Kitchen Counter Barstools
I don’t believe I had ever seen a 24 inch bar stool until about 5 or 6 years ago. The things just didn’t exist. All bar stools were a standard height, and that was for sitting at a bar. When I first started buying bar stools for different business ventures in the late 1980′s, bar stools were generally standardized. Bar stools, for the most part were found in bars and pubs. Times have changed and all different types of bar stools are manufactured and they now come in different heights.
There are 24″ bar stools and 30″ bar stools. These are the two standard heights for bar stools available on the market these days. For the most part, the 30″ bar stools are found in commercial areas such as bars, pubs, and restaurants. Both the 24 inch and 30 inch models are found in residential settings. There are hundreds of different models to choose from. Stools come in a wide range of different styles and colors.
A few short decades ago, the residential use of bar stools was generally limited to recreation rooms or possibly at the edge of a very large living room used for socializing. If the stools were found in the recreation room of a home, these stools tended to be wooden and were stained in a dark reddish oak. Of course, the whole idea was to recreate a bar in your basement, and bars need pub style bar stools. If the stools were found in the more formal areas of the home then they tended to be made out of metal or chrome. These older style bar stools were invariably 30″ high to suit a regular 42 inch bar. Most definitely, these stools were designed for use by adults.
Then a transformation happened. It no longer was about women getting out of the kitchen. This transformation was about the family getting back into the kitchen. Lifestyle shows were being set in the kitchen. The kitchen was a place to live. The kitchen became the most important room in the house. These days kitchens are about lifestyle. This new kitchen reflects a redistribution of domestic labor. Making food now includes communicating and socializing. Todays kitchen is about stainless appliances, talking, cappuccino makers, chatting, reading, writing, and breakfast bars. With this new type of bar came a new type of bar stool – the breakfast bar stool, or what are generally known as 24 inch bar stools.
New ways to use the kitchen were created. It soon became apparent that families rarely sat down for breakfast together. At some point it became obvious that a breakfast bar was the perfect place to accommodate “shift eating”. It was the perfect place to read the paper or do homework. It was also a great spot to sit and chat with someone while they prepared dinner.
The 24″ bar stool developed out of necessity. The older style bar stools seemed to dominate the kitchen and the image of these bar stools seemed to bring up the connotation of drinking of alcohol. Another critical reason was that families wanted their children to be able to use the kitchen bar stools. The standard height stools were too high for children to use comfortably. After hundreds of years using a standard height stool, the world has quickly embraced the 24″ bar stool.
Visit this great Bar Stools website to read more about 24 inch kitchen stools.
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