Kitchen bar stools and tables in glass and acrylic; ultra modern architectural and geometric shaped bar table furniture from top designers; funky and chic decorating concepts for extraordinary kitchens – at Your Kitchen Bar Stools we have the scoop on the hottest trends; where to buy bar tables, contemporary stools, and innovative kitchen furniture and accessories to make your space as individual as you are. We have some surprises from high-tech French, Italian and Spanish designers, a little something from Haziza, and a sea-inspired treat from China.
Kitchen Trends
If you flip through the pages of local or international home décor magazines and view the latest kitchen designs in chrome and stainless steel, or the retro wood veneer styles, or the chic Manhattan loft designs, or the colorful artsy or art deco themes, you’ll notice that no matter how different the general concepts may be, they all have one thing in common – they all have an island, an extended countertop or a bar table of some kind incorporated into the kitchen.
One of the main elements that top designs integrate into kitchens is a place in the kitchen where barstools can be used, be it as a cozy breakfast nook, a set of stools under a window with a view, or a more central area that doubles as a juice bar in the morning and a chic cocktail lounge for the evening.
To get inspiration, if you are in the middle of renovating or creating your kitchen from scratch, browse the innovative designs available through companies like Omega Kitchens. Naturally you can buy your cabinets, counters, islands, bar-style extension tables and complete kitchen packages through them, or you can simply study the trends, learn what’s hot, get inspired, and then add elements of different designs to your unique space.
Another great source of design information and high-end contemporary kitchen furniture, which invariably incorporates modern bar table accents or focal points, is Tecnocucina, an innovative Italian company that has been creating single open spaces they call the Living Kitchen, which simply means they believe in ONE space that’s both high-tech and practical for everyday life. For over thirty years, Tecnocucina has been representing the top architects, builders, engineers and designers using international innovation and Italian quality craftsmanship. But what do you find when you look at what engineers and designers are creating at Omega Kitchens and what architects are being inspired to build at Tecnocucina.
From the US to Italy and France and even crossing the seas to Asian inspired minimalist/high-tech Japanese and Chinese concepts, what you’ll find in contemporary designs are these basic elements:
- 1. wide open spaces
- 2. clean lines and light
- 3. chrome and aluminum accents
- 4. stainless steel appliances, cabinets, islands
- 5. Extended countertops, adjacent tables
- 6. minimalist sleek or vintage bright
- 7. work space, lots of tables and counters
- 8. lots of…stools…stools…stools
What if you already have your basic kitchen?
- It’s new. Chic
- Elegant or Funky.
- You love it.
But it wasn’t designed with a nook or an island or an extending counter for stools. You can add this feature, without disturbing the flow or theme of the space, if you choose the right bar table and chairs and place them correctly.
Here are some of the top designs you can choose and some ideas on how to place them in a kitchen….and naturally…. we include the information you need to buy the tables and stools that are available online.
Haziza Studio – Architectural, Artsy, Geometric, Chic
We start with the items that are most unusual by Haziza Studio. They may not be table extensions for a kitchen counter top, but they can be placed at the end of a long counter or beside an island, or near a window….in fact, they are so unique they can stand alone as a feature. The bar table and stool sets by Haziza, like the Coil design shown at the outset of this post, can be purchased separately and can even be customized.
What we mean is that if you already have a table that’s part of a cabinet, counter or built-in theme, then you can just buy the stools, or vice versa.
Everything you see can be personalized or altered to suite your color scheme. For example the Remi bar table from Haziza Studio, with acrylic geometric squares as a base, and a glass table top, can be ordered in any of the zillion colors that their acrylic comes in – lavender and pink for funky modern, orange and mustard for art deco/retro, taupe and sage…or totally transparent for elegant classic chic.
Another example is the Liberty Bar Table that’s acrylic and glass, but you can choose from all these funky colors…Flamingo, Iguana, Grecian Urn, Passion, Tangerine and even Orchid amongst others. Even a stainless steel kitchen can be accented with a few of these hot geometric stools, or a cocktail area can be added with the table base, since the glass is sold separately, so you can choose a square or rectangular shape to make into a counter extension, or use a round top as pictured.
Choose some of the funkiest, trendiest bar stool designs that exist, like the Bello or the Loop. Pick a single color or mix and match. Set them up to your counter or island or buy the separate table, as you desire.
Pick your fabric, your metal finish and your acrylic backrest. The upholstery is suede, by the way….and the Loop stool for example is fully adjustable from 24 to 30 inches.
Choose A Pedestal Base and Glass Top
You can also create your own unique glass top bar table design by selecting a pedestal and then choosing the glass. Some of the pedestal bases are black and white with LED lighting and clear acrylic accents, others are stainless steel with acrylic twists. It’s doubtful you’ll find a more unusual way to create a bar set that better accents a contemporary stainless steel kitchen environment than the Haziza Arch pedestal, but there are dozens upon dozens of unique acrylic masterpieces to choose from – works of art all by themselves.
Deck Line
If you’re looking for wood bar table and chairs that are far, far from the run of the mill designs, you need to have a look at the French Deck Line collection. These are able to be used in home kitchens or on the deck of your yacht (or in the kitchen on your yacht)….The design is called L’escale. It’s wood, resin and chrome, adjustable, finely crafted and stable enough for high seas and low tide adventures on deck and on solid ground.
