but we do several times a week.

The top part of my peninsula is about 20" deep, and I would have to guess the overhang to be close to 9"-10", maybe even less. I sit and do the bills here, yet it's small enough to keep clutter down. Let's face it, the bigger the space, the more we take it for granted and clutter collects.

Thank you to everyone for sharing your examples and providing feedback! I greatly appreciate seeing this all in one thread as it was tough trying to search for that particular issue. We are really struggling with having a small overhang versus additional storage in the island. KD suggested that we might split the difference and have outward facing cabinets on the ends to gain the extra storage there, but then, use the overhang in the middle to allow for just two small stools.

Thank you!

KD suggested that we might split the difference and have outward facing cabinets on the ends to gain the extra storage there, but then, use the overhang in the middle to allow for just two small stools

Actually we did that -- the island was only about 4' x 5' - the cabinets faced left (drawers), forward (more drawers) and right (small cabinet for step stool) -- the back was open between the two decorative columns. To get a little more space, we curved that part of the counter (so it was probably 9" at the ends, but 12" in the center).