All you kitchen cabinet have been finish.It's time to take a seat in your kitchen! Here are tips about choosing the best stools for your kitchen!

When it comes to choose stools for a kitchen island bench there are a few things to consider. For example, do you want them to be a feature of a kitchen; do they need to be child friendly; what material will suit the rest of the kitchen best?

Here are five things you need to consider.

1) Kids in the kitchen

Anyone with young children will know that when it comes to choose any furniture for the home, child-friendly materials and child safety is paramount.

A safe option is to choose stools with a heavy base and back rest or partial backrest to keep little bodies snug and still.

2) Feature piece

Plain kitchens, particularly all white or very minimalist designs, can benefit from a few feature pieces. You could pick a bright feature colour or match your stools to the splash back or an element in the nearby dining or living room. Materials like stone, marble and timber can add warmth texture and a natural element such as wicker, rattan or metal stools are one way to achieve this. For example if metal stools it can mix industrial looking base with a timber seat for more interest and contrast.

3) Practicality

You also need to consider how much time your family will spend on sitting on the stools. The kitchen is often the hub of the home with the island being used for food preparation and eating, along with homework, working on a laptop or just sitting around chatting. If you are going spend some time on the kitchen island each day then you need to consider something with a footrest and padded seat for extra comfort. Stools with a gas-lift mechanism can also be adjusted to suit different people and also come with a swivel mechanism will be more comfortable..

4) Size and fit

The size of the stools can decide to fitting three or four into a space. You also need to consider if you want them to fit neatly under the overhang of the island or if you like the tall stools with a backrest look. Typically you need 20 – 25cm space between the the seat of the stool and the island bench (which is typically 90cm). If the counter top is really thick, say over 80mm, then you need to take this into account as well. 

5) Mix and match

Do the kitchen stools need to match the dining chairs if they are in the same space? I get asked this a lot and my answer is a definite no. Stools can very much be a standalone feature and often choosing a very different style of stool to the dining chairs is what can make them really work. For example, if you have a timber table and dining chairs then it’s nice to mix it up with maybe some metal or a bright coloured stool in the kitchen. A popular look is a timber table with white chairs. If this is what you have in a white kitchen then timber stools at the island could balance that mix out nicely. The stark contrast of black and white is a timeless look.