BH | Studio Dingle Low-Back Bar Stools, Set of 2

Sitting up at a counter is an old and sociable pleasure, as anyone who has pulled up a stool in one of Dingle's many pubs can tell you. The lunch counters and soda fountains of early twentieth-century America lined their stools up in front of the cook, and by the 1950s the breakfast bar had brought the same easy, perched way of eating and talking into the family kitchen.

This is the taller, bar-height version, with a 30-inch seat made for a bar or a raised counter. Four hardwood legs splay outward and are joined by a footrest at the front and braces along each side, so feet sit comfortably at that height, and the padded plywood seat curves up into a low back. The upholstery is a heathered woven fabric with a flecked surface, in Teal, a deep teal-blue, or Cream, against a warm brown frame. Each stool is rated to hold 220 lbs, and some assembly is required.

Set a pair at a home bar in a basement den or a games room, with a bowl of peanuts on the counter and the game on the screen, or at a raised dining counter or a high kitchen island. Teal and brown wood have a jazzy, pub-like warmth, and Cream a softer one; try them with dark green tiles, brass shelving and a row of good glasses, or in Teal as the one colourful note in a white kitchen. This listing is for a set of two stools.