How many stools should you have in a kitchen island

Being a homeowner and having your own home to look after means that you are constantly in charge of everything around it. You need to continuously be on the lookout for things that need your attention whether it is fixing, maintenance, or renovation. The more you invest in your home the more comfortable and optimal it will be for you and the rest of your family. Not everyone gets to experience owning property, let alone their own home. It hardly matters if it is a house or an apartment. As long as it is yours, you need to remember that nobody else will make it better other than yourself, especially in the exact way you visualized it being better.

Now, there is no denying that there are many different things that can either go wrong in a home or that simply need change over time. Keeping up with the times and having new and improved things installed and brought in is how you make sure that you are living an optimal life and that your family is not lacking anything. Every few years there is a new thing everyone uses or a new way to do things and it can be in any room of the home. However, those that see most change over the years are typically the living room, the bathroom, the dining room, and the kitchen. In this article, we talk about the latter two, the dining room and the kitchen, as we explore one of the most popular ways to serve food and dine.

The Island

Kitchen island
source: unsplash.com

Many a kitchen in the last decade have gone through a major shakeup when the kitchen island became the go-to way to eat your meals. It is also so much more than that as it serves multiple purposes. Apart from being a place to eat that can effectively replace a table, it is also takes over as the heart of the home where most social gatherings are set. It is in its nature to draw the crowd around it, as it is an island after all. What is more, rarely can something that is a single unit change the look and feel of a room and the entire home. When you have a kitchen island to work with, there are so many new ways to prep, cook, and serve meals. It will practically be the only place you need to be behind, provided that it has a sink and a cooker apart from the obligatory hanging and lower storage.

However, there is another important thing that needs to be discussed other than the island itself, and that is the seating around it. There have been many debates about what it should look like and how it can be made as effective and useful as the seating arrangement of a dining room table. Does a home even need an island in the kitchen if it already has a neat table setting with four or six chairs? Well, that is a question for another time, and besides, it cannot hurt as it serves so many different functions. Here, we are talking about the right amount of bar style stools you need to equip your island with and make it as optimal as possible. Read on to learn more about this especially if you cannot figure out how many bar stools to get for your own island. For additional help regarding stools, check out leather bar stools.

Question Your Needs

Like with many other personal things about living, you need to take into account the needs, preferences, and wishes of yourself and your loved ones. These things should be the main factors that influence your ultimate decision. The general rule of thumb when buying chairs for a dining room table dictates that you should have one for every member of the family, plus a few more just in case you ever have guests. And you will eventually have guests. So if your home consists of four members, you should have four chairs at least but six is the most optimal number. If there are five of you, you probably need a larger table anyway so six is the lowest you should go. With bar style stools for the island however, things are different and not that straightforward to calculate.

Kitchen
source: unsplash.com

Of course, you still need to consider the number of people in your household. If you and your partner have two children, four stools seem like the obvious choice. However, not all islands are made the same. Perhaps yours cannot fit four of the chairs you want, or at least not in the right arrangement. Therefore, the most important thing is to actually find the right stool that goes with the overall size and design of the island. Some chairs are oversized, others are minimalistic. They can be easy to move around or practically fixed to the floor. The bigger the chair, the fewer you will be able to fit. Smaller ones will be easier to work with but they usually lack meaningful design and appeal to tie in the entire kitchen together. Another big issue is the budget, but you can always save up and buy additional chairs later.

Kitchen
source: unsplash.com

Then there is the question of how many of you find yourself at the island at the same time. If you only use it in passing and never really sit down, you do not require many stools. On the other hand, if you enjoy spending time at your island and often have late nights with friends and family, you can have more stools that family members in your home. In order to entertain the guests, they will need to have their own seats. If you want a bunch of stools at the ready at any given time, you should definitely pick the ones that can go under the island and not take up too much room while they are not being used. As we mentioned, it is basically all about your preferences and the way you and your family live.