Your Guide to Bar Stools

This blog was requested by some of our clients, so in honour of our fantastic clients check out our Pinterest board that includes photos of our own projects with bar stools stylishly (and practically!) chosen by clients for their kitchens. Although the bar stools we will be discussing today are meant in relation to peninsulas and kitchen islands, the same concepts and advice could be given to dining room chairs and breakfast table chairs. Now, sit back – and wait to be enlightened with Bar Stool information.

What do you need?

As always, our first recommended step is for you to establish and outline exactly what your needs are from the space and equipment, otherwise the chances are that you won’t be fulfilled with your purchase decision – and who wants that? Applied, this means asking yourself the following questions;

How many people will use it?
Is it for style or practicality? Or both?
Do you need to save space?
What’s your budget?

It might be obvious to some and goes without being said, but the number of users should be in correlation to how many stools are bought. Off course, daily schedules differ, and the time of use might never overlap for the whole family – but only you have that insight into your family dynamic. Perhaps if the aim of re-designing your kitchen is to make more time and space for family and friends, the number of bar stools should facilitate this goal.

Imagination exercise:

When Covid is eventually over… and you are entertaining your gals, who needs a seat? Or it’s Saturday morning and you’re cooking breakfast, who’s there with you?

Compromise might have to make an appearance on the table dependant on the size of your peninsula or island, for bar stools to be placed next to each other comfortably around 15-20cm is the recommended distance as not to feel squashed or squeezed. This also depends on the bar stools themselves, if they exceed the average size of a seat (40cm) then more space will be necessary. Our design team is more than happy to advise you on specific furniture.

Style

Re-designing a kitchen takes work, strategizing, adjusting and planning, mostly because each element can be a huge contender to the overall effect and style of the kitchen and that includes bar stools. Our recommendation is – please keep it consistent. There are amazing examples where people have managed to mix and match styles and actually pull it off! Considering that each person has their own signature style and tastes, it is each to their own at the end of the day. But here is an opportunity for you to get familiar with your options.

Modern

Traditional

Retro

Cottage

Coastal

Rustic

Scandinavian

Practicality

If you have little ones in your house, you’ll be familiar with their relentless addiction to fiddling with anything in eyesight, so perhaps a swivel chair or height adjustable chair should be given extra consideration before buying. Similarly, if you are someone/live with someone who easily has back pain or simply prefers a comfortable and sturdy chair – a bar stool with arms and a full back would be recommended. And the market for bar stools is so wide and expansive you could easily find a bar stool such as this that also balances style. Consider this diagram from Lakeland Furniture in regards to the height of your stool in accordance to your worktop.

We are not naïve to the space struggles almost everyone endures in their kitchen; in fact, we pride our designs in solving this problem for our clients. But still, every little helps. So, if space is your priority, we would side with a bar stool that either doesn’t have arms or a back because this would allow you to push the bar stool in and maximise your space. If not, an adjustable height stool would be helpful so that you could simply push it down and under – idealistically in that circumstance a low back stool would be a stylish and prime choice. Here are your options to become familiar with;

Material

The material of your bar stool will be something to consider for both practicality and budget. For example, plastic/acrylic bar stools are relatively low in cost compared to other materials and a bonus – it’s easy to clean. Whereas other material such as real leather can impressively bump your budget. The last thing to consider for your bar stool, is where you source it from. At Jacob Roberts, we can guide you to accessories your kitchen or design, but we do not supply any surplus decoration or furniture. Therefore, when you are buying your stools consider the benefits and drawbacks of buying from an independent or chain. Here are a few materials that are most used for bar stools;