Protis
Another French company with innovative bar tables for sale is Protis. They have been offering high-end contemporary furniture, for residential and commercial use, since 1970, and feature some of the world’s top designer items. The collections include stools, chairs, unusual extendable tables, stainless steel and glass items that can be used to create more kitchen work space, islands and tables where tall seating or low seating can easily be accommodated. They also offer complete furnishings for the rest of the home, all in the crisp contemporary clean-lined style for which they are famous in Paris and throughout the world.
Another French company with innovative bar tables for sale is Protis. They have been offering high-end contemporary furniture, for residential and commercial use, since 1970, and feature some of the world’s top designer items. The collections include stools, chairs, unusual extendable tables, stainless steel and glass items that can be used to create more kitchen work space, islands and tables where tall seating or low seating can easily be accommodated. They also offer complete furnishings for the rest of the home, all in the crisp contemporary clean-lined style for which they are famous in Paris and throughout the world.
Even if your budget doesn’t allow you the option of buying a piece of Protis furniture, simply visiting their unique online showroom, which consists of slide shows and more, will provide decorating and design inspiration that can help in choosing pieces that may be within your budget.
SAMOA IZ Mesa Para Tu Bar De Cocina
We offer yet another unusual source of inspiration called SAMOA; a Spanish company that uses the latest technologies to create brilliantly engineered pieces of furniture by designers like Francesc Rifé who incorporates the basics of geometric balance, spatial order, and rational forms to create luxurious, yet minimalist concepts for home and garden, like the Samoa IZ Mesa Taburete. So simple. Clean. Taking inspiration from outdoor white pub tables, from Mediterranean outdoor cafes, and bringing them into the kitchen.
Ivini Dock Wood Bar Table
While we’re talking about outdoor influences, we must mention a Chinese company, not your average cheap Chinese furniture retailer, but an innovative design manufacturer and distributor called Ivini. Why do we mention them? Because they’ve brought the sea and its docks to life in high bar table and chair concepts that mimic the boards of a dock….set in chrome and stainless steel. For sand and breeze you’ll have to go outside, but for a small piece of a dock at which to serve cocktails, just bring an Ivini creation into your kitchen.
An Uppity Choice
If, after getting inspired by all the international creations mentioned, you come back to reality and realize that ordering the most innovative acrylic or stainless steel or Chinese dock design or glass bar table from Paris, isn’t going to happen, you may appreciate a funky, yet affordable solution. Here is just one, but it’s good: the LumiSource design called the Uppity Bar Table, which offers a contemporary UPPITY design but for a non-uppity price ….just under $240. It features a tempered glass tabletop, black trim and a chrome base with a round footrest. Pair this bar table with transparent stools or funky acrylic ones with matching chrome bases.
Dada Inspiration by Yabu Pushelberg
If you can’t afford to go for the fabulous contemporary stainless steel kitchen designs by top companies like Dada who represent designers such as Yabu Pushelberg and creations like the Losola Kitchen Concept…..at least take the inspiration and look at the elements separately. For example, examine the Losola:
1. the contemporary bar table is simply an extension of a kitchen island counter. It can be wood veneer or a real wood table. The key is the open space that can accommodate…
2. two simple wood bar stools in pine or light wood
3. stainless Steel and chrome accents blended with natural wood, white flooring and mosaic tile
4. strong geometric lines that are long and thin, creating the illusion of space…space….space
5. natural lighting combined with strategic accent lighting over the counter
These basic elements can be achieved without necessarily ordering this entire kitchen through Dada, although if you can….how fabulous is that! But if you can’t, then here are some ways to get what you need to create the faux Dada Losola Kitchen:
The central island can be achieved by choosing one of the many stainless steel kitchen carts and islands that are sold separately, like the very affordable Danver stainless steel kitchen cart with drawer for just $475 through All Kitchen Carts. You can also go with a slightly more expensive choice by John Boos like the Cucina Magnifico that has a wood table top or the sleek all stainless steel John Boos Cucina Americana Marcella design that has two closed drawers like the Dada design, and costs just over $1,500.
Add the kitchen bar table extension by choosing something like the dark wood Kyoto Kona Extension table (available through Crate & Barrel), which will be the long bar table you place adjacent to the stainless steel island. This item could also be custom made for less and could be designed with no legs or pedestals as it is in the original design. Otherwise, you can achieve a similar effect using a long wood, or wood veneer table that’s sleek, elegant, clean-lined, very geometric. That’s why we have recommended the bamboo table by Kyoto Kona.
The next items you need to mimic this kitchen design are the two wooden barstools. These can be simple ones or swivel bar stools crafted in natural pine or a clear color wood. This style of stool is not expensive; they usually sell for under $90, sometimes much less at online barstool shops.
You can also go with a more contemporary stool, part wood and part metal, or even a unique design like the Pall….crafted by talented Borge Lindau, or other styles in the Oblado Range.
It can be fun to create a more affordable version of a high-end kitchen design, and incorporate all the elements that the professionals use, but spend a little less.
At Kichen Bar Stools we also have a lot more information on choosing kitchen carts and islands in stainless steel, and we have a wide selection of ideas for folding chair designs that go with contemporary or classic themes. We also offer a series of recommendations on where to get affordable swivel bar stools, and we even offer suggestions on where to get unique step stool creations for the kids so they can join you at counter height. For even more ideas on how to create unusual kitchen decorating themes, browse our series of posts on such things as Zen Tranquility, Ultra Modern and New York Loft – all offer decorating ideas and suggestions on what kitchen bar stools and tables can be used to create the atmosphere you desire.
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