I don't know about you, but the idea of a breakfast bar is high up on my list of priorities for my next house. I am currently between homes, renting, but at some future point soon I'll be looking around houses to buy - and having an open plan kitchen/living room, with a breakfast bar dividing them is key to my decision.

I live alone, so having separate rooms for everything can be annoying. If I am cooking I don't want to have to get up and go to a completely separate and different room and stand there while food is being prepared, heated or cooked.

I want to be able to move easily between the kitchen and my main living room, having a breakfast bar instead of a dividing wall.

Like most people, I will watch a lot of house programmes, where houses are renovated or revamped - and sometimes I see some quite bad designs.

I have just one question: why?

I see a breakfast bar as being a large space that has many uses. You can use a breakfast bar when you're baking, kneading dough, rolling out pastry. You can clear the space and use it to work from home - a huge great big workspace/work desk for spreading your papers out on.

A breakfast bar can enable you to be baking while a friend is sat on a stool the other side and you're chatting.

A breakfast bar in a small home can mean that you don't need to waste space with a dining table as you can eat at the breakfast bar.

So why would somebody use this space to put a sink? It really seems to me to be the oddest choice somebody could make.  Especially if after a meal you want to put things in the sink and not wash them up right away.... if you've just used the breakfast bar to eat a snack at and are now enjoying coffee, you'll be fighting for space alongside your dirty pans.

I can never decide if I like this type of breakfast bar or not.

If you have one high side to the breakfast bar, then it can create a good hiding hole for essential clutter, but it does prevent the breakfast bar being used as an informal eating space. It can restrict the way you use the breakfast bar for baking too as kneading bread, rolling out pastry, all generate quite a lot of mess to be cleared away, mess which will find its way to the back of the hidey hole.

On the other hand, if you're looking for open plan, without the clutter of the kitchen being so obvious, a high end will block the view from the living space.

While I will admit these might seem a good idea, again I think these breakfast bars lose half their functionality.

You are probably quite limited as to what you can put/keep on the shelf over a breakfast bar, before it either keeps falling off or looks a mess.

The shelves are usually supported on four upright chrome legs.

I've not actually seen one of these breakfast bars in real life, but have certainly seen photos of them when I've been browsing around.

The alternative to this seems to be a much higher shelf over the breakfast bar, suspended from the ceiling... I couldn't even reach up there!

Definitely not on my list of wants!

I think breakfast bar stools is a major area for consideration.

So often I've seen overly large breakfast bar stools - and sat on some really uncomfortable ones. Buying cheap breakfast bar stools probably isn't the wisest thing because they'll just be uncomfortable or a bad fit.

I like the idea of stools that fit under a breakfast bar, but on the other hand I like the idea of having a back and arms on them.

So those are the two choices I think: back/arms on the breakfast bar stools, or not

Certainly picking a breakfast bar design that has space to fit the stools under neatly is best for a small space.

Breakfast Bar Stool Materials

There's also the question of what breakfast bar stools will be made from.  The main choices are wood, chrome or wrought iron.  Chrome is all the rage now, you'd think wrought iron would last a lifetime, but I am tending towards wooden breakfast bar stools because I think I'd get fed up with the same design in 15 years' time, so I don't want to buy for longevity.

Wrought iton would be heavy - and if the stools are likely to get used elsewhere it wouldn't be practical to be lugging them about. e.g. if you will use them in the garden at Barbecue time and have fitted an eating shelf outside for that.

One thing some people don't think about with breakfast bars is the units underneath them. Here are some quick pointers so you don't get it wrong:

• If you have the top overhanging, then you can't have drawers at the top, as when you open the drawers the counter top will still be over them.
• If you have an overhang and drawers, but the overhang is just a few inches then watch out as this is a potential finger trap (I know this as my current kitchen top overhangs the units by about 2" and I've already trapped my fingers twice).
• If your breakfast bar is in a corner of your kitchen units, then that corner piece can be tricky to use effectively. The corner units of kitchen base cabinets tend to be places where you chuck old items and never use them, because they're out of sight, out of mind, or a pain to get out. Instead, why not turn that end unit round so it is accessed from the other side of the breakfast bar. What this means is that where a breakfast bar is 3 cupboards long, you'd have access to the two end ones from inside the kitchen - and the 3rd corner one would be a cupboard the other side. This makes much better use of the space. I hate corners of kitchen units.

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Images by:

Breakfast Bar With Sink: NancyHugo
Breakfast Bar Stools: Delikatissen