Selecting Bar Stools for your Home

If you are in the market for new bar stools for your kitchen, here are some things to consider before leaning into one style or material:

Stool Height: Do you need counter height or bar height? Many manufacturers make two standard heights.

Style: Is the space casual or formal? Do you want them to swivel?

When will you be using them: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, working or homework, dining table overflow?

Who will be using them? If children are involved, consider the durability of the fabric and cleanability.

How Many? Having lots of stools means lots of legs, which can make a space feel quite busy if the base of the stools isn’t streamlined. This might be okay if you only have 2-4 stools, but if there are more, consider how busy the base of the stool is. Also, are they all in a row, or across from each other?

Comfort: Will you be sitting there for meals or for much longer periods? Does the stool need have back support? How cushioned should it be?

Getting along in the Space: Make sure you consider how the bar stools will look with your other furnishings and color palette. Are they visible throughout the space? Do they get along with your existing furniture in terms of color, style, finish?

Budget: You get what you pay for, but bar stools quickly increase in price depending on the maker and quality of materials. Try to buy once and buy right!

What I’m looking for in a bar stool:

My criteria for selecting the best bar stools includes the following: must be clean lined, have rounded features (to compete with all of the straight lines), limited use of wood, be comfortable and sturdy, fabric rather than leather, have back support, be wet swimsuit friendly, and complement my existing furniture.

I intend to use four bar stools in an open floor plan, 2 x 2 which you can see simultaneously beneath the bar, so I want them to look inviting, but not draw too much attention to themselves, structurally. This can be tricky with so many legs and feet to support, all in one small space.

I’d like them to be inviting and casual, but also fit into an elegant space. I hope to accomplish this by picking a bar stool that offers an elegant silhouette, but practical fabrics and finishes.

Here is my space: you can see right through the whole space, including living room, and dining room before viewing the kitchen bar. So color, shape, and style all need to be cohesive.

Places to Shop for Bar Stools:

I prefer looking online as you can cover way more territory without wasting much time. Obviously the drawbacks to this style of shopping is that you can’t see the product in person, so it’s important to work with companies and brands you know. You can request samples, look for reviews, and find out the return policy. But most importantly, measure! Try and use your existing furniture to gauge what size you need.

For online shops in Europe, I prefer MOHD , Archiproducts, and Artemest. I often print images of the furniture I am considering, write important information on the sheet, and review the images in the space I am furnishing, along with measuring their dimensions. This is the best way to avoid costly mistakes!

Next Steps:

As you can see from the selection above, I have many choices that meet my criteria in terms of materials, shape or silhouette, cost, colors, and style. My next step will be to measure the bar height and seat height, bring photos of my favorite bar stools into my space for a visual representation, and hope to narrow down my choices! I think it is incredibly helpful to print images of your favorite bar stools (or whatever you are considering purchasing) so it is easier to visualize them in your home.

If you are decorating long distance, it is a good idea to have floor samples, cabinet samples, paint samples of the space all stored together in a basket somewhere, and when you are getting ready to add something to the mix, bring out your samples, collect new sample fabrics and finishes of the items you are considering purchasing, and see how they get along together.

I also like to use Canva to create visuals of what my space would look like with some of my the items I’m considering. Working in Canva made me realize I didn’t want a wood base chair, and that I prefer the chairback to be solid, to create a more streamlined look.

I think that in a space like mine where multiple rooms are visible at the same time, having furnishings that don’t have too many lines and are less visually distracting is a key feature in keeping the space calm and welcoming.

I will update my findings soon so check back often! I hope you enjoyed this post and found something useful to take with you.