Choosing any type of furniture for your living room is a big and important undertaking. Chances are, you are not willing to undertake the task of designing and redesigning your home every few years so whatever purchase you make now should be intended to stay around for the long term.
When choosing bar stools, you must also know that whatever type of furniture you select for your home speaks volumes about your personal taste and style. It is therefore important to select these minor usable accessories with your tastes in mind.
First, decide what your tastes are. Do you seek something modern and full of color such as a fire engine red straight back stool? Do you want a rustic wrought iron piece that sits in the room like elegant furniture? Or are you looking for something slick, sleek and wooden? Do you want to buy the stools already made or do you want to decorate them yourself?
Before making your decision, it is important that you check out the other furniture that you have installed in your room. Note to colors, sizes, designs associated with them. If your other styles are French country, then you may not want to contrast it with a modern looking bar stool (or maybe you do if you are an artsy type.)
Do you want a stool that blends into the room or stands out. If you are looking for something that blends, then an understated design, such as the classic simple wooden round stool might fit best for you. If you are looking for something that stands out, then look around at your local furniture stores for some designer, funky pieces that are more original.
Something that might add a bit of jazzy style to your stool, especially if you have young children in or around your home, is decorating your own stools. Kids love to paint so why not let each child paint his or her own stool. You can set up a family contest with prizes for different type of designs. Let them go crazy expressing themselves. Add beads, yarn, cloth. They can even saw off the legs! The self decorated stools will not only be fun for visitors and family members to look at, but they will be family keepsakes for generations.
Also, decide how many stools you want and whether or not you want them to all look the same. Often, stools come in handy when there are extra guests. They are easy to store and fun to sit on so you may want to purchase a few extras to keep around in the closet for visitors.
As a parting word of advice: make sure you choose stools that are of the proper height. There is nothing worse that bringing home a stool fit for a 4 foot counter to discover that you needed a stool fit for a 3 foot counter. Most stool sellers will know what size counter your new stools are fit for.
Good luck buying your new stool(s) and enjoy your redecorated living room!