Bar stool height guide

A stool is comfortable when there are 10 to 12 inches between the top of the seat and the underside of the countertop. That gap is where thighs go. Below about 9 inches your legs are pinned against the counter and you sit sideways to compensate. Above about 13 inches you are reaching up to the surface with your shoulders lifted, which is tiring in a way people rarely attribute to the stool.

So the arithmetic is: surface height minus 11 equals seat height. Eleven rather than ten or twelve because it leaves an inch of tolerance in either direction, which absorbs a seat cushion compressing and a counter that is half an inch off nominal.

Measure from the finished floor - including a rug, if there is one under the stool - to the top of the counter. Not to the underside, and not from a photograph of a similar kitchen.

The two standard sizes are 36 inches, which is a kitchen counter, and 42 inches, which is a bar. Almost every stool sold is built for one or the other, which is why a 38-inch surface is genuinely awkward and an adjustable stool earns its keep there.

A 36-inch counter with 29-inch bar stools is the single most common version of this mistake. The clearance comes out at seven inches, the sitter's knees are against the cabinet, and the stools get described as uncomfortable when they are simply the wrong category.

The number is right and the stool is still wrong. Two reasons, and neither appears on a product listing.

1. The apron and the counter thickness. Clearance is measured to the underside of the surface, not the top. A 3-inch butcher-block top with a 4-inch apron rail beneath it removes seven inches of the gap the seat-height number implied. Measure to the lowest obstruction under the counter, then do the subtraction.
2. Cushion compression. A soft upholstered seat gives up three quarters of an inch to an inch under an adult's weight, and the listed seat height is almost always unloaded. A firm or wooden seat does not. If your measurement is borderline, a cushioned stool effectively sits an inch lower than it claims - which is sometimes exactly what you want.

There is a third, smaller one: a swivel stool with armrests has to clear the counter edge with the arms, not just with the seat. If the arms are 7 inches above the seat and your clearance is 10, the arms will hit the counter before the stool is pushed in. Backless or armless solves it.

At counter height, most adults can reach the floor or near enough. At 29 inches and up, feet dangle, and dangling feet put the whole weight of the lower leg on the front edge of the seat. That is the specific thing that makes a tall stool uncomfortable after twenty minutes, and it is why the footrest is a structural feature at bar height rather than a styling detail.

A good footrest sits roughly 12 inches below the seat and runs the width of the stool or wraps it, so feet can rest flat rather than on a single rung. A thin single rail at the wrong height is worse than none, because people hook one heel on it and sit asymmetrically.

If you are buying at bar height, treat the footrest as a requirement and the back as a preference - which is the opposite of how most people shop. Best bar stools for a home bar covers the three models alongside each other.

Two more measurements worth taking at the same time, because they are cheaper to discover now than after delivery.

• Width per stool: 26 to 30 inches centre to centre. Below 26 inches elbows meet. A six-foot bar top takes three stools, not four.
• Overhang depth: 10 inches minimum, 12 is better. This is how far the countertop projects past the cabinet or bar front. Less than 10 inches and there is nowhere for knees to go regardless of the seat height.
• Leave one position clear if you build drinks there. A working surface needs 24 to 30 inches of clear counter, or your mixing glass ends up beside somebody's elbow.

That last point is the one that separates a home bar from a counter with stools at it. If the same surface is where you stir and where people sit, the seating plan and the working plan have to be drawn together. Home bar essentials checklist covers what actually has to be within reach of that working space.

And if the measurements come out saying there is no room for stools at all, that is a useful answer rather than a failure - bar cart ideas for small spaces covers the setups that work without seating.