Group 6 2 minutes Read

the barstool dilemma

Lauren Zerbey

One of the things that our friends ask us the most is, “how do you agree on things?”. Over the last few years, we’ve learned that it’s best to divide up tasks based on personal strengths and interests. But when it comes to the design process, we’re equally involved. Fortunately, we both have a similar design aesthetic and subconsciously, sometimes I wonder if it’s part of what attracted us to each other – dark hair, blue eyes, mad design skills. Anyway, there are those rare times where we completely butt heads on something. The most recent victim – barstools. A few weeks ago I casually e-mailed Kyle some ideas, and he came back with his own, very different list of favorites. Here are just a few examples…

Exhibit #1: I liked the simplicity and price of these IKEA barstools and I don’t know, I just really liked those handles. I wasn’t crazy about the red, but assumed they could easily be painted. Kyle shot back with the sexy LEM Piston Stool. Wood and $ vs. steel and $$$$. Oh dear.

Exhibit #2: I liked the industrial, slightly retro feeling of this stool, while Kyle was drawn to the this. See the similarities? Yeah, exactly.

Exhibit #3: Ok, so maybe comfort isn’t a top priority of mine. I kept finding things that were slightly industrial, and I thought this one from CB2 would provide a nice contrast to some of the other things we have going on in the space. Kyle picked out the “stool stool” from BluDot. No back versus back cushion. This wasn’t looking very good. Ultimately, we decided that we wanted something with a little support but that could still tuck under the counter (because you know, that’s easy to find).

At one point, the only thing we could agree on was to do a throw-back to our architecture school days and get these crazy cheap drafting stools. And no, they’re not comfortable at all. In fact, most people only use them for a semester or two before realizing that they’ll be spending the next 4-5 years in studio and to just pony up and get a comfy chair. (Just found this photo, one of my favorites, while trying unsuccessfully to find a picture of Kyle’s “captain’s chair”.)

Exhibit #4: And then, when we both thought it may never happen – consensus. Well, almost. We both gave the stamp of approval to the Scoop stool from Steelcase. It’s modern (but not too modern), it has a bit of back (but still slides underneath the counter), and the colors work with our palette (it comes with an optional cushion). And in full disclosure, we were also thrilled to learn that Steelcase has a great architect pricing program which definitely helped seal the deal. Still on my mustard yellow kick, I liked the idea of finally getting some more color in the space. Kyle commented that it looked like a fried egg (ugh, so true!!) and wanted something closer to this camel color.

A few days later, Kyle stopped by Steelcase’s showroom, only to learn that the fabric options and colors are nearly endless. Now we’re thinking of doing leather(since the pads are unfortunately, not machine washable). So now we’re torn between a light blue and a dark brown (I know, we’re really going outside our comfort zone here).

In the end, crisis averted. So what do you think? Is it a good fit for chezerbey? Should we do the blue or the brown?  We’re both leaning towards one color, but are curious to hear what others think.