I love my baking center! I use it not only to bake but for a lot of prep work such as chopping veggies. I'm 5'2" and it's comfortable for me.

My island is only 39" wide. The granite fab'r was able to make the high part out of 1 slab and the baking center out of another slab (the slabs were a bit smaller than typical). The granite is definitely the focal point of my kitchen and I wouldn't have permitted a seam.

Here's some pix:

Dang, BKO, every time you post pics of your kitchen, I have to clean drool off my keyboard. You should be more considerate.

I DO SO love your granite!!

Hiya, BKO. I'm 5'2", as well, and plan to have a small island in our new-build kitchen to be a landing spot and baking center. I'm tired of standing on a step stool so I can get enough leverage to knead dough. (I know, what a picture!)

How tall is the baking area of your island? The architect has it labeled at 30" on our plan & I want to make sure that is the right height for someone on the shorter side. Actually, I'm concerned that may be too low, since that is table height, right?

Thanks - Jo Ann

Hostagrams, thank you!

Jo Ann, it's 32." There are a few prep tasks where I'd be uncomfortable with anything lower than 32." For dough rolling, kneading, stirring in bowls, chopping veggies, etc., 32" is ideal for me. We were icing cookies last weekend and I ended up deciding that the baking center was too low to do that comfortably. There's a couple of other tasks -- don't recall them right now, of course -- where I prefer the 36" counter. YMMV.

For anyone still in the planning stage, a couple of notes: First, the baking center is across the aisle from the range and least visible from the family room, so messes can be less obtrusive. Second, I hid the electrical outlet in the small vertical face between the upper and lower centers rather than put a hole in the big horizontal surface of my granite. I ended up getting a switchplate made out of granite for it:

I have a two-level island, 4 feet wide and 5 feet long, with a lowered work surface and a counter-height eating surface:

I love this arrangement. My large butcher block cutting board is free-standing and so can be removed if I want to use the work counter at 33" height for rolling or kneading dough. With the board, it's at 34.5 inch height, which for me is better for chopping than the slightly higher counter height.

I really LOVE my two-level island. I have loads of other counter space, but 90% of the time I'm using that 30-inch-wide butcher block surface because of its location near the prep sink, fridge, and range top. The electrical outlet is to the right of the sink, not an ideal location for a right-handed cook because electrical cords have to travel over the prep sink, but we couldn't fit an outlet on the left because of tight cabinet issues.

My marble slab was large enough to cut the two tops for the island (plus backsplash) sequentially and keep the grain running the right way.

BKO, thanks for the reply & sorry to highjack this thread. I was afraid that 30" was too low even for a shorty like me. Ideally, I would want to knead, roll out, etc. at a level a little higher than the kitchen table. I'll ask that he revise that to 32".

My island is at one level since it is only meant for baking, landing groceries & plopping hot pans from the cooktop. However, it is adjacent to the peninsula with my prep sink, so I'm sure that I'm going to end up turning around & chopping veggies at the island. From your set up, I see why you do that.

Since my island will be at one level, I can have the outlets on the vertical sides of the cabinets like I can see in your 1st set of pictures. I do love what you did with the outlet and the granite switchplate. Very cool.

Thanks, again - Jo Ann

Thanks for the posts everyone. I also just noticed that I spelled single incorrectly on the post--nice. Anyway, I'm 5'6" so I'm a little bit taller than you guys and maybe I don't need the lowered section. I do all of my other prep at the 36" counter and really only use the table due to lack of space for rolling out stuff. My friends and I are having our annual holiday cookie extravaganza this weekend (baking tons and drinking a lot of wine--fun, fun) so I may have to clear off the higher counter and see how comfortable it is to roll dough on it. My plan also has the outlet on the granite drop from high to low side and I would miss that. So many decisions. ARrgh this process is great and aggravating at the same time.