Breakfast Bar Help

16 years ago

Hi Everyone,

I have been browsing this forum for awhile.

A year ago my wife and I bought a condo with a very small 60's kitchen.

We are now in the process for a remodel. We got all the cabinets up and waiting on the counter tops to get installed.

Our kitchen was the standard 1 wall design and we changed it into an L shape design for added cabinet and counter space.

We are also taking making on wall into a pony wall and adding a breakfast bar to open it up a bit.

Now our dilemma with the breakfast bar is have it only on the pony wall on continue it along the part of the wall that is going to be the full wall.

The overhang of the breakfast bar is going to be 14.5 inches so if I continued it along the full wall that part of the breakfast bar it would only be 14.5 inchs rather then the full 22 inchs (14.5 inch overhang, 5 inches pony wall, 2 inch overhand into kitchen)

Here is a quick picture I drew up to describe it:

The red is the breakfast bar only on the pony wall and the yellow is if I were to continue it along the full wall. Also if you were sitting there you would be looking at the full wall and not into the kitchen.

If someone has some pictures of a continued breakfast bar that would be great to.

Thanks for the help!

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

carol08
16 years ago
Assuming that this opens into a room that you use for entertaining or hanging out socially (e.g., a family room, living room, or dining room), the extra space on the breakfast bar could be very handy. I don't have any pics, but I lived in a house years ago with a narrow breakfast bar that faced a wall. It was OK for eating breakfast (we were too sleepy or busy reading the newspaper to care about whether we were facing a wall)--but it was great for setting out food and drinks when entertaining.
dsf767
Original Author
16 years ago
We were leaning towards continuing it. It does open up into our living room.
Related Professionals
Raleigh Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Stamford Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Janesville Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Grand Junction Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Springfield Kitchen Remodelers · Ashland Kitchen Remodelers · Charlottesville Kitchen Remodelers · Champaign Kitchen Remodelers · Denver Kitchen Remodelers · Pocatello Kitchen Remodelers · Victoria Kitchen Remodelers · Florence Custom Countertops · Plainfield Custom Countertops · Laconia Custom Countertops · Victoria Custom Countertops
Buehl
16 years ago
Unless it was pretty deep, I don't think I'd want to sit in front of a wall... Now, if you just plan to use it for staging food...maybe, but not for seating.

How high will the counter be? How much overhang (clear space) are you planning?

The most comfortable height for seating is table-height (30" high), but if you want it to match the height of the counters in your kitchen, then counter-height would be better (36" high). I don't recommend bar-height (42" high) as that's the least comfortable seating height and can even be difficult for both older and very young people to get into/out of.

Minimum overhang recommendations: Table-height seating: 18" overhang
Counter-height seating: 15" overhang
Bar-height seating: 12" overhang

Also, keep in mind you need 24" linear space per seat (so, for example, 48" would be needed for 2 seats)
bmorepanic
16 years ago
You can continue the top, and it can have stools but it could also have shelves or shallow cabinets underneath.

I really like the look when something in the position of your breakfast bar is continued across an adjoining wall.