what is the counter Granite?

Is it too late to cut it down to the countertop level and include it in the countertop?

Granite isn’t captured well in this photo , it has some faint brown as well as charcoal etc. there’s not enough depth to lower the wall. It’s acting as a backsplash, we considered white quartz as well but I don’t care for that

We don’t have the depth behind the faucet to do that.

I don’t understand what you mean that you don’t have the depth to lower height of pony wall to be flush with counter. I think we are talking about the end / extension only. It would look better as one piece with counter. The sink isn’t in the counter section with pony wall behind it, is it?

Another vote to cut down pony wall and cover it with counter material.

Do you mean you don't have enough stone to make it a few inches wider to extend over the cut down pony wall?

We don’t have the depth behind the sink to allow for same level countertop.
Need the vertical backsplash since we can go deeper into the hallway for horizontal splash zone
The height must remain. I’d like to know if it’s better to use granite on the ~5” pony top or wood painted trim color (baseboards etc)

I still don’t understand what you are describing. Don’t get what the depth behind sink has to do with this. Call me dense if you like. But, for your question I definitely agree with everyone so far. If you must keep pony wall height, top it with same surface as the counter.

Need to account for water behind the faucet spilling off the edge. Typically if the area behind the faucet is flush it’s deeper more counter behind the faucet we don’t have room for that

I see - the sink will be on this stretch of counter that’s open to the room. So, definitely use the counter surface for top of pony wall. In fact, regardless of whether you’re planning a tile back splash on the taller part of wall, I’d think about granite for BS on this short section too so it’s all the same smooth easy to wipe surface.

Ok so what you're putting on top of this pony wall is basically the width of the wall itself? So, 4ish inches? If that is the case, I would not do any counter material up there. If you are tiling your backsplash I might just add tile to the top.

If you are putting an overhang, then you can go with counter material.

I wanted to use wood, painted the color of the baseboards / trim

That's what I would do.

Thank you. I think we will do the simple wood

I must be blind since I do not see what you are decribing.I see no faucet in the pics and am also wondering way that wall is not just the height of the rest of the counter and done in the same as the rest of the counter . If it stays as it is the wood is the right choice . A picture from a different angle to show where this faucet is in the plan would be helpful. FYI that little height difference hides nothing and could increase counter space for when you entertain .It might have been a good idea to come before this was an issue

Countertops aren’t on yet, so sink and faucet are not in place., the height is the backsplash, similar to if the faucet were at a window, thank you for the input

Why a pony wall? cut it down, make it flush with the cabinet at the end and install the granite over the counter and cut down portion of pony wall.

I'd actually consider RAISING the height of the pony wall. In a well-used kitchen, the area around a kitchen sink can look really messy with soap(s), sponge, dishes and glasses waiting to be washed. If you raise the pony wall a little, you won't have to see the mess when you are in the other rooms. We did this in a former home and loved it. Our wall was much longer, but it still felt very open... and it hid the mess! (Sorry... the only photo I can easily find from the sink side is when we were still under renovation.)

I also prefer the idea of countertop material instead of paint... and if the wall is a little higher, you might have room to add an overhang. If people in your household will end up leaning on the "shelf" or placing drinking glasses or whatever, a countertop surface would be much easier to keep clean. (As you'll see in the photos, we started out with paint, then after a few years of repainting every year, we switched to granite.)

I'm with pgfoxoh on raising the pony wall. We have such a wall between our kitchen and living room - the space in front of the wall is a walkway, so we'll never have stools there. We used the counter material for backsplash and the top of the pony wall, and we LOVE it!