Urgent opinions before tomorrow needed!!

[SpidersAreShitheads]

We’re in the middle of having a new kitchen fitted.

Originally we were having a two-tier island and waterfall sides on the higher breakfast bar tier. For several reasons, we dropped the two tier idea and just went with an overhang that we could use as a breakfast bar.

The island worktop is being fitted tomorrow. We have a piece of spare wood - DP leant it up against the side of the overhang and said “that’s what it would have looked like with the waterfall sides.”

Problem is, I love it. And I think I prefer it to having the more open style of overhang breakfast bar….

And yet. It would be:

a) more expensive to have the wooden waterfall sides and fuck knows we’ve spent enough already

b) a pain in the arse because I don’t have enough wood here for both waterfall sides so we’d have to wait till next week (and fitter is due to finish Friday)

c) we’d really annoy the main builder by changing our mind

d) we’d be able to seat less people at the breakfast bar if it was boxed in with the waterfall sides so it would be less functional

e) I’d probably keep walking into the side and/or corner (I’m autistic/ADHD/dyspraxic and just stupidly clumsy)

f) the waterfall edges would be square so if I do walk into it I’m more likely to bruise (regular occurrence) - the overhang with bar legs will have rounded edges so will hurt less!!

Which one would you have?

A) rounded overhang with metal bar legs

B) squared overhang with wooden waterfall sides and no bar legs

What am I missing? Any obvious pros/cons??

Photos to show the two options. The wooden waterfall and bar leg have only been added to one side as an experiment so ignore the fact it looks lopsided.

Please help me. My brain can’t work out what to do 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

(btw - this is in the modular build extension that I posted about on here before! We’re finally getting there…..)

I'd probably want an end the same colour as the kitchen, not as the work top.

Me too. I don't like the way it looks at all with the side.

Boxing something in that could be of practical use seems daft.

Definitely leg, it will look different with stools under . But choose better legs that go with your kitchen.

It looks very heavy and chunky with the waterfall. You may as well put extra units in if you're going to do that and do away with your breakfast bar. The leg needs to match better though.

But, if you love it, it's your kitchen.

I prefer the leg, but not in chrome, do you have other colour options?

Waterfall just looks bizarre, hard no from me.

But agree with everyone else re. legs, the metal ones look like an afterthought.

Waterfall looks nice but restricts anyone sitting there so is quite limiting

Leg for now, see how you get on with it. Option to change your mind in 6 months. You can always have the waterfall added later, probably won't cost much difference to adding now with what you have said. Best of both worlds then.

Before you have it added stick cardboard on it for a few weeks so you can't use it to check 😁

Waterfall looks very clunky and makes it like a monolithic monstrosity 😅 and the ones I’ve seen are in marble or quartz not wood , I prefer the legs in this design

def leg, just not that one. Needs to be chunky wood, square and painted to match the rest of the kitchen. I think you like the visuals of the waterfall partly because that leg stands out as a mismatch so much

The waterfall doesn't look great in my opinion. Like an expensive and poorly designed box.

Leg looks amazing and practical.

Waterfall sides look great but not with a worktop that has such a stripe/ grain on it as the contrasting direction to the top doesn't work at all.

I actually like the waterfall look in that wood but agree it’s not practical. Our friends have one and it closes of their kitchen a bit unnecessarily. Do the leg but if you do a wooden leg look that would look better than metal.

I prefer the leg, though I would have the legs further underneath or just one leg or none at all. Is there an option of a wooden corbel or two, or a metal brace that is not obvious?
My reasoning is to facilitate no tripping and seating flexibility.

If you must have a waterfall edge go for just one.
The waterfall edge will be annoying and to have two will be doubly so.

I like waterfall counter tops but that is all wrong. It's on the wrong edge and the proportions are unbalanced.

This is an example of it being done well.

Leg, but not that leg. Can you find black ones? Also, if you wanted to max the wood, what would it look like if you put the wood offcut against the end of the cabinets under the overhang?

Leg looks much better, more space

I prefer it with the leg (but I agree that the leg is wrong. I feel it should be dark like the kitchen or wooden like the worktop - it matches neither.

picture @AbbeFausseMaigre posted looks really nice but yours just doesn't work at that size.

The design in @AbbeFausseMaigre's picture looks better, but a fully open design with wooden legs would be more practical.

Another vote for a leg but use a different one.

The design Abbe posted above is where a waterfall edge works because of the proportions. I don't think yours would work with a waterfall edge.

I have waterfall ends. Frankly no one but the cats sit on the stools to the island!
I love the look and it was a no brainer for me. I've had a rounded end to an island with pole and though it was tucked under never liked the look. Rarely did anyone sit at that breakfast bar either!
Do you have a table in the room? Do you normally use the breakfast bar?
Forget about the builder/fitter - go for what you want (I once had a half fitted floor ripped up as I realised it clashed with my grey kitchen, my god the fitter moaned! Don't know why as I paid him to do it and refit the new flooring)!

I'd far rather have a kitchen table than an island, given the choice. It's more flexible, it's much more comfortable to sit in chairs than on stools, and you can sit down at the table to cut veg etc if you want to.

This. Also why do you need your choice validated by ransoms on MN? Make a decision based on what you want. Looks a total waste of space and money imo.

Apologies for not returning sooner but I fell over and hurt myself (I was actually rushing through the house to see what the worktops looked like as they'd been oiled and I fell up a step - what a dickhead!)

Anyway, I did read all of these before taking my dive onto the floor and I really appreciate the advice and insights.

@5thCommandment - I wasn't asking for validation of my choices. I like waterfall sides, but I know they're not everyone's preference. What I was asking in my OP was whether I was missing anything, and what the pros and cons were. As I explained, I'm autistic and while I'm not an idiot, sometimes I miss some very obvious things! People on here have been brilliant with advice over the years I've posted - and yet again they came up with some points I hadn't thought of. I'm very grateful for the time everyone took to reply.

Anyway, just in case anyone is interested in the outcome....

I didn't even consider wooden legs! There wasn't any in the Howden's catalogue and it didn't occur to me to look elsewhere. But I think those of you that suggested it might be onto something.

I do love the waterfall look but I think on reflection, my island is just too small, plus some of you pointed out some practical considerations that I hadn't thought of - like dust collecting in the corners and stuff running down the side.

So, what I'm going to do is get the chrome legs installed for now because the worktop is being fitted and needs support. I've got the carpenter coming back for various other jobs in the next couple of months so I'm going to find some chunky wooden legs and get them swapped over at that point.

Really appreciate the ideas, helped me a lot, thank you all!

Just another thought...
Can you get your kitchen fitter to put some invisible support under the counter, instead of a leg? A bracket of sorts? That would look even better than a random leg.