stool samples

There are just a few things I collect to excess: Fire-King glassware, Heath Ceramics, our friend Mike Merritt's pottery and art, and stools. I love stools! I have a stool fetish. David likes them, too. We are ALWAYS looking for great stools, but in the past few years have had to pass on picking up any more, because there are only so many corners in a 900 square foot apartment where you can tuck one. I even had to return two beautiful ones David bought me for Christmas two years ago because there was no more room.

We have doubles (and in one case, triples) of some of these. Almost all are vintage, or at least second hand. Many are holdovers from the days when I was obsessed with red and orange furniture. We entertain primarily around our kitchen peninsula so they are handy when our friends want to take a load off. They are end tables for lamps, bedside tables for books, and ladders for the kids. They are everywhere!

There is a great flea market nearby every August where I've found a few, and an incredible Mid-Century furniture and housewares shop a half a block from our place where my mother and I picked up three or four for our collection. The funny thing about stools is that they are rarely labeled by the manufacturer, so I don't know who made most of them.

The back row.

The one in the middle with the pressboard top is my eatin' stool.

The middle row.

On the left, the stool I do ALL of my craft/three-dimensional work on. In the center, an awesome little red number way ahead of its time with its dip-dyed legs. On the right, my old office chair/stool, which I will use the next time I have a desk until my hemorrhoids scream for mercy! It's a beauty. It's so sturdy and heavy, just like the stools we had in school. It's labeled Hallowell, and has a solid wooden top which is hard to come by these days in the world of art stools.

The shorties from the front row.

Finally the shorties. The one on the right is actually a gorgeous laminated and lathed three-legged side table from Ikea, the PS Karljohan. It's treacherous to sit on, with the three legs and all, but we bought three of them to go around our low dinner/coffee table as stools and use them frequently. Someone always gets hurt.  

And there you have it, a sample of my stools. 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! xoxo