BH | Studio Saint-Germain High-Back Bar Stool

Raise the café chair to bar height and you have the stool of the pub counter and the country kitchen alike. The form dates to the late nineteenth century, when steam-bent wood gave café furniture its light, curving lines, and bentwood chairs soon filled the cafés and brasseries of Paris, from the Left Bank streets of Saint-Germain to the bars of every French market town. It is still at home anywhere people gather at a high counter.

This bar stool has a taller back than most, with a curved top rail high above two crossed splats, so it gives real support through a long conversation. The wood frame is painted white, the seat is woven rattan in natural straw, and the 29-inch seat suits a bar-height counter. Tapered, splayed legs are braced by curved hoops beneath the seat and a footrest ring lower down, so feet have somewhere to rest. It arrives fully assembled.

Use it at a high counter where people linger over tea and the newspaper or a big weekend breakfast, or at a home bar in a sunroom with white panelling. It suits a country cottage and a city loft alike. White and rattan look fresh with pale green cabinetry, brass taps and a bowl of lemons. This listing is for one stool.