When we did our kitchen, the KD told me that generally if you are trying to create a separation between two rooms, go with a bar height; however, if you want to keep the space opened up to go with all counterheight. We ultimately went with all counterheight because I needed the additional counter space.

I know you're on a tight timeline now that the work is starting, but is there a way you could post a floorplan of the area? Instructions for posting are on the "Read Me if You're New" thread. That will give everyone a better sense of the area you're talking about.

Without seeing your floorplan and measurments, I would tend to say to put it at counterheight for more usable counterspace, but I might suggest the other way with more info. Were you going to put cabinets under for more storage? What are your clearances between your other counters?

BTW, you've sure come to the right place for kitchen help. Stick around for a while and you'll learn more about kitchen design than you ever thought possible!

Here is a link that might be useful: Read Me thread

I will post a sketch (will probably be hand drawn) later tonight or early tomorrow. I know that you cannot have too much counter space, but I do not need it since there is adequate space on the existing tops.

Are you putting in cabinets in that "alcove" and then putting in a counter that overhangs into the LR?

I am against bar height, mostly because that's what a friend of mine has. She has a glamorous loft apartment, and had a housewarming party when she moved in. She is very social and has a lot of parties. She has a bar height counter between the kitchen and the living room (actually it's a two-tier counter, with the counter-height counter on the kitchen side, and the bar-height counter on the living room side). My friend put out lovely hors d'oeuvres on the bar-height counter. The problem was that the height of the counter meant the food was closer to face level, especially if you are short (like me). There was quite a crush of people, and basically everyone was breathing directly onto the food. I found this really gross, and would never have a bar height counter because of that.

That's intereting. What about people that actually eat or read the paper or surf on a laptop on the non kitchen side? Will they want to be on a stool or a low chair? That may be a factor too.

@buehl, I am not putting any additional storage under the bar countertop. I would have loved to put cabinets on the kitchen side, but when i did a mock-up, even the really shallow cabinets took up way too much space, and would not allow for enough room to walk between the fridge and the end of the countertop.

I like bar height and we have a bar height table that is a part of our island, but I have to say there are MANY more counter height chairs and stools than there are bar height. I have traditional taste and there are very few...I like the ones that Christopher Peacock uses in his kitchen ads made by Little Bird Design (or something along those lines) but they only make counter height.

Here is a layout of the house and pics of the area where the bar will be.

Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: House Layout

We had the same question in two areas of our kitchen reno. Bar or counterheight for both the peninsula AND when I decided to enlarge the pass through window. We chose counter height for both, and and so happy that we did.

Here's the peninsula: and like Nathan mentioned -- we actually have alot of newpaper reading and homework being accomplished and internet surfing going on the non-kitchen side of the peninsula -- Oh! and card playing: with this set-up we can get 3 people playing cards here, too! My daughter likes to make cool decorated cupcakes for her friends, and this large area allows her to spread out and make an even bigger mess . . . Oh, I mean be creative. This was formerly a wall that we took down between the kitchen and DR.

When I have a buffet, I take the stools and move them to the pass-through overhang -- shown here. This was the passthru window that had a "bump-up" -- we flattened and enlarged it. I like the counter height all through out the kitchen.

And I apologize to people who may be sick and tired of seeing pictures of my kitchen. But so many helped me, I just want to help people who had THE SAME questions I had when I was planning!

movinginva - is that drawing to scale? It doesn't look like it because the couch is almost as wide as the garage.

How wide is your bar going to be? I don't see why you couldn't put cabinets under it or why if you did, that would interfere with squeezing between the bar and fridge.

Also, I don't know how far into this you are, but if it were me, I'd want to switch the office and the dining room. 1)because the dining room is smaller and more isolated, 2)you have a 1/2 bath opening into a dining room, 3) you could open up the wall between the kitchen and new dining room (old office) and have a bar/island there and a much larger-feeling kitchen.

If you use the 3rd BR/office as a bedroom, then scratch what I said :)

The drawing is not to scale. My plan was to have seating on both the kitchen and living room area since my DH and I are not formal dining people. My plan for the dining room is to turn it into a day room/workout room and knock out the back wall and put a door which will give us access to our huge backyard since the only access we have is through the front door, or through the garage, and being able to go outside and sit, sun etc. is very important to me. I have thought of opening up that 3rd bedroom, but we are on a limited budget, so I can't go too crazy.

rjr220, your kitchen looks amazing. I love the stools. Where did you find them?

Moving -- thanks! they are Amisco Kyle stools. Surprisingly, although I found them online, I found the best price at a local furniture store. you can customize the color of the Wood, the chair, and the seat. My husband chose the component colors . . . . I wanted to go with more silver, but, since I did most of the other choosing in the kitchen . . .

Thanks for all the input. I decided to go with the bar height top. It is not completely done as yet, but here are a few pics. Ignore the dining room chairs. Once it was all done, I had to immediately see how it would look with stools. I actually found some really nice basic backless barstools for the living room side, and I am still hunting for some stools with backs for the kitchen side of the bar. The lights made it today, and the electrician will be in to install it as soon as he is back from vacation next Thursday. My next step is to paint my kitchen countertops blue. We'll see how that goes

View from Living Room

View from Kitchen

View from Living Room. Tools etc are still on there - they were still finishing up

Granite Slab